• The Epideictic or Ceremonial Speech: An Overview
• The Speech of Introduction
• Presenting Awards or Honors
• Accepting An Award or Tribute
• Group Presentations: Panels, Forums, and Symposiums
• Presenting a Eulogy or Memorial Address
• Presenting a Public Prayer
• Verbal Stylistic Devices
• Great Speeches!

Public Speaking Home Page

The Basic Course

The Epideictic or Ceremonial Speech: An Overview

An epideictic or ceremonial speech is a speech of praise or blame, celebration or thanksgiving, condemnation or mourning. Ceremonial speaking stresses that sharing of identities and values that unites people into communities (Osborn and Osborn, p. 426). Eulogies, Fourth of July orations, speeches of condemnation or commendation, farewell addresses, etc. are instances of epideictic discourse. Ceremonial speeches often serve to establish standards for action or provide the ethical and moral basis for future arguments.

You should use language that is clear, vivid, inspiring and arousing. Your style will be critical in the delivery of the epideictic speech; style is your word preference and syntax (i.e., the structure of your sentences). Two major techniques of ceremonial speaking are identification and magnification.

Identification creates the feeling of closeness, familiarity, universality.

Magnification expounds overcoming obstacles, exceeding the boundaries, shifting paradigms, achieving the unparalleled, benefiting humankind.

The language you choose will influence how your audience will envision the subject. Words express an attitude toward the object, the idea, the event, or the person. Your words will convey a perspective or a reality.

Five basic guidelines for the epideictic speech (Cohn, 1992):

• use concrete rather than abstract terms
• use personal rather than impersonal references
• use simple rather than complex sentences
• use active rather than passive verbs
• use more repetition of ideas to enhance comprehension and memory.

Speeches of Introduction

The speech of introduction welcomes the speaker, establishes his or her ethos, and tunes the audience for the message to follow. The introduction should place the speaker within the context of the topic to be presented, the occasion, or the context that has special meaning for the audience (Osborn and Osborn, p. 441). Make certain you:

1. ... know how to pronounce the speaker's name.
2. ... ask the speaker what s/he would like you to emphasize
3. ... make the speaker feel welcome
4. ... foucs on the relevant areas of the speaker's background (i.e., relevant to the topic, audience, and/or occassion)
5. ... spotlight the topic or title of the speech; introduce the speaker, do not present the speech.
6. ... be brief, warm, and gracius.

Presenting Awards or Honors

There are four basic guidelines (ref. Sprague and Stuart, 1996) you should follow when presenting an award or honor:

• Announce the person's name (unless the award or honor is to be a surprise!)
• Outline the criteria for the award or honor; explain how the person was selected, and by whom (e.g., letter of recommendation or ballot)
• Highlight achievements or qualities of the individual; use brief anecdotes (short of "roasting" unless a "roast" is in order for the occasion); capture the unique qualities of the person.
• If presenting a plaque, certificate, key to the [city, group, building, etc.], etc., explain what the item symbolizes or means to the group recognizing the individual.

Accepting An Award or Tribute

After receiving an award or honor, you may be expected to respond with a speech of acceptance. Your speech should express gratitude, an acknowldegement of the group presenting you with the award, and recognition of the underlying principles and values the award or tribute represents. We suggest you follow these guidelines when accepting an award or tribute:

• Accept the honor with grace and confidence. The stylistic techniques of magnification are most useful in speeches of acceptance.
• Acknowledge and give credit to those who deserve recognition (i.e., those who assisted or played some part in your effort, those who have influenced your life or the choices you have made).
• Give a gift back to the audience--i.e., express your awareness of its deeper meaning and leave the audience with an insight or tribute to their work and/or the work that inspired you.
• Conclude with a future-oriented statement--i.e., what this means to you, to society, to the group, and how you will continue this work.

The Group Presentation:

Panels, Forums, and Symposiums

There are many styles and formats for this type of presentation. One critical consideration for any participant is to know the other presenter(s). As part of your preparation, try to contact the other presenter(s) or read abstracts of their work or on the topic to be discussed. Other elements you should consider are:

• Confirm the program and the format--this includes program agenda as well as logistics (room set up, audio visual aids, etc.); clarify expectations with regard to your presentation and participation.
• A group presentation is not a conversation; plan a general outline, review supporting documentation; prepare visual aids; plan an introduction and conclusion just as you would if you were the sole presenter. Be prepared to adapt your speech--given the participant(s), agenda, time allocation to your section or topic, and audience familiarity.
• Practice your nonverbal communication style and your reactions--though you have finished your presentation you are still on stage. Watch your reactions to your co-presenter(s)... your audience will!
• Unless dictated by the program, the group presentation is not intended to be a debate and do not try to manipulate the audience at the expense of your fellow presenter(s).

Presenting A Memorial or Eulogy

There are six basic guidelines (ref. Sprague and Stuart, 1996) when delivering a eulogy or memorial address:

• Do not accept this role unless you feel able to maintain your composure. This situation requires you to offer comfort, insight, perspective, etc. to others.
• Acknowledge feelings of loss, anger, and bewilderment; however, it is recommended that you do not dwell on those emotions.
• You will want to highlight the value, contribution, legacy, and life of the one being eulogized.
• Use phrases that bond (e.g., "All of us who cared for ..." or "I see many people here who ..." or "We all know how she could ....")
• Consider and present universal themes: continuity of life, growth, universality and timelessness.
• Never play on the grief of the audience to promote a specific religious belief or socio-political cause. This is considered to be in extremely poor taste.

Public Prayer

Here are three guidelines for presenting a public prayer:

• Be brief; typically, an invocation, benediction, or grace are part of a larger ceremony or observance.
• Do not assume that all attendees are Christians, or are necessarily religious! We recommend you keep your prayer nonsectarian and non-doctrinaire--i.e., appeal to a universal spirituality (e.g., "We look beyond our human understanding for strength and guidance.").
• Reference the specific occasion and the purpose of the gathering.

Verbal Style

Finally, we would like to leave you with a menu of stylistic devices ranging from the use of repetition to expansion/contraction and contrasts. The following snippets were taken from Public Speaking, by Ellen R. Cohn (University of Pittsburgh, External Studies Program; Study Guide, Ceremonial Speaking, 5.1-5.18)

Devices That Argue Through Repetition
Alliterations: repetitions of identical sounds in success words (e.g., "Shall we sit in complacency, lulled by creative comforts until we are engulfed in chaos?")
Antimetaboles: repetitions of words in successive clauses, but in reversed order (e.g., "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country")
Climaxes: place items in series according to rising importance or emotional, connotation; evoke mounting feelings (e.g., "Hope has returned ...and with that hope burns a flame of anger ... and still more fiercely burn the fires of hatred...")
Polysyndetons/asyndetons: insertions of definite articles or conjunctions where they would not ordinarily be expected; argues by jarring expectations (e.g., "But the faces of truth and love and courage and honesty and generosity and sympathy" .. or .. "Well, there you have it: melody, rhythm, tone, color, form, harmony").

Devices That Argue By Comparison
Analogy: by putting potentially comparable statements next to one another, analogy argues for similarity between ideas.
Metaphor: application of a term or phrase to something to which it is not literally applicable; the metaphor can enhance, denigrate, or embellish.
Allegory: Events, characters, or objects are given metaphorical meanings; argues to transferring feelings associated with the allegorical object to whatever the object is compared to (e.g., Roosevelt used "man with a muck-rake" to claim that journalists are as disagreeably interested in attacking others as the man with the rake was in dirt on the floor").
Onomatopoeia: using a word that imitates in sound something associated with the thing names (e.g., Spiro Agnew suggested commentators "gaggle like geese" and implied that they had similar wisdom).
Synecdoche: identifying something by naming part of it or identifying a part by naming the whole (e.g., "All Germany is the Nazi mind").

Devices That Enlarge or Expand
Allusions: terms which, by being mentioned, are alleged to be related to what one is otherwise saying; argues certain items are relevant (e.g., "Freedom of speech exists in America? What about Bobby and Martin?" Bobby and Martin refer to Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King).
Cumulation: compiling related items, sometimes incorporating climax; argues by adding weight to ideas (e.g., "What about social welfare programs, social security system, and unemployment?").
Oxymoron: a seemingly contradiction (e.g., referring to "business ethics" ... or ... "military intelligence").

Devices That Direct or Constrain Meaning
Quantifying terms: assign some specified degree of fullness or emptiness; directs, and limits the listeners' thoughts (e.g., "There are only one or two ways to solve this problem").
Definitions: formal statements that denote meaning (i.e., what is from what is not).
Retraction: verbally canceling out something already said; signal the speaker is retracing her steps and thereby becomes proof of the importance of the idea.

Devices That Contrast
Antithesis: juxtaposition of terms, phrases, clauses, or statements (e.g., "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.").
Hyperbole: exaggerate; evoke emotions that will color the realities (e.g., "The chair of that committee is a child.").
Irony: a statement that allows the real meaning to be recognizably opposite of the literal meaning (e.g., "Nixon's fib was exaggerated.").
Understatement: saying less than what is actually meant.

Public Speaking Home Page

The Basic Course

Readings and References

Cohn, E.R. (1992) Public Speaking. University of Pittsburgh, External Studies Program; Study Guide, Ceremonial Speaking, 5.1-5.18.

Osborn, M. and Osborn, S. (1994). Public Speaking. 3rd edition. Houghton Mifflin Co: Boston.

Sprague, J. and Stuart, D. (1996). The Speaker's Handbook. 4th ed. Harcourt Brace College Publishers: Orlando.