Acceptance speeches are speeches said by the recipient of an award or prize. In all of the speeches that I looked at for my topic I noticed that everyone was very considerate. They want to make sure that the other nominees don’t feel bad and sometimes will even talk about them and why they also deserved this award. The speeches usually start off very slow and get more touching throughout the entire speech. Most of the famous speeches are given at the Oscars so you best believe that the world will be watching. Speakers such as Leonardo Decaprio used that to his advantage as he talked about global warming. It made an immediate impact as global warming was one of the most searched topics on google the very next morning. The speakers tend to be very open as some of them even cry and use emotional appeal to connect to their audience. Recipients usually try their best to gain sympathy from their audience as they will say how they how they struggled a lot early on in their life and convince their audience that if they never give up, they can achieve anything. These speeches almost always open and close with the speaker thanking his or her friends, family and everyone who was there for them. What I learned while watching and listening to the speeches was how the speakers will almost always try to be down to earth and use simple words to really reach their audience. When you use fancy words that your audience can’t understand they tend to drift off and not pay attention. So the speakers will tend to just write the bare minimum and just try to say everything off of the top of their head. I also learned that the speeches will tend to be really short, two to three minutes each. The speakers tend to do that because the more they say the less value it holds. It will also bore their audience if the speech is five whole minutes long. What i would like to learn is how the speakers can come up with such deep and touching speeches and say them in front of thousands of people and millions to see.
What I learned about myself as an author is that sometimes you learn from your own writing. As I was reading and watching these speeches I didn’t connect to them but when I started to write about them, I began to have a better understanding about them and relate to them more. I realized that you can’t make a reader understand your writing if you yourself aren’t confident and can’t relate to what you are writing about. When I was watching the Kevin Durant’s MVP speech I wasn’t really affected by it even though I was watching a grown man cry in front of thousands of people and say how his mom struggled a lot to put food on the table. When I started writing about it though it was a whole different story because I felt like I was writing about my dad growing up. He also had a hard time as he was the only son who had to provide for his family as well. It really touched me because it felt like I was in the audience and my dad was giving the speech. Going forwards I would like to use more details in my writing and I will also like to state them clearly.
