Learn How to Prepare an Inspiring Graduation Speech

The graduation speech is truly a touching, memorable and important moment for many people. You’re the person who will speak for the whole group of students. It’s a great honor but, at the same time, it’s a great responsibility. In the final speech, you need to thank parents and teachers, turn to your fellow students, trying to show how important it was for you to spend time in an educational institution.

This is a great chance to impress the audience. But, of course, a good speech requires preparation. You have to think about what exactly you’ll say and practice at least a few times. Here you’ll find helpful tips that you can use when writing your solemn words.

What Should Graduation Speech Look Like?

As a rule, a graduation speech is pronounced during the graduation ceremony, when students receive diplomas and say goodbye to a college or other educational institution.

Very often, famous writers, politicians, entrepreneurs, and other well-known people attend such events and turn to students with their wishes and advice. So if you’re humbled to give a speech, you can truly be proud of the opportunity to be on the same level with successful people.

A commencement speech doesn’t have a clear outline and strict demands. In other words, there are no rules for composing speech. You can speak from the bottom of your heart without fear of being wrong.

You can be emotional and honest, briefly talk about your experience and self-improvement. You need to show other people what your motivation and goals will be, what experience is truly valuable. Try to reveal all that you managed to learn. Point out how much effort you put into achieving what you have now.

You can choose the style of speech, but try to do your best so that your speech is outstanding. Pick up words that are stuck in the memory. And of course, you shouldn’t focus too much on yourself. After all, you’re speaking on behalf of all students.

What May Your Speech Contain and What to Avoid?

This is a really hard question that you ask as soon as you start writing a speech. After all, this is a great chance that you definitely don’t want to miss. If you open most of the articles on this topic, you’ll find banal tips to write famous quotes, statements of successful people, wise aphorisms, or boring advice. But this is the first thing that comes to anyone’s mind. But if you want to stand out, you need to be more original.

Each of us would like to know what awaits him or her ahead, what to do best and what to avoid in order to enjoy life. But you cannot and shouldn’t respond to these questions.

You can go over your views on the world and values as well as show that you believe in success and what you do to achieve it.

How to Begin a Commencement Speech

As we said, there are no strict rules for writing parting words. But there are some tips and tricks, which will help you make your speech even more inspiring. Check them out!

Think Over Your College Experience

Good memories can tear at the heart. Surely for many years of study, you’ve collected a lot of such memories and moments that you want to share. Well, this is the right time to do it! Сall to mind which event has had the greatest impact on you and why and tell about it.

Think about something special about your school or college. Perhaps these aspects can be included in your solemn speech. Describe how you went through the stages of growing up and coped with timidity, sought to cultivate the best character traits. At the same time, you shouldn’t show excessive sentimentality. The solemn ceremony is no place for sadness.

The Question That You Need to Ask Yourself

• How did you change after you finished your studies?
• What difficulties did you encounter during your college years and how did you manage to get over them?
• Will the experience that you gained in college be useful to you later in life?
• What was your greatest achievement?
• What life lessons have you received and will they help you meet your targets?

Be Sure to Catch the Audience

If you want to hold the attention of people, you need to start with something really catchy. The speaker has exactly half a minute for the public to decide whether to listen to him or not. Yes, the first 30 seconds are the announcement of your speech. It’s very hard, and sometimes impossible, to change the negative attitude. Imagine that you started your speech like this: “Hello, my name is John. I’m very glad that I have the opportunity to attend this wonderful ceremony on such a beautiful July day. I hope you and I will have a good time…”. What do you think listeners will decide in these 30 seconds? Right! They will think: “Well, how boring it all is. I won’t listen to him”. So try to catch the audience so that they want to listen to you further.

Don’t start with hackneyed phrases, silly jests, or too complex sentences. Better pick up a short but interesting story, a smart joke – a kind of that.

Put Your Thoughts in Order

Thoughts and ideas may be tumbling about your brain but the secret of a good speech is their organization. Write out everything you want to speak about onto a piece of paper. It can be memories, events, the words of teachers, your own ideas – all that you want. And then try to arrange all of this in a certain order. You can put events, say, by the level of importance.

For example, tell about going to college. What did you feel, what were you afraid of? Then move on to the first difficulties and ways to get over them. Explain your inner changes. What impact did college studies have on you and your character? Thus, your thoughts will be structured in the proper way.

Combine Your Ideas with One Topic

You cannot speak about something at great length – you may go into unnecessary detail. After all, you have a time limit for your words. Choose one topic that will unite all your thought and will be the main message.

For example, you’re going to extend thanks to your teachers and fellow students. Make it the main idea of your speech. Say thanks to everyone who changed your life and all the other students. The speech should also contain words of gratitude towards parents because they also play an essential role. After all, it was they who gave life, the opportunity to go through this important stage in your life. Talk about your and other student’s achievements. If you want, highlight the best graduates.

The speech should be considerate and warm. Try to show optimism in every word. Refuse hackneyed phrases. For example, you don’t have to say that the school years are the best in your life because you’ll have many more pleasant events. In order not to be stereotyped, it is best to avoid predictions of the future and excessive sentimentality.

Make Your Speech Perfect

After you’ve decided what you’ll talk about and prepare a draft with your ideas, it’s time to polish your graduation speech. Take a look at the tips below to make it just flawless!

Check Out Good Speech Options

You can watch videos with good speeches or just read examples of them. Of course, you shouldn’t take ideas from there. The graduation speech should be yours. But still, this can guide you on how to start or how to finish your words as well as how to present information in a proper way.

Don’t Try to Learn All the Things by Heart

Learning by heart is the biggest mistake you can make when preparing for a public speech. Words that are memorized sound unnatural. Just write down some points that will serve as beacons and make a kind of plan. When you look at them, you’ll immediately remember what you wanted to say.

Polish Your Speech

When you finish composing your speech, you should practice it. Read it out loud several times. Try to find the perfect pace and intonation. Remember that monotonous speech puts you to sleep, and very fast speech makes one want to stop listening. You can also ask your parents or friend to listen as you pronounce your words. So that you can find out if you need to fix or change something.

These are the main tips to prepare a great speech. Tutoriage paper writing company hopes they help you find really powerful words for your graduation speech.