How to Approach the Assignment: Excellent speeches have changed the world. How o
How to Approach the Assignment:
Excellent speeches have changed the world. How or why do prepared remarks affect listeners so deeply? For this assignment, you’ll choose a speech to analyze, evaluating its rhetorical strategies to judge how successful or unsuccessful the author is in achieving his or her purpose. By breaking the text down into its parts, you can see what lines of reasoning connect facts and opinions, as well as understand what assumptions underlie the argument as a whole. Being able to ascertain whether or not a text “does its job” is important for students, workers, and citizens.
Rhetoric is the art of using language to persuade. Read the Introduction to Rhetorical Analysis in the online textbook to learn what kinds of questions you might attempt to answer in a rhetorical analysis. You’ll also need to discuss the Persuasive Appeals writers and speakers use to reach their audience: Ethos, Pathos, Logos, and Kairos.
For your analysis, you will choose a speech from among the ones listed here. Some are from the American Rhetoric website, which catalogs some of the best speeches made by politicians and other historical figures. One is from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize event which took place right here at the Schuster Center. You should try to watch/listen to them all (all of them include transcripts, so you can skim the content that way as well to see which appeals to you). When you pick one to write about, try to choose something you’re open-minded about, the better to assess the speaker’s persuasive strategies.
Be sure to cite your quotations correctly and include a works cited page.
George W. Bush: Remarks in Shanksville on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11
Former president Bush speaks on the 20th anniversary of 9/11: “The world was loud with carnage and sirens, and then quiet with missing voices.”
Barack Obama: A More Perfect Union
Then-candidate Barack Obama addresses the role race played during the 2008 campaign.
Bryan Stevenson: Acceptance remarks at the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Ceremony
A noted activist and author of Just Mercy calls for criminal justice reform.
Mitch Landrieu: On the Removal of Four Confederate Monuments in New Orleans.
Delivered 19 May 2017. Then-mayor of New Orleans explains his own change of heart about Confederate monuments.
Keith Nolan: Deaf in the Military
In this 2011 TED Talk, a deaf man makes a strongm argument for allowing deaf people to serve in the military.
Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
The youngest Nobel Peace Prize in History delivers her remarks at the December 2014 ceremony.
Heather McGhee: Racism has a Cost for Everyone
The author of The Sum of Us speaks about institutional racism
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The essay should be:
3-4 pages in length (which is 750 to 1,000 words)
12-point font in Times New Roman or Arial
In MLA manuscript format (double-spaced, etc. See Resource tab for more information)
The post How to Approach the Assignment:
Excellent speeches have changed the world. How o first appeared on Elite Writers.
The post How to Approach the Assignment:
Excellent speeches have changed the world. How o appeared first on Elite Writers.