You've been on the job for six months as a plant geneticist for a large seed company. As you're settling into work one morning, enjoying your second cup of coffee, and turning on your computer to run some figures on a seed corn project, your boss drops by your cubicle.

"Got an invitation here," your boss says. "The Rincon Kiwanis chapter wants a speaker, week from Thursday morning twenty minutes and a question-and-answer period. Think you can handle it?"

"Ah, sure, yes, why not?" you manage.

"Good," says your boss. "I hear they're worried about genetically engineered plants, especially the ones with built-in insecticide capabilities. Work that in somehow." With that your boss drops off the invitation and saunters out.

"What have I got myself in for," you wonder. You think about some of the ways to plan a speech. Know your audience. Find out about the place where you'll be speaking. Plan your speech well, but deliver it extemporaneously. Visual aids? Maybe some of the slides you have from the corn project might work.

You remember reading that some people want insect-proof corn to be classified as an insecticide. Who are Kiwanians, anyway? Local business people, mainly? How do the Rincon Kiwanians feel about the genetic engineering of foods? Will they be hostile? You decide that a call to the president of the local chapter is in order. The telephone number is on the invitation. You reach for the phone.

For more about planning and delivering a speech,...