In the process of writing and delivering your own speeches you will have considered a number of different elements. Even apart from how you delivered (volume, tone, speed etc.) you would have thought about the language of persuasion that we have been studying during this unit.
Please write a rationale explaining how you put your speech together. This should include at least a paragraph on each of the following:
a) topic choice
b) at least 2 persuasive elements (ie: repetition etc.)
c) elements such as allusions, quotations that you used to strengthen your message.
All together, your rationale should be a minimum of 500 words.
As time passed, the Arabian culture became left behind, and other Western cultures started to get followed. The traditions our ancestors built and carried out, are being avoided to follow different cultures not related to our history. Cultures implemented upon us, traditions forced within us by the West, who are these people to apply such traditions and force us to leave our own cultures behind? Leaving our own culture behind, means leaving who we really are. This made me realize that as good as the Western cultures can be, they still cannot blend in with our Arabian lives. Our lives evolve around our religion, and Western traditions and culture go against our religion. This means that either we leave what we believe in, what we’re born with, and follow the west, or we keep our traditions and stay strong together.
ReplyDelete17 years of my life I grew up with Arabian traditions, I had the experience my parents, grandparents and ancestors had, but lucky enough I also got to experience change and modernization alongside it. Growing up I myself got to lose Arabian traditions, because I got lost in modernization and was too busy with being modern, that I forgot my own traditions and cultures. I never left my religion behind, but what’s happening would have led to it. Not long ago I realized that we Arabs are forgetting who we are, so I wrote this speech to help other Arabs realize what is really happening, because all, like me, started to leave their traditions behind. Together we can keep our traditions, while modernizing and gaining benefit from both. That’s what’s my speech is about, and that’s the reason I wrote it.
One of the persuasive elements I had in my speech was rhetoric. Asking rhetoric questions to the audience makes them think, and reflect upon themselves, that way they can realize whether its true or not. By asking more questions I can discuss many elements of my speech indirectly with the audience, more questions makes people think longer and harder about this topic. Therefore they will reflect upon it and hopefully realize what is happening. This way they will take action to save the only thing we have left to signify our ancestors and history, which is traditions. Another persuasive element I had was repetition, repetition can be used as a good thing or a bad thing, and in this case I used it for good. By repeating the same ideas and statements over and over again it keeps the audience aware and alert of what I’m really talking about, and what is really happening. Repetition will help them understand the subject being mentioned more, and make them relate to it more.
One of the other elements I used was comparison, by comparing the audience will realize which traditions are being left behind, and which new ones are being taken up. In this case comparison between Arab and Western cultures will link to the audience’s personal lives, as they take up from both of these cultures. Allusions about Western life and cultures have also been used in my speech to help explain the situation happening right now, this will connect with the audience, and make them re-think what they do on a day to day basis and how it affects our Arabian culture.
a) The topic for my persuasive, political speech was about the crumbling environment in Canada. I chose the topic because I care about the environment regardless of its location on the planet but since I grew up in Canada, I have an emotional connection with the country and I care about the future of the nation which is in potential danger. By addressing such a vast problem that affects everyone in and near Canada, I chose a large target audience to whom the speech would be appealing. My choice of talking about the Prime Minister Stephen Harper was important to me because he is in charge of what happens in Canada and many people dislike this.
ReplyDeleteProminent environmental problems have arisen in Canada and this seems slightly ignored by the Harper Government which saddens people because it affects them in several ways. Through my speech I have highlighted this fact by providing an entire list of problems as opposed to a singular and highly expensive solution promised by the Harper Government. This situation is worsened by the fact that there are no political parties in Canada that propose ideas that act completely against the Harper’s policies about the environment but as well as the infrastructure. Therefore, through my speech I have asked Canadians to care about the ruling, Conservative Party of Canada and to actively try to change their home because they have the right to so. Despite the fact that Harper is a major disappointment to many people in Canada, it would be better to support him for creating nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels. If citizens choose to do so, they will support employment and safety.
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ReplyDeleteI have chosen to use several persuasive techniques in my speech to communicate my opinion to the audience. Some of the persuasive elements are irony, allusion, personification and emotional appeal. Irony and allusion are used in my speech to compliment on another and the same relationship exists between the personification and emotional appeal techniques.
ReplyDeleteIrony is shown in my speech by using scientific facts to refer to the problems in Canada and stating that the Harper Government has the solutions to all of these problems—even when they have not promised to accomplish anything in the future in terms of documentation. By showing such a repulsive truth in my speech I have made an attempt to attract the audience’s attention to how they need to work on the Canadian environment if they wanted a change in their lifestyle and possibly the legislation.
The irony is further reiterated with the use of allusions to quotes by the Former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Trudeau is considered to be the best prime minister in the twentieth century of Canada and unlike Harper, he was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada—the complete opposite of Harper’s party. By commencing and finishing my speech with quotes by Trudeau, I have shown that currently there is no concrete difference between the Liberals and the Conservatives (also known as the Tories). This means that the message in my speech is calling for a common ground between Canadians even if some of them have different political ideologies.
The other two techniques used for persuasion are personification and emotional appeal. In the speech, personification is utilized to tell the problems in the environment from the points of views of the regions that are facing the oppression. The only exception to this is the cod fish that is part of the affected environment rather than the environment itself. When I speak from the glaciers’ point of view (“I am the ice in the Canadian Arctic”), I refer to something that is part of the Canadian identity. Canada is known for several things and one of them is the cold weather. Through this acknowledgment, I have referred to a large group of people that would be immensely affected by the melting of the arctic ice. This audience would include the people from Greenland, anyone who understands the strength of Antarctica’s ice to protect us from ultraviolet rays and most importantly when concerned with the register of this speech; the Inuit folk of Canada. Inuit tribes have been neglected from the beginning of Canada itself so when the speech mentions Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and the ice there, it recognizes their struggle in the North. These people live in conditions that are far worse than most people living in other parts of Canada, especially British Columbia and Ontario. By taking them into consideration, the message regarding Canadian unity in the entire speech to reduce the impact of human actions on the environment is reinforced because they, more than anyone care a lot about the wilderness. This adds emotional appeal to the audience and helps them think about their actions and their power to stop or further activate environmental problems. What people do in Ontario can affect the people in Nunavut and what people do in Alberta can affect almost the entire country. This speech is about one country and one people irrespective of their heritage because Trudeau himself encouraged multiculturalism. If the audience captures the essence of this speech and truly understands what it means to be a Canadian, they would never neglect one another and let them lose their job or drown or die under an avalanche. If people are emotionally attached to their country, their country is unlikely to fall apart, as stated in Trudeau’s quote at the end of the speech, “our house is the whole of Canada.”
For too long have Video games been labelled as a bad influence on children and for too long have I stood by and seen articles and my parents blaming video games for the cause of problems unrelated to playing video games. Last week, I was able to express the way I felt and I fought for what I believe in in the form of a member of the People’s Action Party in Singapore. But my original speech idea was nothing close to what I presented last week. It took a while for me to think about my topic speech, my 2 persuasive elements, and other elements but it all came together after I found my topic of choice.
ReplyDeleteOriginally, I was going to make a speech about the effects of culture and modernization and I had already created well over 2 pages of the speech. However, I was not feeling the speech. I didn’t have the passion to discuss this issue and I didn’t find it very interesting in the first place. If I was going to make a speech, I wanted to make it very impactful and I couldn’t do that for a topic I didn’t care for. In the end I settled with a topic that I had always wanted to argue and fight for, the Ban on Violent Video games. It was extremely personal for me as I am a video gamer and whenever I see people constantly blaming video games for actions of immature and annoying little children, it makes me angry. That’s why I decided to discuss this topic as a politician and convey it in the way that I would have if I was a politician in real life. But I could not only convey an influential speech with passion for the topic, I also needed to utilise persuasive elements.
In my speech, I utilised persuasive elements such as Repetition and Association. I first saw the power and effectiveness of repetition when I heard John F. Kennedy’s “ich bin ein Berliner” speech. I was so moved and amazed by the power in Kennedy’s speech and when with his extremely effective use of repetition, I had to use it for myself. In Kennedy’s speech, he used repetition while also relating it with the public. The Germans could understand what Kennedy was talking about whenever he said “Let them come to Berlin” as they were living in Berlin and knew how terrible Communism was. I used repetition by questioning the audience over and over again “Was it the video game that…..” I find that I was able to use repetition as affectively as Kennedy as I was able to connect the audience with rhetorical questions. I believe that it made the audience question and ask them the same question and engaged them in the argument and I also pointed them towards the answer I wanted, “NO”. I believe that the build-up of the repetition and rhetorical questions combined together was able to fully deliver and persuade the audience effectively.
Combining repetition and rhetorical questions was not the only persuasive technique I used. I also alluded to Bill Cosby on his quote “the main goal of the future is to stop violence. The world is addicted to it”. I decided to use Bill Cosby because for those who know Bill, they would know that he is a comedian. How can anyone take a Comedian seriously? And here is Mr Cosby, making a very serious and true statement. Not only did I use his quote because I liked it and it matched the topic, but it shows a joker/comedian, putting aside all his jokes and acting mature about a very serious topic. And It was something that I was hoping to achieve by the end of my speech, for kids to stop acting immature and giving people an excuse to blame video games for causing violent behaviour.
Mohamed Selim
ReplyDelete11D
English Rationale
The topic that was chosen for my presentation was conscription. The reason that I have chosen conscription as my speech topic is because it is something that I can definitely relate to. Conscription is basically a law enforcing, young adults between 16 and 40 to join the army as soon as they have completed their educational studies. This law is existent in many countries including Israel, Singapore and my own, Egypt. As an Egyptian I am forced to go to the army as soon as I have completed my university degree and serve a minimum of 1 year in the armed forces or a maximum of 3 years. The rationale for choosing this issue was that I wanted to explore the debate around conscription and research into the benefits and disadvantages to conscription. After my research I found out that conscription is good option for a society , that cannot afford to maintain a large full time military. Singapore was chosen because it has the strictest and radical policies regarding conscription . They are the toughest laws in the world and the expectations of the government is that all citizens regardless of gender have to contribute to the safety of their nation. In addition Singapore was chosen because it has the most politically stable government to Israel and Egypt a neutral geo political debate which would not be offensive to any class members.
The persuasive technique used was bribery disguised by a rhetorical question.” On the other do we raise taxes, making passing the expenses of a full time army on to the Singaporean population”. The purpose of this statement was to tap into the fear that people of have of paying taxes or having an increase in taxes , to persuade them that conscription was a good thing. Manipulating the populations mind set through a disguised bribery technique with the implication that if you don’t agree to conscription you will have to pay taxes.
The Second Persuasive technique I utilized was the historical context that Singapore was vulnerable to being invaded by other surrounding countries. like what had occurred in the 1940s when japan invaded Singapore from behind as mentioned with the speech .again this is a true fact which cannot be denied by any Singaporean or any leader who knows there history . it Is an irrefutable fact that Singapore is vulnerable to geo political instability without the help of its citizens . for example china, north Korea and Islamic extremists are all looking at the prosperity of Singapore and would like to destabilize it for their own hidden agendas. This technique also connects with a psychology of a population who wish to be safe in order to continue their economic prosperity. Political stability is the fundamental pre requisite for economic growth. they go hand in hand in a symbiotic relationship. By bringing irrefutable historical fact no one would rebut the debate in hand on conscription.
Conscription from the perspective of a Singaporean is considered a necessity that builds citizenship and the “spirit of one for all and all for one”. Creating a homogenous society that is not defined on racial and ethnic lines. I believe in the speech that I gave in conscription and although initially before I started researching the issue on conscription I was against it. However now even my own speech persuaded me that conscription is beneficial for society.