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Public Speaking Tips: 3 Tips Learned From Watching Oscar Acceptance Speeches

By Jonathan Franks

From the archive: published Mar 6, 2016, 10 years ago. Details may have changed since.

There is so much that you can learn about public speaking just from watching Oscar acceptance speeches.

Chances are that you may have learned quite a bit just by watching the Oscars live broadcast last month. As is the case with all award shows in general, there are some acceptance speeches that move you to tears of sadness and others tears of joy. The problem is that not all of the speakers delivering those particular speeches intend on generating the reaction that they receive.

For instance, when an actor or actress takes a romantic moment during their acceptance speech to thank their spouse, that can easily cause tears to start pouring like raindrops from a dark cloud.

Perhaps you remember Tom Hanks’ acceptance speech when he won his second Best Actor Oscar in 1995 for the classic film, Forrest Gump.

In addition to showing respect for his fellow nominees and the film’s director Robert Zemeckis, Tom Hanks took the time to thank the love of his life – his wife Rita Wilson.

“Thank you. I’m standing here in lieu of my fellow nominees who are just as deserving, if not more so, of this moment. I’m standing here because of an army of people who over the course of a back-breaking schedule that was set by Bob Zemeckis — who worked much harder than I did and had much more at risk if our efforts were not successful. I’m empowered to stand here thanks to the ensemble of actors, men and women who I shared the screen with, who in ways that they will never understand made me a better actor. And I am standing here because the woman I share my life with has taught me and demonstrates for me every day just what love is.”

Sadly, not all acceptance speeches have played out so beautifully as Tom Hanks’ did that night. Perhaps the ones that have engraved themselves in the memories of fans and critics alike over the years are the ones that failed miserably for one reason or another.

However, each acceptance speech – whether good or bad – provides a solid lesson for public speaking. If the acceptance speech is good, it provides you with a solid example of good public speaking to follow. On the other hand, if the acceptance speech is something that you immediately want to erase from your memory, then it’s a solid example of horrible public speaking.

Here are three public speaking tips that can improve a person’s speaking and presentation skills – especially when they are facing a big audience and a short time limit.

1. Respect the Time Limit: Whether you are speaking at a school PTA meeting or at an international conference, everything follows a timed schedule – which means that you are provided with a specific timing limit that must be followed. Even if you want to enjoy your “moment,” you should never let your selfishness force you to disrespect that time limit. First, you don’t want to ruin the moments of other people simply because you wanted to add a few seconds (or minutes) to your allotted time.

2. Preparation, Preparation, Preparation: You don’t necessarily want to have your speech mapped out word-for-word so that you sound rehearsed and robotic on the stage. If your goal is to engage and interest your audience, talking like a programmed robot going through a recorded script is not going to help you to achieve that goal. However, you still need to practice and prepare. Create an outline of what you want to cover from beginning to end. That type of structure will make your speech flow smoothly and help you to stay within the required time limit.

3. Sincerity is Key: If you don’t mean it, don’t say it. Too many people feel that they have to say certain things on stage, but they don’t really mean what they are saying. Sincerity goes a long way on stage and in public speaking in general. Therefore, make sure that you are sincere in what you are saying – regardless of the size of the audience to which you are speaking.

Keeping these three public speaking tips in mind will more than likely help you to improve your skills as a public speaker. At the very least, they will give you a guide to follow when examining the acceptance speeches presented at the very next award ceremony.

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