Contemporary Connections – Speeches, Past and Present

It is time to take what you have learned about rhetoric and apply it to analyzing speeches. Using the SOAPSTonE Chart.docx , select a pair of speeches and complete a SOAPSTone chart for each of your selected speeches. Once you have analyzed each speech, draft a well-organized response that compares and contrasts the two speeches. Clearly explain which speech is more persuasive and why. You will need to search out the text, audio, or video clip of each speech on your own.

Chart and questions below as well:

It is time to take what you have learned about rhetoric and apply it to analyzing speeches. Select one of the pairings of speeches below:

1. Olympe de Gouge’s “The Rights of Women” and Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman”
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation” and George W. Bush’s “Address to the Nation on September 11, 2001”
3. Neville Chamberlain’s “On the Nazi Invasion of Poland” (1939) and Winston Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” (June 4, 1940)
4. Albert Einstein’s “The Menace of Mass Destruction” and Elie Wiesel’s “The Perils of Indifference”
5. Queen Elizabeth I’s “Against the Spanish Armada” and George W. Bush’s “Announcing War Against Iraq”
6. Mark Twain’s “The American Press” and William Faulkner’s “On Accepting the Nobel Prize”
7. Thomas Jefferson’s second inaugural speech and John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address
8. Clarence Darrow’s “Mercy for Leopold” and Loeb and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s “Statement at the Smith Act Trial”
9. Suggest a pair of speeches to your instructor.

Using the SOAPStone chart template below, complete a SOAPSTone chart for each speech of the pair you selected. Once you have analyzed each speech, draft a well-organized response that compares and contrasts the two speeches. Clearly explain which speech is more persuasive and why. You will need to search out the text, audio, or video clip of each speech on your own. If you need help, contact your instructor. Before you begin, review the Speech Analysis Rubric to make sure that you include all of the elements required for full credit. Once you have completed your SOAPStone charts and speech analysis, please submit your work to the dropbox.

SOAPStone Chart for Speech One

SOAPStone Aspect	Question	Answer
Speaker	Who is the speaker or writer?
Occasion	What is the time and place of the speech?
Audience	Who is the intended audience for the speech?
Purpose	What is the writer’s purpose for writing this speech?
Subject	What is the speech’s main idea?
Tone	What is the speaker’s overall attitude towards the subject he or she is writing about? How do you know?