A Bad Graduation Day Speech
A terrible commencement speech at the University of Minnesota
Need some help writing a graduation speech? Here's a "what not to do" example of a really bad commencement address.
Do you need some information about writing a graduation speech for a high school or college graduation ceremony, a graduation party, or for a public speaking class? Here are some resources to help you write a great graduation speech:
A good graduation speech makes the audience feel included. The students, as well as the parents, teacher, and others in the audience, should all feel like the speaker is making the speech significant and memorable for them.
To illustrate this concept, let me tell you about the worst graduation speech I've ever heard. This was the graduate student commencement address at the University of Minnesota, where I received my PhD. My husband and I dubbed it the "Diseased Tonsil Speech."
There were hundreds of graduate students in attendance, and we were a diverse bunch of both master's and PhD students. Many of us had traditional research oriented degrees. However, the majority of the students in attendance were professional students who were going into industry or teaching. Nonetheless, it was the norm at U of M graduate school graduations to bring in a commencement speaker to talk about his or her research and the importance of research. Therefore, the students who were not going on to careers in research (most of the graduates) were not acknowledged by the speaker.
This year, the speech was especially bad. In addition to being noninclusive, it was, well, revolting.
The speaker's point was that even though you may think your research is insignificant, it may help someone down the road. To illustrate, he talked about his own AIDS research. AIDS researchers apparently have found some helpful clues from old research about scabies, a repulsive skin disorder that affects sheep. They've also found some clues from old research about kuru, a neurological disease associated with cannibalism. Interesting? Yes. However, the speaker's graphic accounts of scabies and kuru weren't exactly the inspiration one might expect in a graduation speech.
Somehow research about AIDS, scabies, and kuru are all connected to the study of diseased tonsils. I don't remember how. What I do remember is that to illustrate his point about diseased tonsils, he used an enormous slide (we're talking floor to ceiling length) of a graphic photograph of a diseased tonsil. He then went on to wax eloquent about this amazing tonsil.
Not exactly the inspiration we were looking for.
So remember, make your audience feel included. The speech isn't just for you and the people close to you. It's for everyone in attendance, so keep your audience in mind as you write your speech.
