“Commencement speeches,” the cartoonist Garry Trudeau once quipped, “were invented largely in the belief that outgoing college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated.”

As commencement season rolls around, this post falls (once again) into the category of shameless self promotion. 

But as two of the many who have suffered through some mind numbing commencment speeches, my colleague Vinca LaFleur and I decided to put together several tips for those commencement speakers who may not have the opportunity to make history with their commencement speeches, but can at least make a lasting impression.

Our thoughts appear in this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education.  And while their site is usually a subscription service, they’ve been nice enough to make available a free link to our article.

So give them some love and some page hits, and, if you’ve been invited to speak at a commencement,  maybe even give yourself a shot at — if not immortality, at least inducing in your audience something more inspired than morbidity.