Abraham Lincoln
Posted in Uncategorized on 01/19/2007 01:35 pm by admin
Abraham Lincoln
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Do you know the name Edward Everett? Me either until recently. It was the principle speaker at the opening of the dedication Gettysburg Cemetery. Before President Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address, Everett spoke for two hours. His speech was 13,607 words. Abraham Lincoln was only 271. Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is one of the most quoted speeches in U.S. history (see "Introduction to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, published by the U.S. State Department). Edward Everett is almost forgotten.
What made the difference? Why a speech succeed and the other fail? Whoever can find the answer to this elusive question will have the key to writing their own rhetoric. So without further ado, let's examine how we could do an analysis of a great speech for the answer.
- Determine the purpose of the speech.
- Read the speech, noting elements that aid in this goal.
- Note elements that hinder this purpose.
- Consider the audience and historical context.
- What is the historical background that led to the speaker?
- What the public thinks that the goal is?
To elaborate, we must ask ourselves a fundamental question: What is a good speech?
Answer: One who accomplishes its purpose.
Understanding this principle is central to being able to analyze speeches. To paraphrase Aristotle, a good hammer hammer well. A good indicator though. A bomb exploded right well. A good speech accomplishes its goal. The Gettysburg Address commemorate the soldiers who fought and the nation they fought. He did so in an extremely spectacular that schoolchildren in the United States have regularly memorize the whole speech. We now have a direction to move as we analyze the speech.
The next step is to read the speech, noting elements that aid in accomplishing its goal. For the Gettysburg Address, one can note the first line. "Eighty-seven years our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. "If you live in the U.S. and can not quote all that, you can probably quote the first line. If you can not quote the first line, you can first six words. Why? Because Lincoln has taken a normal sentence ("87 years ago") and did something new and interesting ("eighty. And seven years ago.") Then he appealed to tradition, a common history with the phrase " our ancestors' Then he said the principles on which the nation was founded - to the public, it must have rung with particular emotion, because they had just fought a war on the very equality that Lincoln spoke of. The entire speech continues in this way: there is something new to learn with each line.
Then write down all the elements that hinder the purpose of the speech. In the Gettysburg Address, these items are few. It One thing that makes a great speech! But we can learn a lot of bad speech, looking as what does not.
After that, think about the audience and historical context. You've already done this somewhat in the steps above, but take a moment to look at things in context as a whole. The public Gettysburg likely to respond enthusiastically to short speeches of Lincoln, for they had to sit through a two-hour speech!
Finally, think about how to use these items to your advantage. In this case, consider creating (but not ostentatious) ways to say the normal things. Call for common stories. ideal reference situationally ironic. Talk to universal values and truths.
And most importantly, when you follow a speech two hours, remember to keep it short.
Visit http://www.speech-time.com/analyzing-great-speeches.html for suggestions on which speeches to analyze. Devin R. Bean is currently a freelance writer and edits, among other websites, http://www.speech-time.com
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