Last week, I faced an enormous writing challenge - one of the most daunting I've faced in a long time. I had to write a speech for my younger sister's wedding. I struggled for weeks to come up with the appropriate balance of genuine emotion, humor and storytelling. Thankfully, the speech was a rousing success, but the writing process got me thinking about what makes a really great speech.Here are a few tips I've gathered over the years:

€¢ There's an old adage about public speaking: "Tell them what you're going to tell them; then tell them; then tell them what you told them." Believe it or not, that's the basic structure for any good speech. Always begin with a brief introduction of what you're going to talk about, and close with a brief summary of what you discussed. It's that simple.

€¢ Depending on the venue and audience, you can be a bit less formal than you would be with a written communication. As appropriate, you can adopt a more conversational tone and incorporate colloquialisms, always keeping your audience in mind.

€¢ Whenever possible, weave in colorful anecdotes to keep your listeners engaged. Consider including a quote to illustrate your key message.

€¢ When developing a speech, it's more important than ever to ensure that your writing has a rhythm. This means varying sentence length and structure to keep your listeners interested and tuned in.For some inspiration, check out "Lend Me Your Ears" - a compilation by William Safire of some of the greatest speeches of all time, with an introduction that includes some of his own speechwriting tips.What are your best speechwriting tips? Have any great one-liners for a wedding toast? Leave a comment below.@amelinger