Advice to Commencement speakers:
The only wrong thing you can do is to be dull. Shoot for around five minutes. Commencement at Triopia has become a night crowded up with lots of awards, etc. People remember short speeches and they check their phones during long ones.
Two methods: 1) speaking to the class or 2) speaking to the audience on behalf of the class.
Stories, stories, stories. Preaching to people is boring “It has been so great to go to Triopia…this is not the end, just a new beginning…the future is ours…” HO HUM. Show me the way to get out of here. But once you begin telling about something that actually happened, you’ll have your audience’s ears.
If you make ONE SINGLE POINT in the entire speech, that’s perfect. Make one point then illustrate it with stories. For example, your point might be: We’ve had a wonderful time together and we’ll miss this place…then you tell stories about grade school years, sports, incidents in the classroom and other activities, summer stories, etc.
Elisabeth: it’s perfectly okay to sing a song during your commencement speech. Patrick, same goes for you although you might disagree.
Simply ask yourself: If I was sitting in the audience what sort of speech would I want to hear?
Some speakers prefer to write out their speeches word for word and some speak from notes…your choice. If you do write it out, blow up the font nice and large for easy reading.
Avoid “inside jokes” that only the class knows about. They don’t go over with an audience.
Name names…name names…name names…nothing perks up an audience’s ears like hear specific names of people.
Some successful ideas: ---A speech of thanks to those who’ve helped you get this far. Family, friends, faculty, dogs. ---Advice for those who follow. ---Your hopes and dreams for the class. ---A summary of whom your class is and what they’ve gone through to get here. ---An encouragement to your classmates to be happy/successful/productive, etc.
Some speakers have used props…one kid used his hat to illustrate what he was saying, one girl brought a sack of mementos from her grade school years.
I would highly advise that you send me a copy of whatever you have. I’m not going to censor it, but I can tell you what will work and what won’t and what else you might add to the speech. We can rehearse them on the week of graduation. If you wait until graduation day you’ll find that you just won’t have time.
A method that some speakers use: They simply make a list of memorable events for your class over the years…then after they get the list made they look at the stories and find that the point of their speech jumps right out at them.