Acknowledgments and jurats are different notarizations with different purposes, each requires its own certificate wording. An acknowledgment is one of the most common types of notarial acts, but it often confuses Notaries.Here are 5 steps to performing an acknowledgment. ACKNOWLEDGMENT (Witnessing or Attesting a Signature) quantity. When a notary takes an acknowledgment, the notary must ensure that the signer is not acknowledging signing the document under duress. An acknowledgment is a declaration to a qualified public officer that the declarant executed the instrument in which the declarant's signature appears.