Tips on Delivering a Graduation Speech

HandMade Writings
2 min readJun 8, 2016

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Delivering a graduation speech can be fairly daunting. Graduation speech ideas seem to come and go but students cannot finalise their speech and can be lost when it comes to delivering it. However, as long as you keep a few important tips in mind, you can make a lasting impression. There’s no rocket science to it, just a few basic points that will ensure your speech is as good as it gets.

Don’t speak fast:Even when your nervousness kicks in, it is important to speak slowly in front of your audience. If you speak too fast, your audience will not be able to keep up with your graduation speech and as a result, will lose their focus. When thinking of graduation speech ideas, listen to some speeches to give you an idea of the speed of voice. In order to keep a check on the speed and tone of your voice, a voice recorder must be kept handy. You can even use your smartphone. Record a part of your speech and listen to how it sounds to you and someone else.

Memorize the speech:There are many attractive graduation speech ideas but one must choose its scope carefully. Unless your speech is very long, memorize your speech. This will save you from the chance of going blank during the speech. Many a times, students become nervous and forget what they have to say. This is where your memorized speech will come in handy.

Maintain eye-contact and pause for effect:Ensure that you maintain good eye-contact with your audience. This will keep your audience active and focused on your speech. It will also give you a chance to monitor how your message is being delivered. Are people even listening?

You also need to pause for effect. One can easily boost the quality of their graduation speech by taking a breath and giving the audience some time to keep up with the speech.

No monotones:Avoid speaking in monotone; it will sound very unprofessional and boring. Try to keep your voice lively and be confident in all that you say. Remember you need to retain the audience’s attention and therefore you must be expressive. Try experimenting with the volume, tone and speed of your voice to see what sounds best for you.

It is advised to take a few graduation speech ideas into account and practice these tips beforehand. Once you have mastered the tips, you can rest assured that the next graduation speech will be better than any speech you’ve ever given!

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