Rally to the Cause speech (08)

Now that you’ve taken a look at how some great speechmakers have done it (or at least how their very effective speechwriters have), it’s your turn to rally an audience – your BSS schoolmates – to a cause.

Scenario: Imagine that years of support from the BSS community have allowed the Zama Zama orphanage to become self-sufficient. BSS is now looking toward the future to espouse a new long-term, significant cause. You have been asked to present on behalf of an organization you strongly believe in, in order to persuade the school to adopt it for our new fundraising endeavour.

Think about some of the causes you have embraced in your Service Learning experience, or that you have learned about in your reading or your studies. Which do you feel passionately about? Why should the school take on this cause? What do you see as the course of action the school would take in supporting this cause?

Choose a cause and write a speech with a goal of rallying your schoolmates to adopt it. You will need to present a solid argument, but also to persuade your audience: remember, an audience that is moved is an audience that is easier to sway. Remember also that energy and enthusiasm are infectious – in the best sense, of course – so choose something about which you can speak with authority, passion, and conviction.

While this is largely an exercise in using rhetorical strategies effectively, argument can be very unconvincing without support. Examples from personal experience, analogies, and hypothetical situations are useful for supporting an argument. You will also be expected to do some research on facts and figures, so that your argument has a backbone of sound content. All your research notes should be collected on a Google Document shared with me, and documented using MLA style. 

Tips:

• Use speeches we have examined in class as good models of the points below.

• Keep purpose in mind. Your speech is a call to action. What is the organization hoping to accomplish? Why? How will you steer your classmates towards joining in this action? The best speeches will steer clear of only asking people to give money, and will instead focus on personal involvement in the cause and in the work that the organization does.

• Keep tone in mind. How do you want the reader to perceive you? How will your choice of words convince them that this is a cause worth joining?

• Use your own personal experience, which can often be far more convincing than cold or impersonal statistics. Make sure you sound knowledgeable about your cause by providing specific supporting details from your research.

• Make efforts to employ rhetorical appeals (logos, pathos, ethos) and strategies (language, imagery, structure, etc.) in ways that will catch your reader’s attention and serve your purpose.

• At the same time, remember that you want to sound authentic and fluid, and that an audience would be listening to this speech, not reading it. Choose strategies that will enhance the speech’s power from this perspective without sounding stilted.

• Consider how your speech should develop and progress from section to section. Paragraph accordingly.

• Be particularly mindful of how your speech opens and closes. Consider the purposes of a good opening and closing.

Take home and refer to your notes on the speeches studied in class for ideas. You can find further analysis of the typical “rallying” speech at this website.

Length: 4 to 5 minutes in performance

Formatting: you will submit the text of your speech on the class following your performance date as a polished document: 1.5 spacing, 1-inch margins, 12-point Times font  

Evaluation:

Speech presentations: The mark for this part will be for oral delivery strategies only. If your speech isn’t in its final, polished form by then, that’s fine – concentrate instead on your delivery.

You will be evaluated on the following elements:

• The speech supports any emotional appeals through vocal strategies: tone, dynamic, and volume

• Pacing is effective and helps the audience follow and absorb the logic and progression of ideas in the speech

• Nonverbal contact with the audience (e.g., eye contact, facial expressions, gesture, posture, level of animation) enhances the speech

• Speaking notes (note cards) are used effectively, i.e., as aids only – the speech is not simply read directly from a page (i.e. the more familiar with the content and less reliant on your notes you are, the better)

Text of speech: The mark for this portion will be on content, effective use of rhetorical strategies, language, and organization of ideas.

You will be evaluated on the following elements:

• choice of detail engages audience through informative content, interesting imagery, illustrative example/analogy, or other similar means

• rhetorical appeals serve to persuade (establishment of appropriate ethos, evocation of effective pathos, application of clear and purposeful logos)

• main message / purpose of piece is clear

• understanding of audience is demonstrated through choice of subject, detail and voice

• diction/register is appropriate to form and audience – tone/voice suits indicated purpose

• uses stylistic devices appropriate to mode, purposes, and voice adopted

• intro provides an effective starting point

• body development is smooth, logical, and organic

• conclusion is satisfying

• effective use of vocabulary and sentence construction/variety

• uses language conventions with a high degree of accuracy to convey intended meaning