...Lyndon B. Johnson, the orator of the speech, “We Shall Overcome” that was presented to Congress, was an advocate for equality. President Johnson was born in Texas, in the early stages of the 20th century. For many people to see a white man, support racial equality, left many dumbfounded. President Johnson was in office during the prime era of racial segregation, and discrimination. He was contemporaries with Martin Luther King jr, along with Rosa Parks, and Jackie Robinson. Throughout the speech, President Johnson uses repetition of the word “American.” The significance of the word “American” is to show under the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal.” Due to the lack of education amongst the “Negroes”, people of other races,...
Words: 362 - Pages: 2
...Before the Civil Rights Movement sparked, our country was plagued with discrimination. After violence by police against African American protesters in Selma, Alabama erupted, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed the public, in his speech “We Shall Overcome,” declaring how the country must unify against discrimination. The author showed the need to consolidate the nation’s forces to fight for equality through his use of repetition of parallel structure and a passionate appeal to convey a hopeful tone. The author used repetition of parallel structure to persuade his country to fight against discrimination. Johnson used “so it was” followed by an allusion to a historical landmark, such as “Lexington and Concord” and “Appomattox,” to illustrate past victories in arduous battles by...
Words: 806 - Pages: 4
...concerned with various dimensions of speech such as sounds, gestures, syntax, rhetoric, meanings, speech acts, moves, strategies and turns. In this paper our main focus is on the rhetoric of a speech. As we know where rhetoric is concerned we should inevitably deal with literature. In other words rhetoric is like a joint which connect literature with politics and establish a method of analyzing political speeches called polio-linguistic approach. Thus we can consider political discourses as pieces of literature. Literary techniques especially rhetorical devices serve as one of the most distinctive features of the greatest and most influential speeches of all time. There is no shortage of rhetorical devices used in these speeches, but we can prioritize them by count of repetitions in political discourses. In this study first I have represented the necessity of using these types of persuasive skills in political discourses, the methods within which politicians take advantages of these skills and the different sides of a successful speech. Then after a glance through different rhetorical devices, excerpts from four of the greatest speeches in history are provided with the rhetorical devices indicated in them. Finally a quite deep examination of the most important of these rhetorical devices is presented and the conclusion is made through comparing these samples. The primary purpose of every presenter or rhetorician is to grab people`s attention. After that he/ she needs to convey...
Words: 4138 - Pages: 17
...good tool to use to reinforce an important idea. In Dorothy Seyler?s Read, Reason, Write, she states: ?Some repetition of key words and phrases will occur in well-written and unified essays. Some writers, though, go beyond this technique of unified writing and use repetition to produce an effective cadence, like a drum beating in the background, keeping time with the speaker?s fist pounding the lectern for emphasis.? (58). King?s speech is a perfect representation of this. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their...
Words: 2738 - Pages: 11
...a speech depends on many factors, including the mood of the crowd, the ability of the orator, the situation the crowd confronts, the topic of the speech and the using of words- the using of stylistic devices. The goal of any political speech is persuasion - you want to bring the crowd around to your point of view, whether that means convincing them to vote for you. So the frequent and wide use of stylistic devices is an important characteristic of political speeches which is an effective way to make these speeches more attractive, lively and more persuasive. A stylistic device is an example of the figurative use of words, which produces a particularly rhetorical effect when people use the language creatively in a specified context so all politicians use stylistic devices in political speeches. In the realm of discourse analysis, the typical linguistic features of political speeches have so far been the focus of attention of many linguists and researchers. However, there are not many studies of the language used in political speeches, especially stylistic devices used in political speeches of...
Words: 5898 - Pages: 24
...Speech On September 23, 1952 Richard Milhous Nixon sat down to address the largest television audience ever amassed by a politician this was no ordinary political speech. Nixon’s future in politics was on the line. In one speech Nixon had the daunting task of not only clearing his name of the allegation that he had received illegal campaign funds, but he also had to present himself as a viable asset to the Republican ticket. Nixon bared his heart to the American people, and in turn was applauded for his honesty and good character. Nixon’s speech was met with nearly unanimous acceptance and praise. But, audience acceptance alone is not what makes a speech unforgettable or worth writing about. Good speech analysis involves evaluating the speaker, audience and environment surrounding a speech. Before Nixon’s speech can be analyzed there must be a clear understanding of the events leading up to his speech. After only six years in politics as the California state Governor, Richard Nixon was chosen by Dwight Eisenhower as his running-mate in the Presidential election. Being only 39-years old and having relatively no political experience it was an honor for Nixon to be chosen. The main issues being debated by the presidential and vice-presidential hopefuls were the Korean War, communism and corruption. Nixon focused most heavily on addressing the issue of communism because of his contributions in exposing democratic politician...
Words: 2164 - Pages: 9
...Silence Speaks Louder than Words: How to Communicate about CSR Engagement Effectively A Case Study of Noir Authors: Lea Tae-Mee Søndergaard Nielsen (282853) Gro Anna Haldrup Skovbjerg (282834) Supervisor: Michael Hübertz Characters: 98.895 Date: May 5th 2010 BA in Marketing and Management Communication Aarhus School of Business 1 Executive Summary This thesis seeks to shed light on the challenges companies face when attempting to promote their CSR endeavours and suggests how they can communicate a credible CSR message in order to overcome consumer scepticism. As companies to a greater extend are held account for the social consequences of their business activities, the pressure to be socially responsible has created a tension between business and society and caused companies to think of CSR in generic ways. In fact, the most common corporate response has been neither strategic, nor operational, but cosmetic; public relations and media campaigns, the centrepieces of which are often glossy CSR reports that showcase companies’ socially and environmentally good deeds. However, the extensive use of CSR for marketing communication has caused consumers to question the motivation behind the actions and resulted in increased scepticism and cynicism toward companies’ CSR messages. To gain an understanding of how companies can avoid this consumer...
Words: 19802 - Pages: 80
...company, the product of his creative genius, had been forced to submit to public accountability. It had a pressing need to raise preferred equity finance for a major expansion during a period of market uncertainty, war, and reported losses. This paper conducts a “close reading” of the “Letter to Stockholders” in Walt Disney Productions’ 1940 annual report, the first such letter signed by Walt Disney. The letter’s rhetorical features, including metaphor and ideology, are examined in the context of the times. What is revealed is an accountability document skillfully crafted with the exigencies faced by Disney’s company firmly in mind. The letter offers suggestive insight to the world as Disney made sense of it. The paper contributes to understanding the use of rhetoric by top management in activities related to aspects of financial accountability and reporting. It also helps to understand better a significant public persona of the 20th century, Walt Disnev. Acknowledgment The authors wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of the reviewers. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES Analysis of annual reports, including letters by CEOs to stockholders, has a long history in management and accounting literatures. Discourse by CEOs is important not only because of the power that corporate leaders wield in their own organizations, but also because of their political and cultural influence generally. Since such discourse may be viewed as a form of sense making [Weick, 1995], its study also has value because...
Words: 15612 - Pages: 63
...A Preface of Quotations Whoever desires for his writings or himself, what none can reasonably condemn,the favor of mankind, must add grace to strength, and make his thoughts agreeable as well as useful. Many complain of neglect who never tried to attract regard. It cannot be expected that the patrons of science or virtue should be solicitous to discover excellencies which they who possess them shade and disguise. Few have abilities so much needed by the rest of the world as to be caressed on their own terms; and he that will not condescend to recommend himself by external embellishments must submit to the fate of just sentiments meanly expressed, and be ridiculed and forgotten before he is understood. --Samuel Johnson Men must be taught as if you taught them not; And things unknown propos'd as things forgot. --Alexander Pope Style in painting is the same as in writing, a power over materials, whether words or colors, by which conceptions or sentiments are conveyed. --Sir Joshua Reynolds Whereas, if after some preparatory grounds of speech by their certain forms got into memory, they were led to the praxis thereof in some chosen short book lessoned thoroughly to them, they might then forthwith proceed to learn the substance of good things, and arts in due order, which would bring the whole language quickly into their power. --John Milton Introduction Good writing depends upon more than making a collection of statements worthy of belief, because writing is intended to...
Words: 21397 - Pages: 86
...to certain commonplace beliefs about communication while challenging other beliefs. The complementarities and tensions among traditions generate a theoretical metadiscourse that intersects with and potentially informs the ongoing practical metadiscourse in society. In a tentative scheme of the field, rhetorical, semiotic, phenomenological, cybernetic, sociopsychological, sociocultural, and critical traditions of communication theory are distinguished by characteristic ways of defining communication and problems of communication, metadiscursive vocabularies, and metadiscursive commonplaces that they appeal to and challenge. Topoi for argumentation across traditions are suggested and implications for theoretical work and disciplinary practice in the field are considered. Communication theory is enormously rich in the range of ideas that fall within its nominal scope, and new theoretical work on communication has recently been flourishing.’ Nevertheless, despite the ancient roots and growing profusion of theories about communication, I argue that communication theory as an identifiable field of study does not yet exist.2 Rather than addressing a field of theory, we appear to be operating primarily in separate domains. Books and articles on communication theory seldom mention other...
Words: 19908 - Pages: 80
...A Comparative Study of Metaphor in British and United States of America (US) Political Discourse Student’s Name University Affiliation Comparative Study of Metaphor in British and United States of America (US) Political Discourse Abstract This study offers a research on the application of metaphor in the discourse of cultural and political aspects between these two countries; The United States of America and Great Britain. As a result, this is an analysis of the various factors related to the perspective in terms of the cultural and socio-political phenomenon, in which a lot of attention is placed on the elements ascertaining the pragmatic, variable, and cognitive details of the British and US's political discourses: The inaugural speeches of four US presidents and party political manifestos of two British political parties during the period between 1974 and 1997 are analysed. The main purpose of undertaking this kind of comparative study of the British and the American political discourses is quite evident, these discourses symbolize intriguing and complex methods of cultural values and political differences as depicted in the respective linguistic contexts. The key findings are that metaphors from the domains of conflict, journey and buildings are general across the divide. However, the British corpus contain metaphors that draw on the source domain of plants whereas the American corpus hugely draws on source domains like fire and light and the physical environments that are...
Words: 6092 - Pages: 25
...take the main responsibility of protecting and nurturing this quality. No matter what the changes in the external conditions of life for women, they must not lose their essentially spiritual (ie feminine) virtues; they must not, in other words, become essentially westernized.” - Partha Chatterjee, “The Nationalist Resolution of the Women’s Question”* “What was gradually and carefully constituted, brick by brick, in the interaction between colonialism and nationalism is now so deeply embedded in the consciousness of the middle classes that ideas about the past have assumed the status of revealed truths…It has led to a narrow and limiting circle in which the image of Indian womanhood has become, both a shackle and a rhetorical device that nevertheless functions as a historical truth.” - Uma Chakravarti “Whatever happened to the Vedic Dasi?: Orientalism, Nationalism and a Script for the Past.”* Who/where is the Indian woman? Since this conference focuses on the theme “Identity, Difference and Conflict: Postcolonial Critique”, I think this question could well serve as a starter for our discussion on this issue from an Indian feminist perspective. In order to situate this question bringing into relief its complexities, I wish to begin this paper narrating an event recorded by Shobha De, a feminist writer and analyst. According...
Words: 4288 - Pages: 18
...[pic] Гальперин И.Р. Стилистика английского языка Издательство: М.: Высшая школа, 1977 г. В учебнике рассматриваются общие проблемы стилистики, дается стилистическая квалификация английского словарного состава, описываются фонетические, лексические и лексико-фразеологические выразительные средства, рассматриваются синтаксические выразительные средства и проблемы лингвистической композиции отрезков высказывания, выходящие за пределы предложения. Одна глава посвящена выделению и классификации функциональных стилей. Книга содержит иллюстративный текстовой материал. Предназначается для студентов институтов и факультетов иностранных языков и филологических факультетов университетов. GALPERIN STYLISTICS SECOND EDITION, REVISED Допущено Министерством высшего и среднего специального образования СССР в качестве учебника для студентов институтов и факультетов иностранных языков |[pic] |MOSCOW | | |"HIGHER SCHOOL" | | |1977 | TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Предисловие к первому изданию……………………………………………………..6 Предисловие к второму изданию……………………………………………………..7 Part I. Introduction 1. General Notes on Style and Stylistics…………………………………………9 2. Expressive Means (EM) and Stylistic Devices (SD)………………………...25 3. General Notes on Functional Styles of Language……………………………32 4. Varieties of Language………………………………………………………..35 5. A Brief...
Words: 151690 - Pages: 607
...BARACK OBAMA'S SOUTH CAROLINA SPEECH Introduction In this paper, I shall analyze US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's South Carolina victory speech from a particular pragmatic perspective. In particular, I shall explore the idea that this speech is constituted by many voices (in other words, it displays polyphony, to use an idea due to Bakhtin 1981, 1986) and that the audience is part of this speech event, adding and contributing to its text in a collaborative way (in particular, in constructing meaning). As many are aware (including the journalists who report day by day on Barack Obama's achievements), Obama uses the technique of 'personification' (The Economist, Dec 13th, 2007). When he voices an idea, he does not just expose it as if it came from himself, but gets another person (fictitious or, plausibly, real) to voice it. Since in an electoral speech, he cannot reasonably get people on stage to voice his ideas, he personifies ideas by narrating what people told him. His stories are his way of personifying his ideas. The discourse strategy he uses serves to reverse the direction of influence from the people in control to the people controlled (see van Dijk 2003). Duranti (2006b) writes that The language of politics has been presented and studied in terms of its ability to persuade an audience (of peers, subjects, and superiors) to go along with the speaker's view of the world and his or her proposal (Perrot 2000). In much of this literature, the successful political...
Words: 11967 - Pages: 48
...The Doctrine of Calvinism Name Course Professor Date Introduction Many people do not have a slight idea of what we mean by Calvinism. It is not a surprise because they know nothing about the doctrine. My effort is to try and help people understand the doctrine of Calvinism. I will try to explain what it is and the historical information behind it. It has a pretty wide doctrine that I will have the chance of defining it all through the paper. I think that it will be easy to highlight the scriptural basis linked to Calvinism. I will be glad to point out show the linkage present between Calvinism and scriptures in the Bible. There are different belief systems within Christianity of which Calvinism is one of them. Calvinism was taught by John Calvin, and it strictly pays attention to a very high view of scripture and tends to derive its theological formulations majorly on the word of God. In the course, I will be pointing out the theological development of Calvinism. How has the theology developed from the past? How did it come to be? Has it be accepted by the Christians or not? However, at the end of my work, I will be glad to show reasons that Calvinism has been criticized. Therefore, I will be able to indicate the criticism of the doctrine and the reason why some people oppose this doctrine. Different people have divergent views about Calvinism hence; the objections are present and will be highlighted. What people wonder is whether...
Words: 6086 - Pages: 25