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Speech

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The Longest Day, the Shortest Speech http://vsotd.com/featured-speech/longest-day-shortest-speech#sthash.5hXfbsUi.dpuf "The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do."
Address by Dwight D. Eisenhower
Written in case of failure of D-Day Invasion, Normandy, France on June 6, 1944

In my analysis of this speech, I have found that the speech fails to adhere to the guidelines of informative speech. Although it meets a few of the guidelines, the speech overall is unsuccessful in the essence of providing the vital information needed to make it a worthy informative speech.

In it’s opening sentence, the speech violates the guideline “Don’t be too technical”. The speaker’s use of words such as “landings” and “foothold” are technical jargons that the ordinary audience would not be able to fully comprehend. His speech is more directed towards the military savvy audience than the common citizen and leaves a lot to be desired. The speaker could have improved his speech by using less specialized words. Although sometimes, it becomes difficult to put military terms in easy to understand language, the speaker could have used words such as “attack” in lieu of “landings” and “control” instead of “foothold”. This would have made it much easier for the audience to understand and relate to the scene.

Also, in the opening sentence, the speaker violates another guideline “Don’t overestimate what the audience knows” about the topic. He refers to “Cherbourg-Havre” area and makes no relative reference to the lay of the land. Although the average historian and biographer following the war would be able to determine what the “area” is, the average audience would have no clue. The speech could have improved if the speaker would have made a reference to France. That would have rung bells in the minds of the audience, as France is a more recognizable area than “Cherbourg-Havre”.

The speaker does, however, fulfill the guideline “Relate the subject directly to the audience”. Since this speech was set during the war, the topic is of importance and interest to the audience, in the sense that the average audience would have had, at the very least, an acquaintance serving in the war. His use of the word “troops” grabs the audiences’ attention and conveys the message that the subject is directly related to them.

The speech does an awful job of adhering to the guideline of “Avoid Abstractions”. In his second sentence, the speaker states: “My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available”, yet he fails to provide the “information” he’s referring to. His failure to not furnish the “information” that his decision is based on, takes away the credibility of the speaker and also the faith of the audience. He could have done a better job by releasing the sources of his information and the strategy of his decision. He should have relayed the factors he considered when making the decision.

The only other place in the speech that the speaker meets the guideline is his attempt to “Personalize your ideas”. This is done in his third sentence when he talks about “bravery and “devotion”. He projects his ideas in terms of human impact in an effort to gain the audiences’ sympathy. He also takes the responsibility of his decisions in the event things don’t work out as planned: “If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone”. This provides a personal touch of vulnerability that makes the speaker human.

Overall, the speech fails to meet the guideline “Be Creative”. The speaker was not resourceful and not at all creative when constructing his speech. He mentions “bravery” and “devotion” but he could have done justice to the troops by providing details of their heroics. He could have also been creative in expressing the reason for the purported failure.

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