Powerful Words that Changed the World
Analyzing Speeches
1. Select a speech to analyze. See the list of choices. Please note that some famous but “overdone” speeches were deliberately not included.
2. Analyze the speech. Look at the language, the rhetorical devices, and the content. Annotate the text to show evidence of thinking and understanding.
3. Write an essay about the writer’s effectiveness considering the context in which and the audience to which it was delivered.
Essays should identify and explain the rhetorical strategies that the author used. What made the speech so remarkable? How did the speech impact the audience and/or history? Why are the words so venerated today? Finally how has the speech changed your thinking of the world?
When analyzing the speech, it is critical to know about the events that led up to the speech, so it may be necessary to include pertinent details. However, it is not useful to delineate, for example the specific events of the entire Revolutionary War that preceded George Washington’s Inaugural Speech.
Attach a copy of the speech with annotations to the essay.
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