Barack Obama Speech Analysis

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Recommended: Use of public speaking

Public speaking skills are very important to anyone that aspires to be a politician. Barack Obama, the president of the United States, is known for being a very good public speaker. In fact, Richard Greene of the Huffington Post ranked Barrack Obama as “America's third greatest presidential orator” (Greene). Throughout this paper, I will be analyzing the speech delivery and the organizational structure of Barrack Obama. The specific speech that I will be analyzing is the speech given by President Obama at the 2012 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. In addition to giving my opinion on the president’s organization and delivery, I will also be giving advice on what he could have done better.
Organization is a huge part of making a speech and could mean the difference between a great speech and a mediocre speech. Barack Obama’s speech was very well put together. It also sounded and looked well-rehearsed. Most of his speech was done in topical order with very few topics being covered in chronological order. Obama definitely accomplished his goal of getting the crowd excited to hear his speech through the use of a very creative attention getter. His attention getter consisted of lots of humor, but also highlighted some of his accomplishments during his first term as president. For example, President Obama stated that "Last year at this time, this very weekend, we finally delivered justice to one of the world's most notorious individuals,” jokingly followed by a picture of Donald Trump. Of course, President Obama was actually referencing the capture of Osama Bin Laden, but it was done in such a brilliant way that I almost missed the reference. The transitions in his speech were crisp, however, I couldn’t really tell what...

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...tively. He slows it down, lowers his volume, and pauses for impact. At other times he speeds up his pace and raises the volume of his voice to underscore a key sentence” (Gallo). This is one of the key traits that sets Obama apart from other public speakers. Overall, the speech given by President Barack Obama at the 2012 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner was very entertaining and accomplished the goals that President Obama had set for it.

Work Cited
Gallo, Carmine. "Barack Obama: A Master Class in Public Speaking."Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 20 Nov. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Greene, Richard. "Obama Is America's Third Greatest Presidential Orator in Modern Era." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 25 Jan. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

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