How to Write a Thank You Speech

Prioritizing Your Thank You List

Make sure you have a complete list. Give yourself twenty minutes to review your existing list and consider whether you are missing anyone. On a blank piece of paper, brainstorm a list of people you may need to thank who are not currently on your list. After adding any additional names, review the list and write down what you are grateful for under each name, such as contributions, advice or expertise. You may want to consider the following prompts: Who helped you become the person you are today? Who offered you the most encouragement? What specific contributions are you thanking people for? Who gave you the time of day when you really needed help? Who offered valuable expertise at crucial moments?

Start ordering your list. If your list is handwritten, start by copying your list into a spreadsheet or text editing program so that it can be easily rearranged. Then, arrange the names by what you are specifically grateful for, such as friendship, time or expertise. Once you have the list ordered by type of gratitude, you may want to rank the list from most to least important contributions under each category. When you start writing your speech, it will be helpful to have individual lists of people you want to thank for specific types of contributions. For instance, under the category expertise, you could rank individuals from most to least important contributions of expertise to the project or award you are giving the speech for.

Determine the top ranked people. Review your ordered list and identify the two or three most important people in each category, such as the two or three most important friends, family members or colleagues. It is important to highlight these people, so that you don’t skip them in the speech writing.

Organize your list to accommodate time constraints. ‘Thank you’ speeches should be short and succinct. Review your list and consider how you might organize your list for concision. You could try re-organizing the list according to function, such as all of the people who made me laugh or all of the people who pushed me to reach higher in life. When you write the speech, you can give thanks to people according to their function or role and then just list their names. This will give you more time to spend on particularly important individuals, as identified in your ranked list. For instance, a ‘thank you’ speech at a wedding should be no longer than three minutes long.

Composing Your Speech

Outline the structure of your speech. Your speech may include an introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction and conclusion are optional, depending on your time limits. The body of the speech should begin by expressing gratitude to the most important people on your list. It may proceed with shorter expressions of gratitude to larger groups of people. On a blank piece of paper, compose a quick outline with section headings and the main points you want to make in each section.

Picture one person you want to address. As you write your speech, bring to mind a particular individual that you want your speech to touch. Imagine you are in a conversation with this individual or that your speech is a letter to them personally. When people hear your speech, they will get the impression that you are talking to them on a personal level.

Speak from the heart. A great thank you speech is written from a personal, genuine place of gratitude. You should think about what you are really grateful for, and try to express this gratitude in a genuine way in your speech. Some examples of genuine ‘thank you’ speeches include: In 1985, Sally Field spoke from the heart in her Oscar thank you speech. She said, “I can’t deny the fact that you like me, right now you like me!” In 1970, at the age of 61, John Wayne was genuine about how long it took him to win, upon accepting the award for best actor for the role of one-eyed Rooster Cogburn. He said, “Wow! If I’d known that, I would have put the patch on 35 years ago.”

Express humility. You don’t want to sound full of yourself or too self-centered. One of the reasons that you are giving a ‘thank you’ speech is that there are so many people who have helped you along the way. You could express genuine humility, use your self-depreciating humor and wit or show your humility directly with simple statements. For instance, you could say: “I am so humbled by this honor.” You could also use humor. For instance, when George Clooney won best supporting actor in 2006 but lost the best director award, he drew on his self-deprecating humor. He said, “Well, it looks like I’m not winning best director…”

Avoid verbosity. Write short and succinct sentences. If something sounds a little too verbose on paper, it will definitely be too long-winded in a speech. In particular, you want to avoid writing sentences with multiple and complex clauses.

Write an introduction. Your introduction should address the reason for the occasion, such as an award, career achievement, convention, wedding or other special event. If you have enough time, you may want to start with a little story about the lead-up to the event, a brief history of your career, an amusing anecdote, or a quote. If it is a short ‘thank you’ speech, it is often best to skip the intro entirely. The audience will know why you are giving the speech, so follow the example of Abraham Lincoln who always skipped the introduction.

Write about the most important people on your list. Give yourself time to thank them profusely and include specific details or stories about their contributions. The most important people should get more 'air-time' than those further down your list. Not only do you have more to thank them for, but you also probably have to live or work with them on a regular basis, so you want to build as much goodwill as possible. Once you have written about the most important individuals, you can always edit the speech later for concision. Budget your time for each person. Remember that if you spend too much time on any one person, you may not be able to get to others who still really need to be thanked. If your speech needs to be really short, you could say: "I would like to thank Charley, my wonderful husband for supporting me through the long nights. I couldn't have done it without you. Thanks to my beautiful daughters, Kiera and Emily. Mommy can play more now. To Jeff Goldstein of Caracas, for feeding my crew; to Jake, Mindy, Paul, and Gwen for staying up so late, so we could get it right..."

Finish composing the body of your speech. Once you have written about the people at the top of your ‘thank you’ list, write a few paragraphs devoted to people who have served particular roles or functions in your life. If this doesn’t work, you could also try organizing the list by keywords such as job categories. To recognize people by function, you could say, “I also want to thank everyone who brightened up this long journey with good humor, such as John, Johnny, Arjen, Peter, Ann, Zoe, etc.” So, for example, you might say: "And for the catering, thanks to Joe, Mike, Mindy, and Jeanette."

Compose a conclusion. Although the conclusion is optional, it can be nice to wrap things up with a short summary or a provocative quote. If your time is very limited, you can skip the conclusion entirely. If you have enough time, consider using a memorable quote that relates to your occasion. For instance, you could use one of the following ‘thank you’ quotes: “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice (Meister Eckhart) “We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love” (Mother Teresa) “I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks” (William Shakespeare)

Timing, Memorizing and Practicing Your Speech

Time your speech. Set the timer on your stopwatch or smartphone. Press start and begin reading your speech. If you finish with plenty of time left on the timer, you are ready to go. If it is far too short, however, you may consider adding a quote or a story at the beginning or end of the speech. If it is too long, you should revise it accordingly. You could try using online script timers to get a rough sense of your speech time. However, you should still practice with a real timer because everyone speaks at a slightly different pace.

Write keywords or phrases on note cards. Once you have practiced reading your speech a few times, you could copy keywords from the different sections or paragraphs onto note cards. Use the note cards as reference points for memorizing your speech and all of the people you need to thank.

Practice your speech alone and with friends. You will need to practice multiple times before the actual event. Start by practicing in front of a mirror. As you become comfortable with the speech, you could try using the note cards. After a few times, you could try reading it to friends or family members. If you're well prepared, you'll feel far more comfortable when you actually have to give the speech. You could dress up in the clothes you will be wearing at the event. Try practicing the speech at the event location to get more comfortable.