...vision of the country (United States) and to set forth their goals for the nation. With that being said, this paper will use the strategy of genre analysis to critique to examine Barack Obama’s second Inaugural Address and John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech. Genre analysis is a type of rhetorical analysis that examines speeches based on the artifacts or commonalities that contain. The artifacts of speech are created by the rhetor as a response to a specific exigency. So as Bitzer’s essay, The Rhetorical Situation, saw it, in order for a text to be rhetorical, it must come in response to a rhetorical situation. Furthermore a rhetorical situation has three characteristics, an audience, an existence of constraints, and as mentioned above, an exigency. One manner, in which we can analyze an artifact, is through...
Words: 1448 - Pages: 6
...Written Assignment 4: Essay on Barack Obama’s speech at the Groundbreaking Ceremony of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial (2006) Even when a life ends, a soul can manage to live on with the people who it has left behind. This can appear through memorable deeds that a life can have managed to make before it passes. The above is what Barack Obama’s speech at the Groundbreaking Ceremony of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial from 2006 is about. Through the use of many of the same rhetorical instruments that Martin Luther King used before him, Obama establishes not only what Martin Luther King meant to America but also what he means to Obama on a personal level. In the following, I will make a rhetorical analysis and interpretation of the speech. The speech can be described as being an occasion speech which means that Obama’s aim is for him to entertain his audience at the memorial, by interpreting his vision of Martin Luther King Jr. The speaker is Barack Obama who is an African-American senator and soon-to-be presidential candidate in the United States. The audience for his speech is the participating to the national memorial, but primarily the speech is meant for the African-American inhabitants. He entertains his audience by reminding them of the great things that King has accomplished for the African-Americans in the United States of America: “I will tell them that because he did these things, they live today with the freedom God intended...
Words: 961 - Pages: 4
...EN1320 04/13/2013 04/13/2013 Essay 3.1 Rhetorical Analysis Obamas “A More Perfect Union” Speech Essay 3.1 Rhetorical Analysis Obamas “A More Perfect Union” Speech On March 18, 2008, Senator and future President Barack Obama delivered a speech that was titled “A More Perfect Union” (Obama Race Speech, 2008). This speech took place in Philadelphia, PA at the National Constitution Center. This speech was given during the 2008 Presidential race and looks to address the concerns regarding video of controversial and racially charged comments made by former pastor Jeremiah Wright which seemed to playing on loop in every media outlet possible. He also addressed the subjects of racial tension and race and inequality in the United States. From the beginning of the speech, it is evident that the most effective appeal that Obama chooses to use is ethos. As a rhetoric tool, ethos is used to establish character. Ethos is an appeal to ethics, and it is a means of convincing someone of the character or credibility of the persuader (Examples of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos). In order to establish an effective ethos, the speaker must present themselves in a way that will make the audience believe what they say. A strong example of this is when he uses the quote “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union”. In referring to the U.S Constitution, this compels the audience to make a connection of significance and importance between his speech and that of the Constitution. Another way...
Words: 1158 - Pages: 5
...Critical Analysis President, Barack Hussein Obama is a great speaker and knows how to defend his case. He is capable of capturing an audience and make them listen to what he has to say. he has become such an important man for many Americans, but how come his speeches are so great? What is it that makes people listen to him and believe everything he says? It is a known fact that Barack Obama can capture his voters with great speeches. To know what it really is that make him such a great spokesperson we will be analyzing one of his speeches. In this case, I’m going to analyze a speech by him, called “A More Perfect Union” that he held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in March, 2008, where the US Constitution also was written in 1787[1] “A More Perfect Union” is a speech by Barack Obama where we see the true message that he wants to bring us. He shares his ideas to help American’s to succeed based on a unity within the people. His ideals go beyond people’s gender, religious beliefs, race, color or sexual orientation, as long as people can come together we will be able to accomplish a lot and keep moving forward. A big part of the speech is about race. What Obama tries to say is that people are missing the big picture and that people have too much focus on race and diversity that if they do not start to change that then it will have big consequences in the future, like going back in time where slavery was normal. Barack Obama’s speech echoes the rhetorical...
Words: 581 - Pages: 3
...Obama's victory speech rhetorical analysis. The democrat Barack Obama held a famous victory speech after being elected for president on November, 4th 2012 in his home town Chicago, Illinois. If we starting of by introducing the pentagon model, we know that a speech usually is centred around an intention of the speaker and is depending on the interrelationship between the listeners, the topic, the writer, the language and the circumstances. The topic of this speech is the political campaign, the election, the American population and having high hopes in the future America. The listeners is mostly Obama's supporters as it was being held in Chicago in a building full of democrats, but also for the entire United States and the world in general, considering that America has so much influence on the world. President Obama starts off by being grateful and appreciating the audience. He says thanks three times, which is to calm down the audience but also to highlight his thanks. Afterwards he voices his opinion on how America has been moving forward” It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an American family, and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people.” This sentence shows his patos. Obama develops the cohesion by speaking about the...
Words: 948 - Pages: 4
...Analysis of Barack Obama’s victory speech 2012 Obama starts off by including the people. He speaks out to every American, incorporates the people, and thanks them. He makes it clear that he is trying to make the people feel integrated into his speech. The first part of the speech is Obama thanking people around him, even his competitor Mitt Romney. He speaks about how America is now, and how he is going to sort it in the future. His main claim is that together America can build up the nation, and recover from the problems. As data he does say, that the American Economy is already recovering. By including America like this, he makes the people feel that they are a part of a nation, and this makes him seem more reliable. He does, however, not have a concrete example of the recovering economy, which makes his statement build on trust. He does back his claim up by saying that with the help from the Americans, he will fix their problems: “Reducing our deficit. Reforming our tax code. Fixing our immigration system. Freeing ourselves from foreign oil” (P.3 l.86). The warrant for this is that Obama will reach out, and together with the leaders of both parties they will meet the challenges that can be solved together. Furthermore, the help from the American people will make this happen, and get America going again. Obama does include the Americans a lot. This has an effect. Making individuals feel like they are a part of a bigger nation, which can solve this problem together, can...
Words: 749 - Pages: 3
...Rhetorical analysis of Mitt Romney´s republican victory speech On the 7th November 2012 the presidential in America ended. Two candidates, one from each party, the Republican and the Democratic Party participated in the race. The results were as followed; Obama was re-elected for another 4 years in the White House. The participant from the Republican Party was the former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney. Even though he didn´t win the election as he had hoped, his road to the top of the Republican Party is also very interesting to follow. For example the Super Tuesday Victory Speech he gave on March 6th 2012 after having won the Republican presidential candidacy on Super Tuesday. Perhaps if this speech had been different he would have been elected president in America? To look closer into this speech, will at first use the SOAPSTONE model to analyse it. The speaker of the text is of course the one delivering it, Mitt Romney. The speech where given as said before on Super Tuesday after having won the Republican presidential candidacy, which is the occasion for it. Especially the occasion is very important for Mitt Romney and his speech, since it will be showed on national television, where his audience most likely will be millions of republican voters, both those who supported him and those who didn´t. Which means that Romney will get the change to convince the republican voters, who supported other candidates in the run, to keep their vote republican in the presidential...
Words: 915 - Pages: 4
...Further Oral Activity: Barack Obama 2012 Victory Speech Task: Analyze the rhetoric used in the speech. This is a Special News report on the 7th of November - President Obama has won second term the elections for president of the USA - we are now live in Chicago at the McCormick Centre , where President Obama just held his victory speech, and I am going to do a quick analysis of what the newly re-elected President said. It is an absolute pandemonium after Barack Obama has just delivered a 20 minute speech, during which he expressed his gratitude towards his family, his friends, his supporters, and laid out his vision of what America has already achieved, what it can achieve and what it will achieve after he has been re-elected President of the United States to Mitt Romney with 281 electoral votes to 191. Through the use of various rhetorical tools like Anaphora, rhetorical term for the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses, President Barack Obama delivers a speech through which he fully expresses ideas like the American dream and the future. Similarly to other speeches of his from the past, as for example the 2008 speech at the Democratic Convention, this one contains different forms of repetition and "between the line political views" - for example in the first paragraphs he purposely begins his sentences with the same couple of words - "You'll hear", "We want...", "That's ", followed by his ideas for the future of...
Words: 908 - Pages: 4
...Cammie Denton Dr. Foster WR 122 April 17, 2016 Rhetorical Analysis of Barack Obama’s Remarks on Economic Mobility On December 4th, 2013 Barack Obama spoke on the subject of income inequality and upward mobility. This speech was delivered to, and hosted by, the Center for American Progress (CAP). The president uses striking language to appeal to the emotion and logic of the audience. Obama executes his appeals in a variety of ways with the express purpose of painting the issue of growing inequality and decreased upward mobility as the “defining challenge of our time.” President Obama describes these issues as what drives everything he does as POTUS. Obama’s speech was quite intellectual and technical, peppered in detail with the numbers and statistics of current social and economic inequalities, appealing to logos. While he builds his argument based on these substantial facts, the overall feeling of his language is that of compassion. This compassion seems to drive his purpose and thus emotionally connecting to his audience. Further, Obama appeals to ethos during his speech as he outlines how current market-caused inequalities are threatening everything that makes America great. Obama masterfully balances his passionate language with solid facts and straight-forward logic in this effectively persuasive speech. Before expanding upon the specifics of the rhetorical methods utilized by the president in this speech, I think it is important to highlight that the audience (CAP)...
Words: 1831 - Pages: 8
...Barack Obama’s speech on Gun violence Gun violence is a huge problem in the United States of America. Each year thousands of people are victims of mass shooting, and mass shooting is a growing problem. Many Americans see this problem but the gun law stays the same. The gun law and the gun culture go way back in American history, and many Americans feel it is their right to bear arms because it is written in the second amendment from 1791. But times have changed, and today most Americans believe that the gun law needs to be stricter. Therefore it can be difficult to understand why nothing happens when the majority of the US population supports stricter gun laws. So why is it that the law cannot be changed? And what can the politicians do to end this nightmare? Barack Obama is trying to highlight this issue in his newest speech on gun violence – “Remarks by the President on Common-Sense Gun Safety Reform” – that he presented at the White House Press Conference on the 5th of January 2016. This paper analyses Obama’s speech. The analysis will focus on the communicative and rhetorical devices in the speech. The sender of the speech is Barack Obama, the current president in the USA. He is representing his own party, the Democrats. Obama is speaking for all Americans and against the gun lobbyists. The speech is built on the foundation of all the gun tragedies, which have happened over the last years, and therefore makes use of al lot of pathos. He expresses his compassion for...
Words: 1219 - Pages: 5
...Pentadic analysis incorporates five basic elements of drama called pentads. These include act (what is being done), agent (who is doing the act), agency (the means employed by the agent to do the act), scene (the backdrop against which the act occurred), and the purpose of the action (the reason why it happened). Act is the artifact itself whatever it may be such as speech, poem, monument, event, etc as it stands for what is actually being done or happening. Agent refers to the main communicator of the artifact which could be an actor, orator, writer or manager of the act. Agency refers to the main medium of communication which includes a book or televised film, presentation or personal communication. Scene is the backdrop against which the action occurs including the actual, physical scene and the context in which something happens and is meant to be understood. Lastly, purpose is the motive or the message which is conveyed and understood. Pentadic analysis has its roots in Burke's Theory of Dramatism which looks at life as a play where symbols and language are used to express thoughts as a way for humans to comprehend the reality of the world. Burke developed this theory as a way to attempt to understand the bases of human conduct and motives. Thus, the purpose of a pentadic analysis addresses the content of what is being done and what are the motives of a certain artifact as crafted by a rhetor. Burke believed that ratios interconnect important terms and map out a clearer...
Words: 1873 - Pages: 8
...Essay – Barack Obama,”Back to School” What are some of President Barack Obama’s methods for successful speeches? How does he manage to gather the attention of his audience? Is he really just throwing out slogans at people or does he really deliver a mark after they’ve left the audience? This essay will embark on some of these questions through an analysis of his speech presented at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia at an event called, “Back to school”. President Barack Obama’s speech is about the importance of education, and an efficient infrastructure in the USA. He gathers his audience’s attention by emphasizing on how important it is for each individual in America to have an education – not only for their own sake, but also for their country’s sake. Throughout the speech he addresses his audience in a specific way while advocating for some values. These values are different; however, they have an equal significance since they all contribute to the success of an eminent society. I’ll highlight the way he addresses his audience and the values he advocates for in his speech, respectively. “The president: Hello everyone – How’s everybody doing today?” [l.1] This statement used by Mr. Obama clearly states that he wants to create an impact in these young Americans’ heart. He isn’t speaking academically towards them but rather in a language that everybody speaks and understands, so they can easily relate to each other. Obama’s intention must have been not to elevate...
Words: 1134 - Pages: 5
...Essay – Barack Obama,”Back to School” What are some of President Barack Obama’s methods for successful speeches? How does he manage to gather the attention of his audience? Is he really just throwing out slogans at people or does he really deliver a mark after they’ve left the audience? This essay will embark on some of these questions through an analysis of his speech presented at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia at an event called, “Back to school”. President Barack Obama’s speech is about the importance of education, and an efficient infrastructure in the USA. He gathers his audience’s attention by emphasizing on how important it is for each individual in America to have an education – not only for their own sake, but also for their country’s sake. Throughout the speech he addresses his audience in a specific way while advocating for some values. These values are different; however, they have an equal significance since they all contribute to the success of an eminent society. I’ll highlight the way he addresses his audience and the values he advocates for in his speech, respectively. “The president: Hello everyone – How’s everybody doing today?” [l.1] This statement used by Mr. Obama clearly states that he wants to create an impact in these young Americans’ heart. He isn’t speaking academically towards them but rather in a language that everybody speaks and understands, so they can easily relate to each other. Obama’s intention must have been not to elevate...
Words: 1134 - Pages: 5
...Rhetorical Analysis of Presidential Speech President Barack Obama held the speech, at the democratic convention on the 6th on September, in association to the Presidential election 2012. Barack Obama is the president of the United States. This speech was a part of his reelection. Obama is a Democrat, and had, when holding this speech, been in the withe house for 4 years. He is known to be a great speaker, and a man people can relate to, as a family man and a proud American. Obama is also known to be the president of the people, witch is very clear in this speech. The speech addresses to the American people, and the voters. Obamas purpose is to convince the people to reelect him as president. First of all, he wants to associate with the American people, and tell them, that he is “one of them”. One of the ways he does that, is by talking about his family, Obama starts the speech by saying “Michelle, I love you” and talk about his daughters. By doing that, he is showing that he is a normal family man, who the American people have some thing in common with, and they can identify with him. He presents himself as the president of the United State, but as mentioned before, he does not place himself above the people. He wants to come of, as a normal man with a family, who lives a normal life. That the people can identify them selves with him. After thanking his family and the vice president, he get to a more formal part, with is an acceptation of his nomination for president. ...
Words: 492 - Pages: 2
...The Supreme Court decision allowed Obama to create a moment for action (Kairos). Throughout his speech he uses the word “equal” a lot. In the second sentence, President Obama connected the fundamental principles of this country to the notion that we are “all created equal” by repeating the word. By using the different vocabulary words like equal, equality, believe in our hearts, law by decision—he uses rhetoric as a “universal dialect” to persuade his audience of the unity that we as Americans supposed to fundamentally believe in (Aristotle Rhetoric book 1 chapter 1). Obama uses the laws of the land— which is ethos to establish credibility in his argument of unity and equality. Furthermore, President Obama’s personal character makes the audience think of him as trustworthy (ethos). According to Aristotle there are three ways to insert an effective mode of persuasion— logical reasoning, the common good in the character of the speaker, and the comprehension of emotions (book 1 Chapter 2). Aristotle also says that because things are “true and just” usually takes on the natural ability to prevail over anything that may oppose it. President Obama also implies the word “victory” (Kairos) to implicate a beneficial win for everyone since the court struck down this discriminatory...
Words: 541 - Pages: 3
