Things That Make a Good Farewell Speech
What makes a good farewell speech? Is it the choice of words or the goodness of the prose? Is it the level of emotion or the apparent lack of it? Not all people are good with words, and not all people are comfortable in pouring out their emotions in speeches. How does one write a farewell speech, and what makes it a good one?
Speeches would always be categorized into two – formal and informal. Whatever type of speech one decides to write, the end result would always fall into one or the other. A farewell speech has the goal to wish a person good luck. When a person is leaving, the speech should make them feel like the whole world is still there to explore, rather than make them feel that the place they’re leaving is the best place in the world (even if it’s true).
Parting times could never be easy. A graduation speech, for example, could be hard even if the speaker has come to hate a third of the whole school. It is very hard for people to say goodbye, not to other people, but the years that they have spent with them. An employee who has stayed for a long time in a company would deserve a farewell speech when they retire or decide to resign.
A good farewell speech is always that which the audience would listen to, meaning that it shouldn’t bore the audience to death. If your audience expects you to give a long speech, surprise them and give them a relatively shorter one. Make it engaging and make the audience feel that you are not wasting their time with non-sense. Practice your speech and say it in front of someone, and let that someone give honest criticisms about your speech. Practice the funny lines and learn where to stop, pause and go on.
A farewell speech follows a simple outline. The beginning should be made up of the icebreaker. The body should be made up of thanks and funny anecdotes. The ending should be made up of the goodbye, good luck, and a good punch line.
So, what makes a good farewell speech? You know that it’s good when the speech has touched your heart. Leaving is hard, but for somebody to say that they wish a person a sincere good luck as they leave is harder. Emotions are hard to deal with, and goodbyes would always be filled with emotions, no matter how hard one tries to hide.
