How to Write Short Speeches for Recognition

No one wants to sit through an incredibly long award or recognition speech. This is true not only for the acceptance speech, but also for the presentation speech. Deciding on the most important elements to include to make it as short as possible is likely the most difficult part of writing the presentation speech. You want to talk about how wonderful the person being recognized is, but you do not want to put your audience to sleep doing so, either.

Introduce yourself in less than a minute. Briefly state your name, position and relationship to the person you are recognizing.

Discuss the hard work, passion and effort of the person you are recognizing. Focus on the highlights of his work. Avoid telling too many stories to exemplify the efforts of the person.

Talk about the high standards participants and applicants to the contest have to meet as well as how hard it was to decide on a winner. Keep this to just three to five points and under a couple of minutes of your speech.

Avoid giving a long biography of the winner. Don't discuss his resume or everything he has ever done related to the award. Choose only those that best demonstrate why he won the award.

Interject a bit of humor. If the person you are recognizing is not too in to humor, this is another way to keep the speech short. One or two jokes makes the audience laugh and seems to shorten the amount of time members have to sit through the speech.

Focus on the recipient and keep your speech to under about five minutes. Give the recipient his time in the spotlight.