High School Graduation Speeches -Top Tips

Tips for valedictorian and high school graduation speeches

Be yourself - simple advice but easily forgotten. Even though you will be using ceremonial language, you can still be yourself.

• Be sincere - only say what you believe in.
• Carefully use generic speeches – generic speeches are very general, use them as a starting point but develop your speech into something more personal.
• Personalize it – include details, stories and other anecdotes specific to your graduation class.
• Remove clichés -your own words will be more meaningful to your audience than worn out clichés.
• Relive a story – stories are a great way to illustrate your point, particularly ones involving many of your classmates.
• Relate to your audience. – include topics that will keep their interest avoid preaching.
• Respect your audience– keep your language clean, remove jargon and inappropriate topics.
• Use humor wisely – inside jokes, or long explanations detract from the humor.
• Structure your speech – have a beginning, middle and end.
• Have a theme – themes help build structure, rather a jumping about from one topic to another.
• Be positive – there are many opportunities to give a controversial or argumentative speech. Your graduation speech is not that time.
• Be nice – don’t makes jokes at some-one else expense.
• Complete your duties– remember to welcome and thank the required people.

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