Speech Analysis Paper

Speech Analysis paper

You will read or listen to a famous speech and analyze it in a short paper. Your paper is due at the end of the period this Thursday. Your paper should be at least 500 words in length.

Paragraph 1: Background Who gave the speech? When? What was the speaker’s job or role at the time? Who was the audience? What was happening in our country or the world when the speech was given? What was the speaker’s purpose?

Paragraph 2: Speaking Techniques What techniques does the speaker use to convince the audience? Look at your vocabulary words, and consider these techniques:

 loaded words that appeal to emotion  allusions (references to the Bible or literature)  anecdotes  quotes from other famous people  analogies (comparisons to other situations or events in history)  repetition of words or phrases

 aphorisms (words or phrases that are so  rhetorical questions powerful they became well-known)  other items you notice  rhetorical questions

Paragraph 3: Effectiveness Why was the speech effective? What was the result of the speech? Why is it famous?

I have added links to several good speech sites to my website. Some are in text only, while the ones from the last 60 years or so are usually available to view. Here are just a few of the many speeches on these sites:

 Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream”  Franklin D. Roosevelt “The Great Arsenal of  John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address Democracy”  Franklin D. Roosevelt First Inaugural Address  Ronald Reagan “The Evil Empire”  Franklin D. Roosevelt Pearl Harbor Address  Ronald Reagan “40th Anniversary of D-Day”  Malcolm X “The Ballot or the Bullet”  George Bush “Axis of Evil”  Woodrow Wilson “War Message” 1917  General Douglas MacArthur “Duty, Honor, Country”  John F. Kennedy “Ich bin ein Berliner” Please let me know when you have selected  Dwight D. Eisenhower Farewell Address your speech so I can approve it.  Clarence Darrow “A Plea for Mercy”  Martin Luther King “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”