Dear Jakom: Let me pick up from last week and attempt to demonstrate how a speech that sounds good can become a good, sound speech. Again, I will not be original here: such a speech, like a miniskirt, needs to be long enough to cover the essentials and short enough to be interesting. On the latter point, please note that Abraham Lincoln’s celebrated Gettysburg Address, delivered November 19, 1863 was all of two minutes. Lincoln’s short speech followed that of politician Edward Everett, who was the featured orator of the day and whose 13,607-word oration went on for about two hours...
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