More handpicked essays just for you.
Challenges faced in writing argumentative essays
Challenges faced in writing argumentative essays
Challenges faced in writing argumentative essays
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Speech Analysis Essay The speech I chose was Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union”. He delivered this speech on March 18, 2008 to a Philadelphia conference campaigning for a position in the White House as the next president. As well as having many people in the audience, his speech was being broadcasted so many families around the country were watching. He delivered his speech for one purpose and that purpose was to get the American people to like him. With the people liking him, he would get votes from the people for the next election. Obama used many rhetorical strategies to attract the audience. Obama relied heavily on pathos (emotional appeals), logos (logical appeals), and anecdotes. Obama pervasively used logical appeals in his …show more content…
He circuitously states that his presidency will improve the country. “I chose to run for President at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction: towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren. And this belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people.” Obama tries to emotionally tie the people together with the common goal of making the world a better place along with making life better for the future generations to come. This uplifts the audience because if makes them think about a better future for them and their kids. Obama went on to explain his life in the past and how it was so unique. He explained it to prove the point that this was possible because he was in this country. “These people are part of me. And they are part of America, this country that I love.” This statement definitely appealed to the audience because it showed that he was dedicated to his family, as well as his country. “And it means also taking full responsibility for our own lives -- by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and …show more content…
These anecdotes have multiple purposes that serves Obama well. “I'm the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's army during World War II, and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas…” Obama tells the audience a bit about himself. This allows the audience to connect to him. He explains that his life is very different and it’s only possible because he is in America, where anything is possible. Most of Obama’s stories had an underlying message. With him describing the life of an underprivileged citizen, he didn’t just want to show the people that he understood what they were going through. He get the people to want change as much as he did. The whole purpose of his speech was to get the audience to like him and get them to feel that he is the perfect candidate for the next presidential position. Obama describing the harsh lifestyles of some people with the audience having the idea of him having the ability to change America for the better would completely inspire them to vote for him. These stories also confirmed the validity of most of his statements. These stories also coincided with the emotional appeals to a degree. These stories led back to the importance of unity in this country which was what Obama
The speech I chose was Cal Ripken Jr.’s it was given at the Orioles home ball park, Camden Yards at his last home game before retiring. It is a special occasion speech and was given in front of over 48,000 fans. He used a tried and true opening sentence that although a little altered had a very familiar ring. He opened with “As a kid, I had this dream” a very loose but familiar take on MLK’s “I have a dream”. This was a great attention getter and probably had people on their feet immediately. This audience was already motivate to hear his speech so that was not an issue. Most of the fans were there for the purpose of hearing his retirement speech. He did not preview his points in the introduction he addressed those in the body of his speech one at a time. He did not try to establish credibility as he was speaking about himself so who knows more about him than himself.
The speech that I have chosen is of Lieutenant Colonel Harold in the 2002 movie We Were Soldiers. The speech occurs in the beginning of the movie prior to the soldiers heading into war in Vietnam. I chose to deliver this speech because its message is very powerfully and meaningful. Due to it encouraging soldiers to look beyond their identity and unit to accomplish a
The “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation” by FDR, also known as the infamy speech, is as good a speech as any. He attempts to rally the legislative branch to say that the United States should go to war with Japan, since they had attacked the U.S. without warning and with no provocation at Pearl Harbor. His speech was astoundingly successful, winning over all of the senate and all but one in the house of representatives. He made several good points, backing them up with known facts, which he laid out in a way that made sense logically and sparked emotion out of the audience.
From his extremely vivid imagery at the beginning to his conclusion that America plans to seek a solution with Russia and other nations, the president’s flow from using pathos to logos to ethos made his speech very effective and compelling. His argument was backed up and supported all through out his speech, which helped his audience believe that what he was saying is true and important. However, his speech would have been nothing without the implication and opinion that America is the strongest nation in the world. Although this point is debatable, it is our duty to help other nations. We definitely do an excellent job at helping other nations and always having their best interests at heart. I believe this was the main goal for Obama’s speech; a plan to protect the United States. The use of logos, ethos and pathos just helped his speech to be more persuasive and
President Obama’s Inaugural Speech: Rhetorical Analysis. Barrack Obama’s inauguration speech successfully accomplished his goal by using rhetoric to ensure our nation that we will be in safe hands. The speech is similar to ideas obtained from the founding documents and Martin Luther King’s speech to establish ‘our’ goal to get together and take some action on the problems our country is now facing. As President Barack Obama starts his speech, he keeps himself from using ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’ and replacing it with ‘we’, ‘us’, and ‘together’ to achieve his ethos.
Roy Peter Clark, author of “A More Perfect Union”: Why It Worked, takes a stance on President Barack Obama’s speech while analyzing it. President Barack Obama delivered a speech titled “A More Perfect Union.” His speech focused on the prominent issue of racism in America. In this article, Clark talks about President Obama’s known power and brilliance. Clark makes references and comparisons to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and W.EB. DuBois. “A More Perfect Union” features writing techniques that makes the message more defined and effective. President Obama utilizes four closely related rhetorical strategies. Clark broadly explains the purpose of the rhetorical strategies. Allusion, parallelism, two-ness, and autobiography helped to shape President Obama’s speech that that was meant to create
President Barack H. Obama has always used rhetorical strategies in his political speeches. He used these strategies to present important points and views of his in front of the public. Delivering points and views properly and logically got him to be the president in the first place. President Obama used mostly ethos and pathos, yet some logos, to deliver his inaugural and the state of union speeches. Being that, he was able to reach the audience emotionally and make the speech flow efficiently while preserving his credibility.
The fear he brings on by talking about Ebola spreading, the grief brought on by talking of the many murders and awful acts by ISIL terrorists, to the hope he projects be calling for the nations to come together to drive his argument. While some arguments use emotion to deceive readers and keep them from paying attention to the argument, but Obama’s speech does just the opposite. The emotions that are felt bring you closer to his argument and facilitate understanding of what he is saying. Since unfortunately not a great deal of people pay attention to politics, they are not knowledgeable on the issues that have taken place. With the use of emotion, Obama is able to help those understand without them having to know the situation entirely. For example, regarding the ISIL terrorists, Obama states the, “mother, sisters, and daughters have been subjected to rape as a weapon of war. Innocent children have been gunned down.” Now while one may not know the ins and out of all the acts of ISIL, this makes people understand that they are bad and need to be
He wants to move past the racial segregation and move towards a truly unified country, and he uses pathos by talking about the about his upbringing and his life. The use of the descriptions of his youth with a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas shows that he can relate to the common person, seeing as he had to adjust to both sides of his family as well as the stigmas that both sides had. The urgency in which Obama answered the accusations of being similar to Wright, caused the American public to realize he does not have the same mentality. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism."
In the beginning of the speech Barack Obama reflects back to where his parents and grandparents came from and what they did as their occupation. Obama shows pathos, logos and ethos many times throughout his 2004 keynote speech. He also spoke on why his mother and father gave him the name that they gave him. By doing so, Barack Obama showed pathos throughout the speech and got his audience to know him a bit before pursuing the Democratic Party to vote for John Kerry. He appeals to his audience by mentioning that his parents are both passed away, and from the look of things that did not stop him from standing where he was that day with pride and sadness:
Obama emotionally influences the nation to move forward from the issues of race that is hindering America. Without dwelling on his family tree, Obama reminds us that his father was black and his mother white, that he came from Kenya, but she came from Kansas: “I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slave and slave owners — an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles, and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
Eidenmuller, Michael E. Great Speeches for Better Speaking: Listen and Learn From America’s Most Memorable Speeches. New York: Mcgraw Hill, 2008. Google Books. Web. 4 September 2010.
He uses allusion and repetition of words to prove his points about racial discrimination. His main goal is for the country to stay united and put discrimination aside, and continue the path of the ones who came before us. Obama alludes to the civil war by saying,” continue the long march” which illustrates the march that the north did to the south to stop race discrimination, as well as the fact how the north opposed with slavery and wanted to make south stop (1). The other device he uses in his speech was the repetition of words by using the word “more” to express his main goal and focus. Although the country is so called “free” his main goal is still to improve America in every way possible and put race discrimination completely aside. In the speech, he expresses his tone by saying,” more just, more equal, more free, more caring, and more prosperous America.” Which goes to the fact that he is trying to even improve America more in every way possible. If we improve our country even more, then we will not be having any issues in our
From the beginning, and throughout his speech he used in the most effective way rhetorical tools to support his beliefs. The rhetoric tool such as ethos, pathos and logos. He used ethos used to gives his audience a better understanding of who his character is. For him to establish an effective speech of ethos, Obama had to present himself in a way that will make the audience believe in his beliefs as well. In this speech Obama creates his ethos in many different ways that gives his speech not only credibility but, validity also. Obama does
In the autobiography, Obama entails on the beginning journey of his life from early childhood to young adulthood. The novel begins with him finding out from his aunt that his father has passed away in Nairobi. Obama’s father left him and his mother when he was only 2 years old. Obama then talks about the family he grew up with, his mother and grandparents, and the racism they dealt with at a time when few accepted interracial relations and even more so marriages. He recalls being made fun of as a young child when other kids would make monkey noises when it was discovered his father was from Kenya. He then moves to Indonesia when his mother remarries, but then at 10 years old moves back to Hawaii where he spent his early childhood. It was with his grandparents that he developed much of his character and learned how strongly education was emphasized in his family. Obama also talks about how fascinated he was with by his father. As he grows a bit older into adolescence, Obama learns more about race relations and reads the book Heart of Darkness. This book helps him to see how white people look at black people, as a white man wrote the book talking about black people. He also delves into his marijuana use, which he used to help him during this confusing and rough period in his life. Obama’s story then ...