The authors examine the discourse of commencement speech, analyze its structural and compositional features as well as its pragmatic characteristics. A commencement address may be considered to be a combination of three types of discourse: political, didactic and congratulatory. It is noted that commencement address can be regarded as means of affecting collective consciousness of the addressee. Discourse analysis supposes considering the addresser and the addressee of the speech, the communicative situation, the social context and the contents of the speech. The authors believe that the use of pragmatic means of manipulating collective consciousness plays an important role in the formation of the moral values of a nation. The individuals whose speeches have been analyzed can be referred to the following types determined by their psychological characteristics: rational, emotional, philosophical and artistic. Rational types of speakers use arguments to make the meaning clear. People belonging to emotional types make their speech more expressive, they mostly rely on their feelings. The discourse of a commencement address features not only individual characteristics of the speaker and the speaker’s charisma, but also the speaker’s belonging to a particular linguistic culture. The speech impact exerted on the listeners in the process of public speaking is associated with a certain transformation of the addressee’s individual and collective consciousness. The peculiarities of speech influence are in the fact that certain information is encoded in the speaker’s discourse which is decoded by the listener. This information affects a possible or an actual change of listener’s activity. The authors conclude that pragmatic means play a primary role in the manipulation of collective consciousness and the promotion of moral values.