Shape

1
Shape

• All great speeches, and even some not so great,
  require shape. "Tell them what you will tell
  them tell them then tell them what you told
  them."

2
Shake hands with the audience

• You have something worthy of being said. Former
  Ambassador Robert Strauss used to begin his
  addresses like this "Before I begin this speech,
  I have something to say." This passage was always
  composed in a style that enabled him to reclaim a
  powerful tone for the instructive portion of his
  remarks. Put on your smile calm your nerves,
  then get to work. You may want to start with a
  smashing one-liner.

3
Rise to the occasion.

• In other words, feel passionately about your
  topic. Even ordinary folks can deliver great
  moments of oratory if they rise to the occasion.
  Make sure the audience feels how important the
  topic is to you, so that they begin to think
  about why they should care.

4
Segues

• Build clear and sensible transitions from one
  thought to the next. The biggest mistake speakers
  and writers make is to assume people will follow
  their leaps of logic. Spell out to the audience
  when you are taking a turn in your thoughts with
  phrases like "As an example of this" or "This
  brings us to the larger problem of," and so forth.

5
Focus

• A "great speech does not need to start out great
  and stay great to the finish. It engages the
  listeners. It makes allowances for a dip in
  interest in the middle. Then, it gathers
  anticipation for its key moment. John Stuart
  Mill, the political economist, defined the
  orator's art this way "Everything important to
  his purpose was said at the exact moment when he
  had brought the minds of his audience into the
  state most fitted to receive it."

6
Add purpose

• A speech should be made for a good reason. To
  inspire, to instruct, to rally, and to lead are
  noble purposes. To sound off, to feed a speaker's
  ego, to flatter, or to intimidate are not.

7
Know your theme

• Be able to answer the question "what do you want
  to say?" in a single, declarative sentence.

8
Sense of audience

• Write with one particular person in mind, someone
  you actually know. This helps you to keep the
  message real and personable. This helps you
  anticipate reactions and keep your language down
  to earth.

9
Deliver the goods

• Delivery is the essence of eloquence. It requires
  practice, discipline, drill, and timing. Be your
  own trainer. As you develop self-confidence, you
  put the audience at ease, or make them sit up.
  Your eye is in contact with the people, not the
  page. Your professional passion is contagious.
  Use gestures to emphasize points, and make sure
  your tone of voice and facial expressions are
  appropriate for the topic.

10
A sense of completion

• Bring them back to the beginning, but with a
  louder spirit. This can be done by starting the
  last paragraph with a quiet, declarative
  sentence it should build in a series of
  semicolons it should employ the puissance of
  parallelism it should reach to the farthest
  rafter and reverberate with the action and
  passion of our time, and, forgetting all else, it
  should connect with, no, grab each listener by
  his or her lapels and shout to their hearts and
  souls to say, "This is the end of the best speech
  you will ever have the good fortune to
  experience!"

11
Step One

• Decide on a focus. If you are well-known for
  something specific, your audience will, no doubt,
  expect your speech to be about that topic.

12
Step Two

• Put yourself in your audience's moccasins as you
  write. You want to connect.

13
Step Three

• Keep the speech to two or three major points.

14
Step Four

• Find your voice - perhaps warm and
  conversational, sober and profound, vigorously
  controversial, or wise and understanding.

15
Step Five

• Write an outline with your topic statement and
  the critical points as headings.

16
Step Six

• Fill in your transition spaces with anecdotes,
  quotes, even relevant jokes to ensure your speech
  will be unique, interesting and audience-aware.

17
Step Seven

• Draft your closing remarks.

18
Step Eight

• Write a completed speech as tight or loose as
  fits your style.

19
Step Nine

• Practice reading the speech first for time.

20
Step Ten

• Practice again for cadence and delivery.

21
Step Eleven

• Read aloud with any hand motions or movements you
  intend to incorporate.

22
Step Twelve

• Create notecards or the full speech,
  double-spaced and typed.

23
Step Thirteen

• Try your speech out on a person, especially one
  similar to the folks in your audience.

24
Step Fourteen

• Relax. You'll be great.

25
Writing a Thank You Speech

• Make a list of all the people you would like to
  thank, as well as those who you need to thank
  (just because you need to thank them doesn't mean
  you'd like to). You can write the list down on a
  sheet of paper and leave a few lines of space
  between each person. Better yet, list them in a
  word processing document so that you can add to
  your entries and rearrange them.

26
Who

• Write down why you are thanking each person on
  your list. Just jot down a quick keyword next to
  each person's name, i.e. catering, inspiration,
  support, or donations.

27
VIPs

• Separate the most important people. Determine
  importance in reference to why you are thanking
  them. Typically God, your parents, your friends,
  or teachers. Once you get past the top few it may
  be quite difficult to rank people's importance,
  and you don't need to. Just make sure that the
  most important people will be at the top of the
  speech so that there is no chance they'll get
  left out if your speech starts to get a bit too
  long. If you have your people entered in a
  spreadsheet or word processing document it will
  be easy to assign a rank and rearrange people.

28
Time

• If you don't have a lot of time you may need to
  make some tradeoffs. Either you can omit some
  people or you can shorten the amount of detail
  you give for each person. You may not have to
  omit people completely. At the end of your speech
  you can call off their names. '..And thanks to
  Michael Croon, Tommy Lee, Jesse Heart, and if I
  forgot anybody else, thanks to you, too!" If you
  don't have enough people, tell a little more
  about them than what you jotted down. Elaborate,
  but don't share more than you would want shared
  about yourself.

29
Write an introduction

• Open up with something about why you are thanking
  everyone. Was it an award, a job well done, a
  meeting, a convention, a special event, or
  something else? The reason should be obvious. If
  you'll have plenty of time for your speech, you
  may want to open with a little story about the
  lead-up to the event, a brief history of your
  career, an amusing anecdote, or a quote.

30
Details

• Flesh out the details for each of the most
  important people. Start from the top of your list
  and add detail to the keywords you've written.
  Thus, if one of your entries is "John
  Smith--Event Coordinator," you can explain how
  much work John put into the event and how John
  has always come through for you in a clutch. For
  the most important people on your list, your
  parents, your spouse, your manager or your boss,
  for example, you may want to add more detail
  tell a little story about the person, briefly
  summarize the time you've known them, or drop an
  inside joke.

31
Air Time

• The most important people should get more
  air-time than those further down your list. Not
  only do you have more to thank them for, but you
  also probably have to live or work with them on a
  regular basis, so you want to build as much
  goodwill as possible.

32
Time per person

• Remember that if you spend too much time on any
  one person, you may not be able to get to others
  who still really need to be thanked. Be concise,
  even if you have plenty of time.

33
Time your speech.

• Your completed speech should begin with an
  introduction, proceed to the most important
  people, and then run through the rest of the
  people in categories. Read the speech at a normal
  pace, and use a stop watch to time yourself. If
  you find that your speech is too long, consider
  shortening or omitting some of the details about
  people. If you need to omit someone altogether,
  try to make sure it's someone who won't be there
  and won't see the speech. If your speech is too
  short, add details or add a conclusion.

34
Notes

• Write your speech on note cards or on a piece of
  paper. You can write out your whole speech or
  just an outline of people and reasons for thanks,
  whatever helps you remember what you need to say.

35
Practice

• Practice in the mirror or in front of a close
  friend or family member. Do it more than once and
  make sure you say it out loud before you actually
  give your speech. If you're well prepared, you'll
  feel far more comfortable when you actually have
  to get up in front of everybody.

36
How to Write a Graduation Thank You Speech

• Graduation is an important event, and often,
  people like to use it to thank others. Here's how
  to write a graduation thank you speech that won't
  bore everyone.

37
List

• Make a list of everyone you want to thank so you
  don't forget someone. Vagueness is often better
  here. Say "I would like to thank all my teachers"
  rather than listing them by name. This is quicker
  and less likely to make some feel left out.

38
Keep it brief.

• One of the worst things for the audience is if
  you drag on and on and your speech has no
  relevance to them. If you want to thank someone
  for something in particular, just a brief mention
  (one sentence or less is good) or just mention
  their name then thank them privately after the
  ceremony in more detail.

39
Try not to leave anyone out

• and never say "I would like to thank all my
  teachers/classmates/family members, except for..."

40

• Write the speech then practice in front of a
  mirror. Memorizing the speech is good.

41
Less is often more.
42
Clean the Wax from Your Words Sine cere!
43
Superlatives are wax.

• This is absolutely and positively essential!
  vs. This is essential!
  
• This is true beyond any possible shadow of a
  doubt!
  
• If you wish to strengthen the simple assertion.
  This is true! do so by pouring concrete
  examples to support it, not wax to fill the
  cracks.

44
Trite expression are wax.

• As you can see,
• if you will,
• in conclusion,
• it is indeed an honor and a privilege,
• I would like to take a few minutes,
• Each and every one,
• throughout the length and breadth of the land,

45
Groping expressions are wax.

• What I'm trying to get as is ...,
• What I want to say is ...

46
Repetitious expressions are wax.

• As I said before,
• and so I again repeat,
• let me reiterate here...

47
And so forth expressions are wax.

• America has produced such inventors as Fulton,
  Edison, the Wright brothers and so forth and so
  on.
  
• Our marketing recommendations are now based on
  research, data, statistical analysis, etc.,
  etc."
  
• I could go on this way for hours.

48
Weasel words are wax.

• Of course, it's only my opinion, but ... .
• It seems to me ... .

49
Punch-pulling

• More or less...
• to a greater or less degree...
• or something like that

50

• She who cleans her speech of waxy substance
  creates a lasting impression of intelligence,
  directness, and professionalism. Be sincere.
  Carve your communications without wax you may
  rate a marble statue in the end.

51
Tips Warnings

• As always, be yourself for best results. If
  you're a serious person, making jokes often goes
  flat. Don't sing or write poetry if that's not
  your strong point.
• There might be a lot of videotapes of your speech
  around for years to come!

52

• Remember, while this is your special event and
  you would like to thank everyone, dragging on can
  embarrass the people you are talking about and
  bore the others. Save the emotional confessions
  of love and gratitude for afterwards, in private.

53

• Have fun. Yes, you will be standing up in front
  of a crowd of people thanking them, but the
  important thing is that you do it, even if it
  doesn't come out well.
• Don't worry about not getting to everyone, but do
  try and get the more significant ones so they
  don't get fussy.

54

• If you forget somebody, especially somebody
  important, send them a thoughtful note right away
  explaining that you were nervous during the
  speech (or some reasonable explanation), and that
  what they have done for you or your organization
  is important and valuable. Let them know that
  they are appreciated and that you feel bad for
  leaving them out.

55

• Remember to try and get those last people in
  there at the end! Just a quick shout-out as you
  the music starts or as you leave the stage is
  better than nothing.
• When giving personal comments or inside jokes,
  take people's feelings into consideration. Don't
  say anything to upset someone or hurt their
  feelings.

56

• You may experience instant, sustained applause
  punctuated by the occasional "Bravo" and the
  ever-present pundit punk who wrinkles his brow
  and wonders aloud, "But what was really said?"
• Each person in the audience experiences your
  speech as an individual. Speak to them as
  individuals, by using words like "you" and "your"
  instead of "all of you" or "everybody here" it
  is more direct and compelling, and will engage
  each member of your audience, whether it be five
  or five thousand.

57

• Focus your attention on one individual at a time,
  just as you would in normal, everyday
  conversation. This will help to relax you, and
  mitigate the fear of speaking to very large
  crowds. Shift your focus around the room, to
  different sections of your audience. By including
  every area, even when you might not be able see
  them individually, each person will feel as if
  you are speaking directly to them, not at them.

58

• Consider your audience's frame of reference. A
  simple way to do it is to think about Who's in
  the audience? Why are they here? And after
  hearing your speech what's the first thing you
  would like them to do or say to someone else
  perhaps?

59

• Don't read your speech. Speak it from memory. You
  may miss a couple minor points (and even a major
  one), but if you can't remember it long enough to
  say it, why would anyone else remember long
  enough to act on it?

60

• You can fight off stage fright and fear of
  failure by knowing your subject. Having a
  commanding knowledge of your topic will show in
  you, just like not knowing your topic will
  show-even more so.
• Practice your speech with someone else if
  possible, and ask him/her for input.