Since you are like to give many special occasion speeches in your life, we want to cover everything you might need to know to give a good one.
The first type of special occasion speech is the speech of introduction , which is a mini-speech given by the host of a ceremony that introduces another speaker and their speech. Just like any other speech, a speech of introduction should be a complete speech and have a clear introduction, body, and conclusion—and you should try to do it all in under two minutes. For an introduction, think of a hook that will make your audience interested in the upcoming speaker.
First, tell your audience in general terms about the overarching topic of the speech. Next, you need to tell the audience why the speaker is a credible presenter on the topic. Has the speaker written books or articles on the subject? Has the speaker had special life events that make him or her qualified? Lastly, you need to briefly explain to the audience why they should care about the upcoming speech. The outline can be adjusted; for example, you can give the biographical information first, but these three areas should be covered.
The final part of a good introduction is the conclusion, which is generally designed to welcome the speaker to the platform. Wyatt Ford. The second type of special occasion speech is the speech of presentation. A speech of presentation is a brief speech given to accompany a prize or honor. An interesting example of a speech presenting an award is this one by Zoe Saldana for J. Once you know the time limit, then you can set out to create the speech itself.
First, you should explain what the award or honor is and why the presentation is important. Second, you can explain what the recipient has accomplished in order for the award to be bestowed. Did the person win a race? Did the person write an important piece of literature? Did the person mediate conflict? Whatever the recipient has done, you need to clearly highlight his or her work.
The complement to a speech of presentation is the speech of acceptance. The speech of acceptance is a speech given by the recipient of a prize or honor. There are three typical components of a speech of acceptance: 1 thank the givers of the award or honor, 2 thank those who helped you achieve your goal, and 3 put the award or honor into perspective. First, you want to thank the people who have given you the award or honor and possibly those who voted for you. Second, you want to give credit to those who helped you achieve the award or honor.
No person accomplishes things in life on his or her own. We all have family members, friends, and colleagues who support us and help us achieve what we do in life, and a speech of acceptance is a great time to graciously recognize those individuals. Lastly, put the award in perspective. Tell the people listening to your speech why the award is meaningful to you. If you know you are up for an award, the odds of your winning are high.
In order to avoid blubbering through an acceptance speech, have one ready. A good rule to remember is: Be thankful, be gracious, be short.
A fourth special occasion speech is the speech of dedication. A speech of dedication is delivered when a new store opens, a building is named after someone, a plaque is placed on a wall, a new library is completed, and so on. These speeches are designed to highlight the importance of the project and possibly those to whom the project has been dedicated.
When preparing a speech of dedication, start by explaining how you are involved in the dedication. Second, you want to explain what is being dedicated. If the dedication is a new building or a pre-existing building, you want to explain the importance of the structure.
You should then explain who was involved in the project. If the project is a new structure, talk about the people who built the structure or designed it. If the project is a pre-existing structure, talk about the people who put together and decided on the dedication.
Lastly, explain why the structure is important for the community in which it is located. If the dedication is for a new store, talk about how the store will bring in new jobs and new shopping opportunities. If the dedication is for a new wing of a hospital, talk about how patients will be served and the advances in medicine the new wing will provide the community.
At one time or another, almost everyone is going to be asked to deliver a toast. A toast is a speech designed to congratulate, appreciate, or remember. First, toasts can be delivered for the purpose of congratulating someone for an honor, a new job, or getting married.
You can also toast someone to show your appreciation for something he or she has done. Lastly, we toast people to remember them and what they have accomplished. When preparing a toast, the first goal is always to keep your remarks brief. Toasts are generally given during the middle of some kind of festivities e.
Second, the goal of a toast is to focus attention on the person or persons being toasted—not on the speaker. As such, while you are speaking, you need to focus your attention toward the people being toasted, both by physically looking at them and by keeping your message about them. You should also avoid any inside jokes between you and the people being toasted because toasts are public and should be accessible for everyone who hears them.
When you lift your glass, this will signal to others to do the same and then you can all take a drink, which is the end of your speech. A roast is a very interesting and peculiar speech because it is designed to both praise and good-naturedly insult a person being honored. Second, you want to express to your audience how much the experience has meant to you. As such, you should avoid negativity during this speech.
Lastly, you want to make sure that you end on a high note. Speech of farewell. These typically take place at graduation ceremonies. Nearly every one of us has sat through commencement speeches at some point in our lives. Numerous celebrities and politicians have been asked to deliver commencement speeches at colleges and universities.
A famous and well-thought-out commencement speech was given by famed Harry Potter author J. Speech of commencement. If there is a specific theme for the graduation, make sure that your commencement speech addresses that theme. If there is no specific theme, come up with one for your speech. Some common commencement speech themes are commitment, competitiveness, competence, confidence, decision making, discipline, ethics, failure and overcoming failure , faith, generosity, integrity, involvement, leadership, learning, persistence, personal improvement, professionalism, reality, responsibility, and self-respect.
Talk about your life and how graduates can learn from your experiences to avoid pitfalls or take advantages of life. How can your life inspire the graduates in their future endeavors?
Make the speech humorous. Commencement speeches should be entertaining and make an audience laugh. Be brief! Nothing is more painful than a commencement speaker who drones on and on. Remember, the graduates are there to get their diplomas; their families are there to watch the graduates walk across the stage. Show the graduates how the advice and wisdom you are offering can be utilized to make their own lives better.
After-dinner speeches are humorous speeches that make a serious point. These speeches get their name from the fact that they historically follow a meal of some kind. After-dinner speakers are generally asked to speak or hired to speak because they have the ability both to speak effectively and to make people laugh. First and foremost, after-dinner speeches are speeches and not stand-up comedy routines.
All the basic conventions of public speaking previously discussed in this text apply to after-dinner speeches, but the overarching goal of these speeches is to be entertaining and to create an atmosphere of amusement. After-dinner speech. After-dinner speaking is an extremely difficult type of speaking to do well because it is an entertaining speech that depends on the successful delivery of humor.
People train for years to develop comic timing, or the verbal and nonverbal delivery used to enhance the comedic value of a message. But after-dinner speaking is difficult, not impossible. What follows is the method we recommend for developing a successful after-dinner speech.
First, use all that you have learned about informative or persuasive speeches to prepare a real informative or persuasive speech roughly two-thirds the length of what the final speech will become.
Next, go back through the speech and look for opportunities to insert humorous remarks. Physical humor is great if you can pull it off without being self-conscious. As for props, after-dinner speakers have been known to use everything from oversized inflatable baseball bats to rubber clown noses. The goal for a funny prop is that it adds to the humor of the speech without distracting from its message.
Last, and probably most important, try the humor out on real, live people. This is important for three reasons. First, the success of humor depends heavily on delivery, and especially timing in delivery.
You will need practice to polish your delivery so that your humor comes across. You may have a humorous story that you love reading on paper, but find that it just seems to drone on once you start telling it out loud.
Furthermore, remember there is a difference between written and verbal language, and this also translates to how humor is interpreted. Third, you need to make sure the humor you choose will be appropriate for a specific audience. What one audience finds funny another may find offensive. Humor is the double-edged sword of public speaking.
On one side, it is an amazing and powerful speaking tool, but on the other side, few things will alienate an audience more than offensive humor. Take, for example, the experience one of your authors had while he was attending a large university. One of the major problems that any large university faces is parking: the ratio of parking spaces to students at some of these schools can be one parking space for every seven students. In addressing this topic at a banquet, a student gave an after- dinner speech that addressed the problem of the lack of student parking.
To do so, he camouflaged his speech as a faux-eulogy fake eulogy for the yellow and black board on the parking lot gates see Image The student personified the board by noting how well it had done its job and lamented that it would never get to see its little toothpick children grow up to guard the White House.
A motivational speech is designed not only to make an audience experience emotional arousal fear, sadness, joy, excitement but also to motivate the audience to do something with that emotional arousal. Whereas a traditional persuasive speech may want listeners to purchase product X or agree with idea Y, a motivational speech helps to inspire people in a broader fashion, often without a clearly articulated end result in mind.
As such, motivational speaking is a highly specialized form of persuasive speaking commonly delivered in schools, businesses, religious houses of worship, and club or group contexts. Motivational speech.
The hero speech is a motivational speech given by someone who is considered a hero in society e. Hero speech. The survivor speech is a speech given by someone who has survived a personal tragedy or who has faced and overcome serious adversity. In the following clip, cancer survivor Becky M. Becky Olsen goes all over the country talking with and motivating cancer survivors to beat the odds. Survivor speech. The religious speech is fairly self-explanatory; it is designed to incorporate religious ideals into a motivational package to inspire an audience into thinking about or changing aspects of their religious lives.
The final type of motivational speech is the success speech , which is given by someone who has succeeded in some aspect of life and is giving back by telling others how they too can be successful. Religious speech. Success speech. As stated at the beginning of this section, you will almost certainly be limited by your professor with regards to which of these types of speeches you can give for your special occasion speech in class, but it is not unrealistic to think that you will be called upon at various points in your life to give one or more of these speeches.
Knowing the types and basic structures will help when those moments arise. Special occasion speaking is so firmly rooted in the use of good language that it makes sense to address it here, drawing from concepts in Chapter More than any other category of speech, the special occasion speech is arguably one where the majority of your preparation time will be specifically allocated towards the words you choose.
In most cases, that will not be necessary in a special occasion speech, although there may be reasons to consult sources or other persons for information in crafting your speech.
So for special occasion speeches, there is a trade-off. The important thing to remember about using language effectively is that we are not talking about using big words just to sound smart.
Do not touch a thesaurus! Consider the following example from the then-president of the Ohio State University, Gordon Gee, giving a commencement address at Florida State University in As you look back on your years at Florida State I hope you remember many good things that have happened.
These experiences are, for the most part, events of the mind. The memories, ladies and gentlemen, however, are treasures of the heart. Using a five-syllable word when a two-syllable word will work just as well often means a speaker is trying too hard to sound smart.
Second, notice how he uses those basic words to evoke emotion and wonderment. Putting the words you know into the best possible order, when done well, will make your speech sound extremely eloquent and emotional. Third, he uses parallelism in this brief snippet, one of the rhetorical techniques discussed in Chapter Just as the language for special occasion speaking is slightly different, so too are the ways in which you will want to deliver your speech.
First and foremost, since you will be spending so much time crafting the perfect language to use and putting your words in the right order, it is imperative that you say exactly what you have written; otherwise, what was the point? To that end, your delivery for a special occasion speech will skew slightly more in favor of manuscript speaking discussed in Chapter While it is still vital to establish eye contact with your audience and to not sound like you are reading, it is also important to get the words exactly right.
You will need to practice your special occasion speech as much as or even more than you did for your informative or persuasive speeches. You need to know what you are going to say and feel comfortable knowing what is coming next.
This is not to say you should have your speech memorized, but you need to be able to take your eyes off the page in order to establish and maintain a rapport with your audience, a vital element in special occasion speaking because of the emotional component at the core of these speeches. Knowing your speech will also allow you to counteract the flow of adrenaline into your system, something particularly important given that special occasion speeches tend to be very emotional, not just for the audience, but for you as well.
One of the biggest mistakes entertaining speakers can make is to deliver one generic speech to different groups without adapting the speech to the specific occasion. In fact, professional speakers always make sure that their speeches are tailored for different occasions by getting information about the occasion from their hosts. When we tailor speeches for special occasions, people are more likely to remember those speeches than if we give a generic speech. Once again, we cannot stress the importance of audience adaptation enough in this text.
Like we mentioned above, special occasions often unify the community or audience, and in order for that to be effective, you must be reflexive about a who your audience is and b any audiences you may be representing.
One of our coauthors was once at a conference for teachers of public speaking. The keynote speaker stood and delivered a speech on the importance of public speaking. While the speaker was good and funny, the speech really fell flat. The keynote speaker basically told the public speaking teachers that they should take public speaking courses because public speaking is important. Right speech, wrong audience! The last major consideration when preparing for special occasion speeches successfully is to be mindful of your time.
Different speech situations have their own conventions and rules with regard to time. Audiences on different occasions will expect speeches of various lengths. In fact, audiences often expect to leave with the feels after special occasion speeches, so attention to language and aesthetic delivery are key.
Special occasion speaking is so firmly rooted in the use of good language that it makes sense to address it here. More than any other category of speech, the special occasion speech is arguably one where the majority of your preparation time will be specifically allocated towards the words you choose, and you should spend ample time crafting emotional and evocative phrases that convey the sentiment your speech is meant to impart.
Consider the following example from the then-president of the Ohio State University, Gordon Gee, giving a commencement address at Florida State University in As you look back on your years at Florida State I hope you remember many good things that have happened. These experiences are, for the most part, events of the mind. The memories, ladies and gentlemen, however, are treasures of the heart. Using a five-syllable word when a two-syllable word will work just as well often means a speaker is trying too hard to sound smart.
Third, he uses parallelism in this brief snippet. Just as the language for special occasion speaking is slightly different, so too are the ways in which you will want to deliver your speech.
First and foremost, since you will be spending so much time crafting the perfect language to use and putting your words in the right order, it is imperative that you say exactly what you have written; otherwise, what was the point? To that end, your delivery for a special occasion speech may skew slightly more in favor of manuscript speaking.
While it is still vital to establish eye contact with your audience and to not sound like you are reading, it is also important to get the words exactly right. So, you guessed it, rehearse! You need to know what you are going to say and feel comfortable knowing what is coming next. This is not to say you should have your speech memorized, but you need to be able to take your eyes off the page in order to establish and maintain a rapport with your audience.
Raprot is a vital element in special occasion speaking because of the emotional component at the core of these speeches. Knowing your speech will also allow you to counteract the flow of adrenaline into your system, something particularly important given that special occasion speeches tend to be very emotional, not just for the audience, but for you as well.
It can be difficult to account for laughter in your rehearsal, but try to predict where you may need to pause. Basically, knowing your speech well allows you to incorporate the emotion that a special occasion speech is meant to convey, something that is hard to do when you read the entirety of your speech.
In this way your audience will sense the pride you feel for a graduating class during a commencement speech, the sorrow you feel for the deceased during a eulogy, or the gratitude you have when accepting an award.
Special occasion speaking is the most varied type of speaking to cover; however, there are some general rules to keep in mind regardless of what type you are engaged in. Remember that using good, evocative language is key, and that it is important that you deliver your speech in a way that both conveys the proper emotion for the occasion and allows you to give the speech exactly as you wrote it.
Skip to content Approaches. Understand the purpose and goals of special occasion speeches; Identify the types of special occasion speeches; Understand the proper techniques for creating an aesthetic experience when delivering a special occasion speech. Example Alert: An interesting example of a speech presenting an award is this one by Zoe Saldana for J.
Example Alert: Numerous celebrities and politicians have been asked to deliver commencement speeches at colleges and universities. A famous and well-thought-out commencement speech was given by famed Harry Potter author J. Rowling at Harvard University in Previous: Online Public Speaking. Next: References by Chapter. Share This Book Share on Twitter. Shorter Lengths. Gray Area. Longer Lengths. Speeches of Introduction.
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