This document provides guidance on making effective toasts. It begins by defining toasts as celebratory rituals where a group drinks together to honor a person, couple, group, occasion or accomplishment. It notes that toasts can range from solemn to risqué. The document then discusses key features of toasts, such as being personal and having a "hook". It provides tips for considering the rhetorical situation of the toast, organizing the content with a structure like a hook, background, story and conclusion, and enriching the toast with vivid language and stories. It emphasizes keeping toasts brief and direct while making eye contact and concluding by inviting others to join in drinking.

1. Chapter 8.6
Toasts
Copyright © 2022 W. W. Norton & Company

2. Introduction
• Toasts are celebratory rituals where a group of people are
invited to raise their glasses and drink together to honor a
person, a couple, a group, an occasion, or an accomplishment
• A toast can be as solemn as a prayer or as risqué as a wedding-
night joke
• You can find examples online or in books devoted solely to toasts
• Although a one-line salute may be appropriate when several
people are making toasts, the best toasts demonstrate you’ve
taken time to create a personal gift for a beloved person or
couple, a tribute to an esteemed honoree, or a heartfelt thank-you
to gracious hosts
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3. Key Features
• Toasts are a personal gift
• Toasts often have a “hook”
• Toasts should be prepared well in advance
3

4. A Brief Guide to Making a Toast
• Consider the rhetorical situation
• Organizing a toast
• Enriching a toast
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5. Consider the Rhetorical Situation
• Occasion: To honor a person, a couple, a group, an occasion, or an
accomplishment in a social, celebratory manner
• Speaker: Many toasts reveal as much about your feelings and
experiences as they do about the object of the toast
• Audience: Adapt the toast to what listeners already know and feel
about the person(s) or occasion honored by the toast
• Purpose: To celebrate a person, couple, group, or occasion and to
draw in the audience to feel a bond with one another
• Content: Celebrate the person, couple, group, or occasion with
special stories, accomplishments, personal experiences, and more
• Delivery: Try to project a spontaneous and natural speaking style
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6. Organizing a Toast
• If your toast is longer than a few sentences, put your ideas in a
strategic order
• Consider a simple organizational structure:
• Begin with a hook
• Share brief background information
• Tell a good story
• Conclude with personal observations
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7. Enriching a Toast
• Use an appropriate speaking style that suits the rhetorical
situation and generates audience interest and engagement
• Avoid overused adjectives (nice, funny, great, cool) that can lose
their power and importance in a toast
• Tell a brief story that demonstrates someone’s kindness or how
the person’s sense of humor defused an uncomfortable situation
• Use intense, vivid, and powerful language that helps audience
members show the audience what’s going on instead of just
telling them what happened
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8. Keep in Mind . . .
• Be Direct and Brief: Try to capture everyone’s feelings in your
toast without losing your focus or getting sidetracked
• Adjust Your Delivery: Stand up in a place where everyone can see
and hear you and make direct eye contact with audience members
and at the person(s) or group you are toasting
• Drink First: Conclude by raising your glass, smiling, and extending
an invitation to everyone in attendance to take a drink after you
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9. Notable Speaker: Bill Nighy, Part 1

10. Notable Speaker: Bill Nighy, Part 2

11. Credits
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 8.6.
For more resources, please visit The Norton Field Guide to Speaking:
http://digital.wwnorton.com/nfgspeaking.
Copyright © 2022 W. W. Norton & Company