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What is a good speech? A good speech moves an audience where a speaker wants it to go. Style is not important nor the length nor the parts of the speech, but results are. There are many kinds of speeches and many speakers, some articulate and some barely able to deliver coherent sentences. Both can deliver a good speech, as long as they focus on its purpose and strive to achieve the purpose in the minds and hearts of an audience.
Good speeches, in other words, are efficient communications. They achieve an end with a minimum of wasted energy. Few speeches should be entertaining for the sole purpose of amusing an audience. Some are long because an audience needs to be brought step-by-step to the point of persuasion. Some are short because an audience is persuaded but needs motivation. Some are emotional like memorials, to raise the identification of an audience with a person or event. Most are a mix of logic and emotion to carry an audience with the speaker. A key skill of a speaker lies in knowing where the sentiment of individuals in an audience is at any given moment.
Content is what a speechwriter is usually concerned with when writing. But
content does not exist by itself. Content exists in a relationship between audience and speaker. A hostile audience and a poor speaker are a disastrous pairing, no matter the value of content nor written expression of it. It follows then that the two most important tasks of the speechwriter, even more than creating content to be delivered, is to understand the audience and speaker.
A speechwriter should seek answers to a number of questions about the audience. Who are these people? What do they think, if anything, about the topic to be discussed? What are their backgrounds and cultures? Why are they listening to this speech? How does one reach them effectively? Sadly, it is often difficult, even in an internet age to get satisfactory answers, so one writes a generic speech for a generic audience. And, it sounds like it. A disciplined speechwriter interviews members of the future audience, observes earlier speeches given to the audience, listens to individuals’ comments and more. When a speechwriter knows an audience, the type of speech and preparation suggest themselves.
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