Speech writing can be an excellent vehicle for helping students develop writing skills. The course described in this paper blends rhetorical principles and practices from public speaking, speech composition, persuasion and public relations with "real world applications." Students work on developing purposeful communication, a consistent and appropriate voice, and a workable system of topic analysis. Writing for clarity is emphasized, through work on grammar and punctuation, logic, organization, and some of the rhetorical devices for promoting clarity and retention. Style is always the most difficult professional canon to teach in performance classes. Emotional impact can be heightened by means of discussion of word choice and by checking for mistakes of commission and omission. The speech writing teacher can promote applied rhetorical criticism by making students editors and critics of each other's work. As effective public discourse is a constant in an inconstant world, the speech writing course can help develop better creators and consumers of public discourse. (Fourteen references are attached.) (SG)