Select one of these three famous speeches provided
Franklin Roosevelt’s “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation”
Mary Fisher’s “1992 Republican National Convention Address”
Elie Wiesel’s “Perils of Indifference”
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrpearlharbor.htm
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/maryfisher1992rnc.html
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm
Analyze your chosen speech as an argument and write a 800-1000 word essay about the speech’s effectiveness considering the context and audience to which it was delivered. The essay should identify and explain the rhetorical strategies that the author deliberately chose, such as appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos. You may take into account other details like tone and even body language during the speech if relevant to the rhetoric.
Stay focused on the speech. There isn’t ample space in this essay to detail every aspect of the historical context in which this speech falls. It’s necessary to know about the events that led up to the speech, so some exposition within the first two paragraphs is expected, but the primary focus should be on the rhetoric.
Your goal for this essay is not to summarize or repeat their argument, but to analyze their rhetoric, and the specific choices made within the speech and the effect those choices had on the argument as a whole.
Your thesis must be arguable and should reflect your overall analysis of the rhetoric used. The style will be more formal –no first person should be used.
Some general outside research may be needed to understand the context of the speech, but the primary source should be the speech itself.
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