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I've searched all the dictionaries I can think of; I've read countless news items about award winners; and I've googled various strings such as "the jury's * reads" etc, but I still haven't been able to find the English word for the statement explaining why a person has won an award. So, now I'm turning to you. What word would you use instead of X below:

"John Doe has been awarded the prestigious BlueBerry Award for his discoveries in the field of blueberry picking. The jury's X reads: [statement detailing why John Doe has won the award]"

I've also googled "the jury's motivation reads", "the jury's justification reads", and "the jury's explanation reads" on BrE pages, but without any luck (the version with "motivation" got a few hits, but that's probably because they all had some kind of Swedish background (in Swedish, "motivation" is the word we use for this)).

Helen
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    I think for Nobel prizes they say explanation for the prize. Leave out the word jury. – Lambie Oct 11 '22 at 17:42
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    We usually refer to *judges* when we mean the people responsible for deciding who won a competition and/or deserves a prize. *Juries* are much more closely associated with the context of (often 12) ordinary people (not legal experts) in a courtroom - who get to decide whether someone is guilty of a *crime*. – FumbleFingers Oct 11 '22 at 17:46
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    The question is unclear whether this is a talent contest (jury) or academic award (discoveries). – Weather Vane Oct 11 '22 at 19:07
  • @WeatherVane Sorry – it didn't occur to me that the word for the group deciding would be different in the two contexts (which is odd, really, because we would use different words for this in my own language as well). But does that affect the choice of word for the explanation? – Helen Oct 11 '22 at 19:35
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    It does, as shown by various answers which assume one or the other. In mine, there is rapturous applause, others might have polite smiles. – Weather Vane Oct 11 '22 at 19:36
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    @WeatherVane Hm... right – yeah, I see what you mean, and you're right, of course! That explains why "accolade" etc didn't seem quite fitting, because apparently, what I'm after is the second kind only (although I didn't quite realise it until now, haha) – Helen Oct 11 '22 at 19:50
  • It's called a justification. – John Douma Oct 12 '22 at 03:17
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    @FumbleFingers Jury is also used in non-legal contexts. E.g. the Cannes film festival uses "juries". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cannes_Film_Festival_juries_(Feature_films) – user3067860 Oct 12 '22 at 15:49
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    @user3067860: I did say usually. Definitely relevant to the current question, because Google Books has several pages of written instances of *a Nobel judge* (over a dozen of which can be read in context). It claims to have two written instances of *a Nobel juror*, but I can't read those in context anyway. It's not "incorrect" to talk about juries / jurors in the context of Nobel prizes, but native speakers usually refer to [the panel of] judges** here. – FumbleFingers Oct 12 '22 at 17:20
  • @FumbleFingers The OP doesn't mention "Nobel" at all? If you were specifically talking about the Nobel prizes it wouldn't be judge anyway, it would probably be "committee member" or "assembly member" or something along those lines depending on which prize specifically. – user3067860 Oct 12 '22 at 17:42
  • @user3067860: I only searched for "Nobel" because it's a typical "non-legal" context involving judges (or juries! :) and awards. Multi-word Google Books searches aren't always reliable, because even if the text is enclosed in quote marks, GB is inclined to bump up the returned count based on how common the individual words are. But searching for *was a Nobel judge* gets me three instances I can read in context, whereas *was a Nobel committee member* gets none. You're definitely backing a losing horse on this one! :) – FumbleFingers Oct 12 '22 at 18:13
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    @FumbleFingers Well, the Nobel Prize website calls them "committee members", but what do they know? https://www.google.com/search?q=%22committee+members%22+site%253Anobelprize.org (There are also references to judges on the website--but skimming the results, it turns out that they refer to legal judges, as in "first woman in the history of Iranian justice to have served as a judge".) There are competitions with judges, there are competitions with committees, and there are competitions with juries, and all of those are just fine. – user3067860 Oct 12 '22 at 18:57
  • @user3067860: Okay, this is obviously going nowhere. Let others make up their own minds. – FumbleFingers Oct 12 '22 at 19:44
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    ...chancing upon this thread a couple of days later, I can't resist pointing out that what the Nobel website people know is probably "Not much". Almost none of the people involved will be native Anglophones (the Nobel Foundation is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden). There's a convention that people, organisations, companies, etc. are usually considered "the final authority" when it comes to how they're referenced (spelling, pronunciation, etc.). But that doesn't give the Swedes the right to decide how Anglophones reference the "deciding" panel (collectively, or individual members thereof! :) – FumbleFingers Oct 14 '22 at 22:20
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    @FumbleFingers Exactly!! I wanted to say pretty much exactly this myself, in answer to user3067860's comment "but what do they know?", but then I thought user3067860 might take it as criticism towards their general input, so I didn't. But yes, exactly: although us Swedes are generally reasonably good at English, most of us don't have anything remotely close to native speaker competence. – Helen Oct 15 '22 at 14:05
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    @Helen: Haha - glad to see you wrote *us Swedes* there (very "natural / colloquial"; I might guess you weren't a native Anglophone in a spoken context, but you don't give out many clues on that front in the written context here! :) I occasionally watch Swedish movies (Ingmar Bergmann is a bit too "arty" for me, but I like almost everything I've seen from Lasse Hallström). As with some Indian movies, I find it fascinating to hear non-Anglophones occasionally switch to English for the odd word or phrase here and there. Most of you are reasonably / surprisingly** good at English! – FumbleFingers Oct 15 '22 at 16:11
  • @FumbleFingers Oh, now I'm blushing haha. Seriously though, thanks for your kind words – they mean a lot to me. As for code switching – you should come to Sweden and listen to the average teenager! I swear, when I'm talking to my kids, every other word they say is in English... and I'm not talking about loan words but true code switching. It's truly fascinating :) For instance: "Han va' ba' en random dude – så unbelievably awkward asså" (uttered by my youngest, a few minutes ago, meaning 'he was just a random dude – so unbelievably awkward' (I have no idea how to translate "asså")) :)) – Helen Oct 15 '22 at 19:32
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    @Helen: I never really thought about that from the perspective of children (who've grown up with an Anglophone-dominated Internet). I suppose the very concept of "native Anglophone" starts to get fuzzy when countless millions of non-native speakers are intimately familiar with many English "content" words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), but know relatively little about English grammar / syntax and the use of "function" words (prepositions, articles, auxiliary verbs, pronouns). Linguistically speaking, we are indeed witnessing a strange new world! :) – FumbleFingers Oct 15 '22 at 21:54
  • @FumbleFingers Indeed we are! :) – Helen Oct 15 '22 at 22:19

5 Answers5

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His Nobel Prize citation read
“for his pioneering research into the decision-making process within economic organizations".

That's just one example. There are lots more written instances of the three words highlighted above, if you follow the link. In many cases it's obvious the word "citation" very specifically refers to the exact text of the printed material that accompanies, justifies, and/or explains why the recipient is being given the award.

FumbleFingers
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I suggest

The accolade reads . . .

Merriam-Webster has

accolade
1 b : an expression of praise

Weather Vane
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  • Funny thing: I just googled "the accolade reads" award and got two hits, one of which actually combined your suggestion and that given by @FumbleFingers: "Its cititation [sic!] for the accolade reads: "The company sells to more than ..." :) – Helen Oct 11 '22 at 19:41
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For something a bit more everyday than the other answers so far, rationale would work fine.

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Plaudits (Wiktionary) A mark or expression of applause; praise bestowed.

Laudation (Wiktionary) The act of lauding; high praise or commendation.

Panegyric (Wiktionary) A formal speech publicly praising someone or something.

Other words such as Commendation, Felicitation and still many others can be used. These words can also be combined with "speech" as in "laudatory speech", "commendation speech", "felicitation speech" etc.

banuyayi
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  • FWIW, I've never heard of "plaudits" or "laudation" (nor has my browser's spell checker), and I didn't know what "panegyric" meant until I read your definition. – gotube Oct 11 '22 at 18:26
  • @gotube Interesting! I knew all these words except panegyric XD (I just didn't think of them in this context, because they are not quite what I'm after (just as "accolade" isn't). Seriously though, I thought at least "commendation" is a common enough word? – Helen Oct 11 '22 at 19:45
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    @Helen Sorry, I just meant the first three suggestions. I've edited my comment – gotube Oct 11 '22 at 19:51
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    Also, none of these words have the meaning of "rationale" or "explanation" that the OP is after – gotube Oct 11 '22 at 19:53
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    Approbation (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/approbation) and endorsement (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/endorsement) come close to an "explanation", but I have never heard them used in this way, but have heard them used in an office setting or with consumer products. "Explanary" (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/explanary) would be appropriate , but have also not heard it used on stage. – banuyayi Oct 12 '22 at 04:49
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A speech given as the award is presented is a presentation or award presentation speech. This typically tells the audience why the recipient deserves the award. (Entertainment awards that keep the winners’ names secret from even the presenters are exceptions.) Collins gives the definition and examples:

A presentation is a formal event at which someone is given a prize or award.

He received his award at a presentation in London yesterday. ...at the presentation ceremony.

Davislor
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