...Inauguration Speeches are a custom that has existed since the very first inauguration featuring the United States first president, George Washington. During Washington’s second inauguration, after his re-election, Washington gave the shortest Inaugural address on record. This address was just 135 words. Nonetheless, every president since Washington has delivered an Inaugural address. The purpose of this address is for presidents to present their vision of the country (United States) and to set forth their goals for the nation. With that being said, this paper will use the strategy of genre analysis to critique to examine Barack Obama’s second Inaugural Address and John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech. Genre analysis is a type of rhetorical analysis that examines speeches based on the artifacts or commonalities that contain. The artifacts of speech are created by the rhetor as a response to a specific exigency. So as Bitzer’s essay, The Rhetorical Situation, saw it, in order for a text to be rhetorical, it must come in response to a rhetorical situation. Furthermore a rhetorical situation has three characteristics, an audience, an existence of constraints, and as mentioned above, an exigency. One manner, in which we can analyze an artifact, is through...
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...RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 1 Rhetorical Analysis of “I Have Dream” Speech Alfonso Gonzalez Itt Technical Institute Instructor Deana Schoneberg EN 1320 RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 2 The main point of Dr. Kings speech was that an injustice had been done to the black people. They were promised freedom from the emancipation proclamation and up to that point they still were not free. They were segregated and treated like second class citizens. Were they suppose to sit down and let white men at that time humiliate them, beat them, bomb their houses, and strip them of human dignity? No! Dr. King was preaching to all who listened, that now was the time to metaphorically cash this check, a check that will give them upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. But to do this, not with violence or retaliation, “we must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.” (Carson, 1998, p225) This would be the way Dr. King would want to see his dream played out, with non -violence. Were all his efforts done in vain? On August 28, 1963, The March on Washington was organized by Bayard Rustin and led by union leader A. Philip Randolph. The backdrop ironically took place on the steps...
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...A Rhetorical Analysis of MLK Jr.’s “I have a dream” Speech Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one hundred years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which outstandingly furthered the civil rights movement. At that time, racial segregation, police brutality, and other forms of racial inequality were terribly prominent in America. The speech successfully focused the country’s attention at the need for racial equality “Now” (King, I Have a Dream). King gave the speech in order to motivate his followers to peacefully continue to demonstrate, protest, and boycott until they were fully granted the equality and privileges that any other citizen was allowed to have. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech is his most notable, and one of the most influential of Twentieth-Century-America because of his excellent rhetorical use of repetition and anaphora, contrasting metaphors, and appropriate quotations and allusions throughout the speech. Martin Luther King Jr. used a profuse amount of repetition and anaphora throughout his speech. A subtle form of repetition, the repetition of singular words, was mainly used to emphasize key themes in the speech and keep them in the minds of the audience. Such repeated key themes were “freedom”, “justice” and “injustice”, “America” and “American”, and plural nouns such as “we” and “our”. Since the preceding words were repeated so frequently...
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...My first year at Alma College has been an eye-opening experience. I have learned a lot academically, about myself, and about life in general. As I progressed though the year my viewpoints had changed. I had many new experiences that broadened my horizon. My classes opened me up to knowledge I could apply to my life, that I found interesting, and benefitted me. I learned a lot about myself, including what I want out of my college experience, and what my passion is. Despite the numerous papers, multitudes of exams, tremendous amount of course work, and athletics I believe I have done well. One of the many demanding classes this semester was English 101. In this rigorous course, students were asked to gain rhetorical knowledge, engage in critical writing, perform research writing, and improve their style and grammar. These goals are closely related to those of the WPA Outcomes published by the Council of Writing Program Administrators. The WPA...
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...“A reality check for America” Mary C. Terrell was a powerful pioneer in civil rights and a powerful leader who faced many struggles of prejudices because she was a colored woman. Because she had lived a difficult life in the capital of the US, she decided it was time the world knew of her the many trajectories she continued to face along with many other African Americans. On October 10, 1906, Terrell gave a speech titled, “ What it Mean to be Colored in the Capitol of the U.S.,” to the members of the United Woman’s club in Washington, D.C. This speech was very influential and significant speech that served as a voice for other African Americans who had no voice. This speech also was a time for Terrell to explain the unnecessary hassles she and other blacks had to take on when trying to live as a citizen in the capital. Through this speech we can see an abundance of prejudice that taint the lives of African Americans in the U.S.. In the following paragraphs, I will establish the notability of this speech, analyze the historical context that sparked the discourse into existence and explore other rhetorical features that will establish my analysis’s significance. Mary Church Terrell embodies feminine style rhetoric in her argument to address the social, economic and political struggles placed against African Americans with the undertone of constitutive rhetoric, topical structure, pathos and logos to validate her point. History: Mary Church Terrell...
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...Rhetorical Analysis – I Have a Dream. A speech, that will be remembered by many and be passed down from generation to generation, had shaped the future of America by the time Martin Luther King had stepped off the stage on August 28th, as he called for an end to racism in the United States during the March on Washington in 1963. This was one of, if not, the most powerful speech America has seen to this day. A beautiful way to begin! Good job! Martin Luther King stood on that stage with confidence and determination to make a change in the United States of America and it was shown through this rhetorical masterpiece titled “I Have a Dream”. The first line of the speech makes the audience aware of not only how serious he is, but also how determined and sure he is that his speech will change the civil rights in the United States of America; he could not have been more right about it. From the very first line, Martin Luther King had his audiences’ undivided attention. “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.” (Line 1-2, Page 1) His audience in this case would not only be his fellow Negroes who are still not free, but the rest of the Americans that attended the March on Washington. Little did he know that the whole world would be his audience… Good! In this first line we see him start off with using logos. He refers to the USA as “our” nation. We see this throughout the...
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...Tate Bennett Professor Jack Wood COMM3300 7/11/2024 Genre Criticism: Barack Obama Introduction Many politicians have come up with a slew of slogans for their campaigns. Slogans like “All the way with L.B.J.” for Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign, “This time vote like your whole world depended on it” for Richard Nixon’s campaign, and “Stronger together” for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. These are all examples of a rhetorical artifact that fits within a political-slogan-type genre. For my second paper, I will be analyzing Barack Obama’s slogan from his 2008 campaign. His slogan is as follows: “Change We Can Believe In” (Obama 2008). I believe this slogan follows the proper guidelines and structure of the many political slogans that have come before...
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...Rhetorical Analysis The title of this article is “Hip hop’s betrayal of Black Women” which first appeared in 2006, and was written by Jennifer McLune a librarian, activist, and writer living in Washington D.C. Although, the author makes valid points in her response she does not demonstrate enough knowledge on the subject of hip hop culture. The author argues black women in today’s hip hop culture are unfairly made out to be inferior to their male counterparts. The article can be broken down into five divisions. The author writes in response to the “socioeconomic” (297) reasoning given for the current state of affairs. The author disagrees with Powell’s response calling it a way to silence feminist critiques of the culture. The author argues that hip hop owes its success to the ideology to women-hating and that poverty is argued to be an excuse of it. The author addresses a range of issues from contemporary artists being too inconsistent, to female artists not being as united when it comes to standing up for a change. For this reason “Hip hop’s betrayal of Black Women” should not be considered by PopMatters and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) for the top prize for persuasiveness due the author’s use of rhetorical analysis and logical fallacy in addressing opposing viewpoints In “Hip-Hop’s Betrayal of Black Women” the author uses three kinds of rhetorical techniques in the article logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos is used to show facts, reasons, and statistics...
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...ITT-Technical University Rhetorical Analysis of Dr. Martin Luther Kings “I Have A Dream” (Revised) Introduction On August 28th 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the “I Have a Dream” speech which was addressed to not only the 200,000 white and black Americans but people all around the world. The “I Have A Dream” speech has been considered one of the most greatest and powerful speeches in history. Why was it given? Simply to rectify that all me were created equal despite their race or color. In this Analysis I will be explaining some literary terms he used as strategies in his speech, and also explain how Dr. King used two rhetorical patterns to help him support his argument, those two patters are Ethos, & Pathos. Strategies Dr. King used many literary terms in the “I Have a Dream” speech such as Alliteration, which is the repetition of sounds. For example he says, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” The “c” in those three words of that sentence gives it a repetitive rhythm feel which will make that important part of the speech catch and memorable. Also from that same sentence he used Anaphora, which describes the most famous part of the speech, where in this case is “I Have a Dream”. Although he used it many times just buy naming this speech “I Have a Dream” it will make...
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...Rhetorical Analysis “Washington’s Farewell Address” Everyone knows the famous George Washington who changed our country for the better and played an important role in American history. He served as a president for two terms and although many people wanted him to run for a third term, he did not wish to be reelected. He told the public this news in his famous “Farewell Address” which he wrote in 1796. The speech is analyzed even to this day. I think this is an effective speech because he connects with each and every person in the audience, unites the country, and uses logic and reason to get his points across. While public speaking connecting with the audience is a crucial aspect of an effective speech. In George Washington’s “Farewell Address,”...
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...In January of this year, The Women’s March engaged the attention of the public once again. In 1913, the first Women’s March took place. At this time, the suffragists were marching for voting rights, civil rights, and economic equality. This march attracted over 5,000 women. In the early 1970’s the Equal Rights Amendment took place. The biggest march took place in 1978 in Washington, where over 100,000 women joined this event to march for an extension of the ratification deadline. In 2000, on Mother’s Day, over 750,000 women marched for stricter gun control. These women were joined by First Lady Hillary Clinton, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Tipper Gore and Rosie O’Donnell, as well as other celebrities. In Washington in 2004, over a half a million...
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...Cammie Denton Dr. Foster WR 122 April 17, 2016 Rhetorical Analysis of Barack Obama’s Remarks on Economic Mobility On December 4th, 2013 Barack Obama spoke on the subject of income inequality and upward mobility. This speech was delivered to, and hosted by, the Center for American Progress (CAP). The president uses striking language to appeal to the emotion and logic of the audience. Obama executes his appeals in a variety of ways with the express purpose of painting the issue of growing inequality and decreased upward mobility as the “defining challenge of our time.” President Obama describes these issues as what drives everything he does as POTUS. Obama’s speech was quite intellectual and technical, peppered in detail with the numbers and statistics of current social and economic inequalities, appealing to logos. While he builds his argument based on these substantial facts, the overall feeling of his language is that of compassion. This compassion seems to drive his purpose and thus emotionally connecting to his audience. Further, Obama appeals to ethos during his speech as he outlines how current market-caused inequalities are threatening everything that makes America great. Obama masterfully balances his passionate language with solid facts and straight-forward logic in this effectively persuasive speech. Before expanding upon the specifics of the rhetorical methods utilized by the president in this speech, I think it is important to highlight that the audience (CAP)...
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...class. Contributors:Ethan Sproat, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Allen Brizee Last Edited: 2012-04-27 10:46:02 Example 1: “I Have a Dream” Speech A lot of what was covered above may still seem abstract and complicated. To illustrate how diverse kinds of texts have their own rhetorical situations, consider the following examples. First, consider Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Because this speech is famous, it should be very easy to identify the basic elements of its particular rhetorical situation. Text The text in question is a 17-minute speech written and delivered by Dr. King. The basic medium of the text was an oral speech that was broadcast by both loudspeakers at the event and over radio and television. Dr. King drew on years of training as a minister and public speaker to deliver the speech. He also drew on his extensive education and the tumultuous history of racial prejudices and civil rights in the US. Audiences at the time either heard his speech in person or over radio or television broadcasts. Part of the speech near the end was improvised around the repeated phrase “I have a dream.” Author http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/08/ Page 1 of 9 Purdue OWL: The Rhetorical Situation 9/11/13 7:53 PM Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most iconic leader of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He was an African-American Baptist minister and prominent civil rights activist who campaigned to end segregation and racial...
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...Understanding Rhetorical Structures September 15, 2015 Analysis 1.1 EN1420 Understanding Rhetorical Structures Should minimum wage be raised to $15/Hour? The city of Seattle, Washington has raised their minimum wage this year to $15/Hour leading to a long-overdue movement toward a living wage. Many retail and fast food workers are demanding that their state follow in Seattle’s lead by raising the minimum wage to $15/Hour but many conflicts have risen due to those demands. In my personal opinion minimum wage shouldn’t be raised. Across America, the ranks of the working poor are growing. While low-paying industries such as retail and food preparation accounted for 22 percent of the jobs lost in the Great Recession, they've generated 44 percent of the jobs added since then, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project. Last February, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that raising the national minimum wage would lift many people out of poverty. Lifting the minimum wage would provide some benefits for many low-income families. The starting minimum wage in California is $9/Hour for general retail and fast food workers. General retail and fast food jobs are meant for high school and college students to get them work experience and also to teach them responsibility. Retail and fast food jobs aren’t meant to make a career out of them but are meant to be a temporary job for students. In conclusion, people shouldn’t try to make a career out of retail...
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...Rhetorical analysis: Thank you for Smoking Watching anti-smoking or tobacco commercials is common in America. Which is to make people aware of the harmful side of smoking cigarettes, how it affects our heath by causing lung cancer and heart disease. This will be difficult for tobacco companies to sustain in the market, who get profit from cigarette smokers’ addictions. This companies hire smart lobbyists Nick Naylor to publicly protect their industry. He was the vice president of the academy of tobacco studies and also he gives legitimate argument to support his big tobacco company and he was confident with every thing he does. There is a good example where Naylor uses rhetorical appeals...
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