Speech Analysis

Speech Analysis
Analyze one of the greatest 100 speeches in modern American history,

1. Locate the American Rhetoric “Top 100 Speeches” page
(https://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html). Pick one of the speeches for which
audio is available.
2. Do some basic research about the speech. Discover more about the speaker themselves. Restrict your
research to newspaper articles, well-respected academic or reference web sites, magazines, books, and
academic journals. Make sure to create a list of references in MLA format, no more than 3 or 4 references.
3. Listen to the speech and begin by providing key identifying information:
must contain the following items at the top:
• The full name of the speaker and the name of the speech
• The date on which the speech was given
• Your interpretation of what the specific purpose of the speech was (phrase this as described in
the textbook)
4.. The first paragraph should introduce the speech you’re analyzing. Describe the speaker and
explain the circumstances that prompted the speech. Who was this person, and why would they be
giving public speeches in the first place? Who was the audience? What events led them to give this
exact speech in this time and place, and in front of this audience? Make sure to cite your sources.
5. The second paragraph of the paper should explain what sort of speeches (if any) the speaker
was famous for giving. In other words, what would the audience have been expecting from this
speaker? What would someone who was familiar with that speaker’s history have been expecting?
Did their speech meet those expectations or differ from them? How?
6. The third paragraph should explain what was most notable about the speech itself.
Specifically, pick one thing from the list below and explain what was notable about the speech in
terms of that thing.
• Structure
• Supporting material
• Use of persuasive techniques
• Language & delivery
7. The final paragraph should describe the aftermath of the speech. Do we know how the audience
reacted to the speech? How did the media react to the speech, if at all? What happened to the speaker
in the aftermath? Did anything happen after the speech that might arguably have been a result of the
speech? Make sure to cite your sources.
8. Make sure to add your list of references at the end of the paper.
10. Submit your document via the submission link on iCollege in the “Honors Speech Analysis”
module.