Before you begin to write your speech, consider your objective. Is it primarily to persuade the audience to believe in or do something? Are you supposed to keep the audience laughing? Do you just want to educate them about an interesting topic? To some extent, these categories of persuasion, entertainment, and information sharing overlap, since you want to use elements of each to maximize the effect of your talk. This chapter will focus on the substance of all speeches: how to present facts in a way that will help the audience understand their meaning and remember what you said.