the best results while walking out and ruminating, jotting down notes as they

pause in their walk. Others never put pen to paper until the whole speech has

been thought out. The great majority, however, will take notes, classify their

notes, write a hasty first draft, and then revise the speech. Try each of these

methods and choose the one that is best--_for you_. Do not allow any man to

force you to work in _his_ way; but do not neglect to consider his way, for it

may be better than your own.

 

For those who make notes and with their aid write out the speech, these

suggestions may prove helpful:

 

After having read and thought enough, classify your notes by setting down the

big, central thoughts of your material on separate cards or slips of paper.

These will stand in the same relation to your subject as chapters do to a book.

 

Then arrange these main ideas or heads in such an order that they will lead

effectively to the result you have in mind, so that the speech may rise in

argument, in interest, in power, by piling one fact or appeal upon another until

the climax--the highest point of influence on your audience--has been reached.

 

Next group all your ideas, facts, anecdotes, and illustrations under the

foregoing main heads, each where it naturally belongs.

 

You now have a skeleton or outline of your address that in its polished form

might serve either as the brief, or manuscript notes, for the speech or as the