Ideas to Help You Deliver a Graduation Speech
When you are opportune to deliver a speech at your graduation ceremony, you should count it is a rare privilege which you can take advantage of to create a wonderful and remarkable memory to always make reference to, this you can make possible by doing your best to ensure that you deliver the speech effectively in a very beautiful and interesting way, else it can also be a memory that might be somewhat unpleasant to remember if you allow it to flop. That is why it is so important to prepare adequately to be able to deliver a great speech. Being able to deliver the speech intriguingly is not only about the few minutes that you will spend delivering the speech but the many efforts that you must have put into the speech before the big day. This article discusses some great ideas to help you make a great graduation speech delivery.
As much as your prior preparation is important, it is also very important that the speech delivery is interesting and great. Regardless of the prior efforts that you might have put to into the speech preparation, it is important that your delivery is top-notch because your speech delivery, if it is floppy could wash down all the efforts that you have put in earlier on, but if the speech is delivered in an impressive and interesting manner, that will crown all your efforts with success and satisfaction.
1. Prepare well
The first thing you should do is to ensure that you prepare a good speech write-up, this is like the first step in the right direction towards being able to deliver a great speech. Regardless of how good you are at delivery, if the content of your speech is not strong, captivating an interesting enough, that will impact on the delivery of your speech. Therefore, do your best to get all the ideas and points you need to be able to put together a great speech first of all. After the first draft, edit your speech as much as necessary until it is excellent. When you must have prepared a good speech write-up, then begin to work on how best you can deliver it.
2. Practice as much as possible
Ensure that you practice the speech as much as possible, the more you practice the speech the better you get at it and the more familiar you are with what you have put together in the speech. Make practicing your speech a very serious and deliberate thing that you do, so as to enhance the possibility of a great delivery. You can even decide to record yourself delivering the speech while practicing, listen to yourself and pay attention to the way you are delivering it. If you are not satisfied then you work more on improving the delivery, try to have someone or some persons listen to you practice the speech delivery, get feedback from them to know if the delivery is ok and improve where necessary. Practice everything about the speech, how do you intend to raise your voice at some point or to lower your voice at some point? When do you intend to raise your head and look at the crowd? Practice all necessary things related to the speech properly during the practice phase.
3. Make eye-contacts
Endeavor to have good eye contact with your audience while you are delivering your speech, this will enhance your rapport with your listeners, and you can be able to pick what the response of the audience is, to whatever you are saying. If all you do is look down at the paper as though you are married to the paper or whatever you are using to present. You should try to look at the audience per time so that you can they can still feel that you are communicating with them. Do not make it look as though you are reading to yourself alone.
You should do well to memorize your speech so that you will be able to keep eye contact with people when you are talking. If you just keep your head down reading from the paper all through the speech, that won’t be too okay. It is therefore better that you have memorized your speech so that even you can say some words or some statements without looking at the paper or wherever the speech is, while trying to look up.
4. Have a passionate theme
One of the ways in which your delivery can be very great is for you to be passionate about what you are saying, you therefore need to put sincere emotions into what you are saying. Let the people feel what you are talking about and don’t just talk flatly without emotion or passion and this means that the theme of you speech should be something that matters to you, it should be something that you are really passionate about. Do not just pick any kind of theme or focus for your speech, make sure it is something you really consider important and relevant.
5. Speak with good pace
You should also endeavor to make sure that you speak in a way that people can hear what you are saying. Do not to rush your speech, speaking so fast that people may not be able to really follow you. Try to speak in a slow manner with clarity. Do not muddle up what you are saying. Deliver your speech in a way such that people can follow and understand what you are passing across easily. This does not mean that you should be too slow or just rumbling, you should rather try to maintain a pace that you know will enable your audience to follow properly. You are there to communicate to people, so you should be very considerate of how well they can follow, understand, and assimilate what you are saying.
6. Pause
At times you can decide to pause for the purpose of effect, especially when you have made a statement that is probably strong and touching and you expect it to sink deep into the minds of your audience, at such points, you may decide to pause a little for effect. Don’t just go on a reading spree without pausing at points where necessary. You may have to pause at some points to make sure that what you are communicating is having the proper effect on those you are talking to.
7. Build confidence
You need to demonstrate confidence while you are speaking, this is very important. Don’t go there with a panicking attitude. In order to enhance your confidence, it is important that you have mastered your speech very well. Practice well as to what you are going to say, how you are going to say it. Ensure that all those things are well practiced and mastered. The more you master your speech delivery during practice, the more confident you are likely to be when delivering it.
8. Handle mistakes well
It may happen that you make some small mistakes in the cause of delivering the speech. You should not make a big deal out of those mistakes while you are on the stage, correct yourself if necessary, and find a good way of moving on with your speech. Do not make your mistakes too obvious, do not stay too much on the mistake. While you should endeavor to eradicate possibility of mistakes as much as possible, still remember that anyone can make mistake. Also, avoid being mistake conscious, don’t be thinking that you will make a mistake.