Le deuxieme.

I have always enjoyed listening to people speak. Excellent speakers can make such an impression on their audience that it can even get a them elected president...*cough*JFK*cough* But when the speaker isn't connected with the audience then there really is no point to delivering the speech at all. I experienced this when I was doing an internship at an elementary school. I was a "high school helper" everyday in a 5th grade classroom. One afternoon we had a lyceum to go to about Amelia Earhart where an actress comes in, portrays Amelia and tells Amelia's biography. Everyone was pretty excited and I had pretty high hopes that I could enjoy it along with the kids. Once we had finally gotten all seated and "Amelia" started speaking I realized right away this was not going to be anything like I had imagined. The actress clearly had forgotten that she was in an elementary school. She was using huge words that I didn't even know and she had no excitement in her voice. Even though I wasn't one of the kids I felt very disconnected with the story she was trying to tell us. It seemed as if she was just trying to get through the story rather then take the time to entertain her audience. Generally when I have to deliver a speech or speak publically, audience is the first thing I think about. When I am first putting together a speech I think of who I am delivering it to and tweak it to fit. I change things from tone of voice to certain interests.
The beauty of writing a speech is freedom. As a speaker there is freedom to choose what needs to be said and what kinds of support can be used to keep interest in a presentation. To me statistics and factual illustrations are the most helpful to use while speaking. One must be cautious when using these, though, because it can go horribly wrong if done incorrectly. The speaker must keep these simple and easy to understand to make them work well. I think that these help me because it gives one something to build off of and does the same for an audience.