Persuasively Speaking: Analyzing Persuasive Writing through Great American – English Speeches

Purpose: To explore techniques and strategies used in written as well as delivered speeches or other types of persuasive writing and analyze the rhetoric and its effectiveness. 

Process: Rhetoric and Persuasion

We have learned about Ethos, Pathos and Logos as these classic roots of persuasion utilized in early discussions, writings and advertisements to help us to break down the process of effective speech. This in turn helps writers of persuasion to analyze the deliberate act of choosing the right words and the appropriate support for their arguments and writing moving it to a more personal level. As we move forward in this course, you first analyze and then become writers of persuasion, even in this assignment. 

Analysis of fallacies and illogical thinking seems to be necessary in evaluation of persuasive writing and effective speaking as it then can be recognized in your own writing. Therefore, the application of research or support to your own arguments is essential in your writing of this paper and others. Moreover, you may address if a speech or an argument is based on faulty thinking can be labeled effective or innovative.

Identifying the rhetoric in a speech and specific points of rhetoric that create calls to action also need to be noted or the lack of. The effectiveness of this rhetoric and specific examples are to be used to support your claims and will be required together with other researched supporting documents and expert opinions.

The overall message from such selected speeches is also part of your research and analysis.

Your assignment: A list of speeches will be given to you in which to select for analysis…

1. Select a speech to analyze 
2. If available watch video of that speech
3. Rhetorical Analysis of the speech  -Identify Elements of Rhetoric
4. Define and narrow your focus of which rhetorical  elements you will be addressing in your analysis
5. Watch out for fallacies and if appropriate to your thesis – maker  mention and add support to your main body paragraphs
6. Do a close reading of your speech and write several drafts as you move from brainstorming to final draft.
7. Paper length 4-6 pages
8. Include transcript of speech with final draft
9. Rough drafts and outlines will be required and for class peer reviews
10. Writing Center Revision – optional +10 with SLC proof
11. MLA style and at least 4 sources and citations in text and a work cited page, to include the speech you are referencing.

Possible speeches:

1. Martin Luther King – I Have a Dream 

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/i-have-dream-address-delivered-march-washington-jobs-and-freedom

1. John F. Kennedy  – Inauguration Speech 

https://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/BqXIEM9F4024ntFl7SVAjA.aspx

1. Ronald Reagan Challenger Address to Nation 

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/president-reagans-televised-speech-to-a-nation-after-challenger-disaster/

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-on-the-challenger-disaster/

1. Malala or President Obama – Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance and Lecture 

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barackobama/barackobamanobelprizespeech.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOqIotJrFVM

1. Declaration of Independence 

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

1. Winston Churchill -We shall Fight them on the Beaches 

http://www.winstonchurchill.org/

1. R.K. Rowling: Harvard Commencement speech 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHGqp8lz36c

1. Oprah Winfrey –Golden Globe Awards Speech 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN5HV79_8B8

Commencement Speeches – 

1. Ronald Reagan Berlin Wall

https://www.c-span.org/video/?110723-1/president-reagan-remarks-berlin-wall

1. George Bush – After 9/11 
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0VQH8hODlo
   1. Barack Obama – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv9NwKAjmt

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWynt87PaJ0

 https://www.c-span.org/video/?282164-2/barack-  obama-victory-speech

https://www.history.com/speeches/obama-addresses-2004-democratic-conventionhttp://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/obama.transcript/#cnnSTCVideo

1. John McCain – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS8K90zFgUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ahjLKag4kc

1. Hilary Clinton -Women’s Rights- 4. Hillary Clinton, ‘Women’s Rights Are Human Rights’ (1995)
2. President Clinton – https://www.clintonlibrary.gov
3.  Megan McCain  – Eulogy – https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/09/01/meghan-mccain-john-mccain-funeral-speech-full-vpx.cnn
4. King George VI Sept 1939 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opkMyKGx7TQ
5. Michelle Obama – Selected Speeches

1. George HW Bush – https://www.bushcenter.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-L2Tw4uo4AIVBFcNCh0h4w_1EAAYAiAAEgJqLfD_BwE
2. Maya Angelou – http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/28/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/maya-angelou-speeches/index.html