Definition
A speech delivered on accepting some award or a high rank (e.g. presidency). Structurally, the acceptance speech can be considered a variant of a thank you speech but the expression of gratitude it contains is rather symbolic because the nominee him/herself has made a great contribution to science/politics/etc.
Structure/outline
An acceptance speech normally contains several logically bound sections as follows:
1) Expressions of gratitude to a large community of people who evaluated the achievements of the awardee.
2) Recreating the historical background of one’s activity (especially when it was problematic due to political repressions and problems of some other kind).
3) Presenting one’s personal, artistic, poetical program to a large audience (this is especially important when speaking about persons who achieved awards for their non-conformist political activity as they were advocating human rights, freedom of self-expression, etc.);
4) Defining perspectives and ways of further activity;
5) Rounding up the speech with words of gratitude, returning to initial statements.
Topics/basic concepts
As far as an acceptance speech is a functional speech delivered by representatives of different professions, the speech comprises constant thematic unities such as expressions of gratitude and variables such as the depiction of one’s program and perspectives. However, all the acceptance speeches are necessarily oriented on universal principles of humanism and morality.
Requirements
General requirements of logical structuring and emotional representation are applicable to an acceptance speech.
