What makes a speech great? Why are some so much more memorable than others? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

What makes a great speech?

Let's start off with the obvious: speeches are nearly always in the eye and ear of the beholder. Something that sounds stilted or hollow to one person can sound inspiring and incredible to another. That's an important disclaimer because it keeps us from getting too high-and-mighty about what does and doesn't make a great speech. The answer, as with so much else, is: it depends.

That said, outside of the books we've written, Rob Goodman and I have spent years writing speeches for politicians and CEOs and others, and spent even longer studying speechcraft and rhetoric. Great speeches share a few things in common, and while this list is by no means comprehensive, it is the case that most good speeches (and speakers) will have the following elements:

1) Great speakers know their audience. Are you speaking outside? Remember that it's notoriously hard to hear anything with any clarity outside. Speaking in a church? Consider the echo. Talking to a group of young people? Whatever is on their cell phone is probably more interesting than you, so you have a higher bar to clear.

Great speeches aren't written to please the speaker. They're written with the audience in mind--and that includes not just who is in the audience, but where they are, what they are doing, and what else might be on their minds.

A good commencement speech, for example, is a tough act to pull off. Not because you can't write a great speech that suits the occasion, but because you're facing a tidal wave of distraction. Think about it: Do you remember what your commencement speaker said, or even who they were? Probably not.

That's not necessarily the speaker's fault. Most of the people in the audience of a college graduation are about to leave their university forever. They want to be with their friends in the final moments of collegiate camaraderie they'll have. It's probably hot. They have been sitting uncomfortably for a long time. Were it not for their parents or family being in the audience, they may not even be at this ceremony.

That doesn't mean you can't write a speech that brings the house down; it just means that the speech should take the audience into account as you're writing it.

2) Great speeches are as long as they need to be and as short as they should be. On November 19th, 1863, there were two speakers set to commemorate the battle at Gettysburg. One was President Abraham Lincoln; the other was the famous orator and former Secretary of State Edward Everett. It was Everett, not the President, who was supposed to be the star of the show.

Lincoln spoke for two minutes. Everett spoke for two hours. And that's surely part of the reason why the term "Gettysburg Address" only refers to the President's speech and why schoolchildren a century later still learn Lincoln's remarks, not Everett's.

That's exaggerating a bit. Everett was speaking to an audience and in an era when he was expected to go on for a while, but the point still stands: pay close attention to how much you are saying. It's almost always the case that the less you say, the better off you are. Abraham Lincoln used 272 words. Every word served a purpose.

Keep things short, punchy, and memorable. If a paragraph in your speech doesn't serve a well-defined role, axe it. It might sound good to you, but to your audience, it's another opportunity for them to look at their text messages or daydream. When in doubt, cut it out.

3) Remember, the audience is listening--not reading. Words can look beautiful on paper and sound terrible to the ear. Make sure to remember your audience is listening to you, not reading your speech.

There's a big difference. Every syllable matters when you're writing, but that goes double for speaking. Big, clunky words, unfamiliar phrases, and long sentences can be a distraction in a piece of writing, but a death sentence in a speech. Because people can't turn to the previous page and recap a point they missed, you need to take extra pains to make your speech clear, memorable, and trackable, whether it's numbering points, using tools like alliteration, or frequently pausing to recap and sum up.

When preparing, remember: Read the speech out loud. Read it to other people. There's a virtual guarantee that while doing that, you'll find places to nip and tuck. Reading a piece of writing out loud is the first and best hack for fixing it.

4) Great speeches spin a good yarn. People remember stories. We're hard-wired for story-telling, and if there's one device that can make the difference between a speech that's memorable and one that's forgettable, it's telling a story.

That seems obvious, right? It's not. A lot of speakers make the mistake of assuming that telling a story is too simple, too pedestrian. They think, "I have to give a speech. It needs rhetorical flourish. I should wax philosophical." There's a place for all of that but it's usually not in a speech. Only rarely do you have to explain the point you're trying to make. It's almost always better if you can tell a story to carry that point instead.

Take the famous example of Steve Jobs's 2005 commencement address at Stanford. There's a reason it worked so well: stories. He didn't even beat around the bush. He told them he was going to tell stories! Here's how the speech opens:

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

He's already primed you to get ready for a beginning, middle, and end. For characters. For a plot. For something that has the same structure you've known and loved since you were a kid at bedtime.

When in doubt, figure out what stories you're going to tell, and the point you're trying to make will take care of itself.