Acceptance Speeches
An acceptance speech is expressive and shows appreciation for an award or gift received. The overall time limit should not exceed one to two minutes in length. Within this time, the speaker should acknowledge and thank groups and individuals involved with the project. Among these, be sure to acknowledge those who are giving the award, the competition, and any individual who added their own time or talent to help accomplish this final goal. Any person may be given thanks for a random reason as long as it is appropriate and related to the subject material. By doing so, one will show graciousness to the audience.
Other than being sure to thank those who participated in your accomplishment, the entire speech won’t have as great of an affect on your audience if certain guidelines are not followed. The audience should receive a positive and sincere appreciation from the award winner. Being disrespectful to other competition or stating negative comments on any other subject matter will demonstrate a less than professional attitude. Be humble and stay away from promoting other material such as politics or advertising. In general, make your audience feel good about you receiving the award. Then everybody will leave the ceremony happy.
Candice Nicholson
Fall 2007
Speech about an Event
What made you this way? Who influenced you? Through this speech, you will share a piece of your thoughts and life. You will give a speech about a significant event which has influenced your life. You can talk about an event regarding yourself, your families, your friends and etc. The event is story-orientated so you CANNOT use any cheating sheet. You talk TO your classmates. The elements of delivery such as eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, etc. are required. The required length of the speech is about 2 to 3 minutes. You need an effective attention-getter and conclusion both of which should contain a lesson you learned from the event. Also, you give should some suggestions to your classmates from the lesson you have learned.
You do not need any visual aid but if you want, you are free to bring any visual aid that works effectively for your speech! Don’t be afraid of giving a speech. It’s fun. Please share a wonderful world view with your classmates.
Yuriko Onishi
Fall 2007
Award Acceptance Speech
An acceptance speech is an expressive way to show appreciation for an award or gift received. For this speech you will pick out of a hat the award you will be receiving so that you can specifically tailor your acceptance speech. Once you have received your award, you will be given 10 minutes to compile an acceptance speech. After these 10 minutes you will be given a trophy as your prize and you will be expected to give a two to three minute acceptance speech. Remember, televised award shows only allow you a short amount of time to say all you need to say, anything that goes over is cut off by a commercial break. This shall be the same case in class. Any of your speech that goes over length will not be considered for grading. Also, just as with any other acceptance speech you will be expected to thank the appropriate people and mention a little something about your award and how or why you won it.
Other than giving thanks and showing appreciation for receiving the award, you should also make sure your audience is pleased with your speech. This can be done by keeping it within the time frame and being positively sincere. By staying in the time limit you are showing the audience that you respect their valuable time and therefore will not waste it with a bunch of nonsense. By being sincere you show the audience that you are humble and truly deserving of the award. All of this keeps you respectful of the other award candidates and the award ceremony, as well.
Acceptance Speech Topics
• Bowler of the Year
• Best Music Video of the Year
• Humane Society Volunteer of the week
• Country Album of the year
• Hip-Hop Album of the year
• Rap Album of the year
• New York Times Children’s Literature Best Seller (author)
• Best Environmentally Friendly Invention
• Elected President
• Winner of Top-Model
• Winner of American Idol
• Winner of Big Brother
• Winner of Survivor
• Neighbor of the Year
• Parent of the year
• Sibling of the year
• Best Area Photography
• Best Area Radio Station/DJ
• Discovery of the cure for Cancer
(Click to enlarge)
Mandy Brabec
Fall 2009
This particular assignment is meant to be creative, so have some fun with it!! For this speech the content is left solely up to you, the student. However, be tactful and remember that this speech is meant to be read in front of your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles so lean toward the conservative side. You can be humorous, serious, insightful, or entertaining. In fact, I would be pleased if you wrapped all of them up into one fantastic speech! Also, this speech should be about 2-5 minutes in length. You don’t want your speech to be so short it’s not memorable, but not so long that your speech becomes boring and overwhelming, thus 2-5 minutes will be sufficient. If you go over by more than 45 seconds your grade will decrease only slightly, however you have to hit at least the 2 minute mark or you will have to redo your speech. Please provide a hardcopy of your speech to be handed in to me on your speech date; obviously no sources are necessary for this type of speech. Another thing you may like to know pertaining to your speeches is where they will be given. Considering this speech is meant to prepare you for public speaking you will be giving this speech in front of your class in the auditorium. You will use the podium as an aid, but not a crutch! Finally, focus mostly on your content and delivery as these will be the most heavily watched and thus graded, especially since this is one of the last speeches of the semester. Your speeches will be given on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with preparation days on Monday and Tuesday. Your speech date is your ONLY date! You must be ready on this day or you will FAIL the assignment. If you would prefer, you are allowed to hand in one rough draft for revision, but only one and it must be turned in at least 3 days prior to your speech date. Good luck and have fun!!!!
Katie Hall
Fall 2009