How to make special speeches: accepting an award

1. Smile & Ponder

A long-winded speaker was continuing to deliver his dry, lengthy and boring acceptance speech. He was running long over time. The master of ceremonies was trying to get him to stop, but he couldn't attract his attention. Finally, in desperation, he picked up the gavel, aimed and fired - but missed the speaker and hit a man in the first row. The man slumped to his knees, then groaned, 'Hit me again - I can still hear him!'

2. Viewpoint

"You can’t learn skydiving from a book: sooner or later you must take a header from an aeroplane. So too with public speaking."

3. Quotable Quote

"Like everything else, public speaking takes practice. But once you’ve had a few successes, you’ll find that your own style and delivery will take over, making it a rewarding and even enjoyable experience."

4. Here's An Idea

When compliments on your achievements fly thick and fast, respond with a line once used by former US President Lyndon Johnson in a similar situation: ‘I only wish my parents could have been here,’ he said. ‘My father would have enjoyed it, and my mother would have believed it.’

5. Smile & Ponder

The chairman of the board of the New York Central Railway System got his first complaint of the year from an angry farmer in the mid-west who wrote in to complain that the New York central train had arrived late in his town for the last three Sundays.

‘Unless you do something about it,’ he wrote, ‘I’ll take the matter up with Washington. At our church, the minister times his sermons to end at the whistle of your arriving train - and it’s been 30 bloody minutes late for three Sundays in a row!!’

One of the secrets of making a good speech is to keep it short - or you’ll end up losing your audience. Indeed, few speakers can hold attention for much longer than 20 minutes.

A good rule to remember is this: ‘Be sincere. Be brief. Be seated.’

6. Be Warned

The shortest US inaugural address was George Washington's-just 125 words. The longest was William H. Harrison's in 1841. He delivered a two-hour, 9000-word speech into the teeth of a freezing northeast wind. The new President came down with a cold the next day and a month later died of pneumonia.

The moral? Be brief.