Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches
Name/Period:
In history, as in literature, speakers often use the power of persuasion to convince others to take
action. In today’s lesson, you’ll have the opportunity to look at a historically significant speech and
determine what made it so persuasive by analyzing the 3 main components of great speeches:
content, organization, and delivery.
Select a Speech
You can find many historically important speeches as written texts, audio recordings, and videotapes
at the library, in your history textbook, and on the Internet. Consider what historical events interest
you, and do a little research to find what great speeches were given at that point in time. Or, you may
wish to start with an issue that interests you, such as civil rights, space exploration, or freedom of
religion, and see what great speeches have been given on either side of those issues. Try to find a
speech that you can listen to and watch instead of just read. Great speakers often rely on not only
their words, but also their voices, gestures, and body postures to communicate their messages.
I) Analyze the Content
Begin your analysis by viewing the speech you’ve selected. Pay close attention to the content, the
important points the speaker wants to make. As you identify these important points, you will
probably notice that the speech contains persuasive elements. Keep in mind, though, that a speaker
cannot persuade an audience just by stating an opinion. He or she must provide arguments that
convince listeners to change their minds or take action.
Here are some common types of arguments you will find:
• Causation: shows how a cause-effect relationship supports the speaker’s opinion.
• Analogies: make literal comparisons between things that are generally unlike.
• Appeals to authority: refer to a trustworthy or knowledgeable authority or expert.
• Emotional appeals: use language to stir feelings of happiness, sadness, or anger in listeners.
• Logical appeals: speak to the listeners’ minds through facts, statistics, anecdotes (stories),
examples.
Rhetorical Devices
To make their arguments effective and memorable, speakers must master rhetoric, the art of speaking
or writing well. Over thousands of years, people who speak effectively have developed rhetorical
devices—certain ways of using language to make their messages attention-getting, persuasive, and
memorable. The following chart lists and defines some rhetorical devices you might find when
listening to a speech:
Rhetorical Devices Chart:
 Allusion: an indirect reference to literature or an actual person, event, or place
 Metaphor: an imaginative comparison between unlike things
 Repetition: repeating the same important words or phrases
 Diction: word choice that creates specific reactions from the audience
 Parallelism: using the same syntax, or sentence structure, to point out a similarity in
ideas
II) Analyze the Organization
Speakers organize their messages according to two different approaches.
With the Deductive Approach, they state their thesis first, then deliver their reasons and support.
Speakers using this approach start with general ideas, then move to more specific ones.
With the Inductive Approach, speakers present reasons and support first, building to a thesis
statement. Speakers using the inductive approach usually move their audience from thinking about
specific ideas to more general ones.
Whichever approach speakers choose, they must make sure that the organization of their ideas is
clear and coherent.
III) Analyze the Delivery
In addition to language, a speaker’s delivery, or use of voice and body, often sets the tone and mood
of the speech. Tone is the speaker’s attitude toward the subject and audience. Mood is the overall
impression the speech makes on the audience. A speaker must choose a tone that is appropriate for
the audience and purpose. For instance, a speaker who uses an angry tone when speaking to people
who disagree with his opinion might antagonize his listeners, creating a hostile mood. A thoughtful,
respectful tone, on the other hand, creates a more positive mood. Speakers often use verbal and
nonverbal delivery techniques, like those shown in the following chart, to convey tone and mood, and
to get their points across to an audience.
Delivery Techniques= Verbal and Nonverbal
Verbal:
 Emphasis is the stress a speaker puts on certain words and phrases. Speakers emphasize key
ideas or points in their speeches by saying those words with a little more volume.
 Pauses are small silences in speaking. A good speaker uses pauses to let his or her ideas soak
in. Pauses also tell you that what the speaker has just said or is about to say is important.
 Enunciation is the clarity with which speakers pronounce their words. Good speakers always
want their ideas to be clearly understood. Poor enunciation makes listeners strain, giving them
the impression that the speaker does not care about them or the topic.
Nonverbal:
 Gestures are body movements that emphasize emotions or ideas. Good speakers use natural
gestures, such as nodding their heads, shrugging their shoulders, or pointing at the audience.
 Posture is how the speaker stands. A speaker standing straight and alert suggests confidence
in his or her topic, while a slouching speaker suggests that he or she is disinterested and does
not truly care about the topic.
 Facial expressions clue listeners in to the speaker’s feelings. For example, a smile can suggest
warmth and sincerity, while a frown might show that the speaker is angry and wants you to
know why.
A Sample Speech
The following is an excerpt from John F. Kennedy’s 1962 “We choose to go to the moon…” speech,
which helped convince Americans to support the U.S. space exploration program.
*The annotations on the side in the model’s margin identify arguments and rhetorical devices used in
the speech. Pay close attention to Kennedy’s use of verbal and nonverbal techniques.
(see sample below…)
If . . . history . . . teaches us anything, it is that man, in this quest for
knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The
exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is
CAUSATION
one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be
EMOTIONAL APPEAL
the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space.
Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first
METAPHOR & REPETITION
waves of the industrial revolution, the first waves of modern invention,
and the first waves of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend
to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be
part of it—we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into
space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we
shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of
freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with EMOTIONAL APPEAL
weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and
PARALLEL STRUCTURE
understanding.
Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are
first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science
and industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves
as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries,
to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world’s leading
space-faring nation.
REPETITION
CAUSATION
REPETITION
Evaluate a Speech
The most important test of a good persuasive speech is your own reaction. A speech should make you
think more deeply about a subject and might change your mind or prompt you to take action. Use the
following questions to evaluate the effectiveness and quality of a persuasive speech, stating your own
judgments about it:
 What arguments and rhetorical devices did the speaker use?
 Was there a variety of arguments and devices?
 How did the speaker make good use of emphasis, enunciation, and pauses?
 Were his or her diction and syntax clear?
 What evidence (facts, statistics, or expert testimony) did the speaker provide to
support his or her ideas?
 Did the speaker use facial expressions, gestures, and posture to express tone and
mood? If so, describe them.
 Were the speaker’s main points clear and coherent—connected to each other and to
the main idea?
 Describe the organizational pattern. Did the speaker’s overall delivery capture your
attention and help you understand the speech? Explain.
PRACTICE & APPLY
Today in class, you will use these lesson notes as a guide to refer to as we analyze Martin Luther
King Jr’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech together.
*Later in this unit, you will use the information in today’s lesson to analyze a historically significant
speech on your own! Then, you will write a one-paragraph evaluation of the speech’s quality and
effectiveness.