how to write a critical analysis of a speech

How to Write a Critical Analysis of a Speech

How to Set Up a Rhetorical Analysis

Whether you’re a student or a seasoned professional, the ability to critically analyze a speech is an essential skill for speakers. Understanding the components of a speech and what makes those components successful can help you deliver a speech that your audience finds engaging and enlightening.

Understanding the Different Types of Speeches

When critiquing a speech, you first need to understand the objective of the speech. There are three primary types of speeches: to inform, to persuade or to entertain. Informative speeches are typically rooted in facts and statistics or focus on “how-to” topics. For instance, many TED Talks are informative speeches.

Persuasive speeches also use facts and statistics but use that information to convince an audience to change their behavior or take a certain action. Finally, speeches that are meant to entertain are often those delivered at weddings or social gatherings. They’re often funny or self-deprecating and are populated with anecdotes.

Know Your Audience

Another critical aspect of speech analysis is understanding the audience. Is this a formal setting where your audience expects a serious, informative tone? Is the audience a group of people who are impassioned about a particular subject and could be hostile if you’re trying to change their minds? Is your audience an informal gathering of people who expect a light-hearted or amusing delivery?

You wouldn’t have a person with no sense of humor host a convention for comedians. Likewise, you wouldn’t have a comedian lead a convention for physicians who are discussing breakthroughs in cancer research. Knowing your audience can mean the difference between a successful speech and one that fails.

Know What You’re Analyzing

Once you know the objective of the speech, you’ll need to know what to analyze. In "Rhetoric," ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote that all great speeches share three pillars of rhetoric: logos, pathos and ethos.

While typically applied to persuasive speeches, these three elements are critical for any speech. Logos is the meaning, the reasoning and the logical evidence the speaker uses. Pathos is the words, phrases and personal stories a speaker uses to elicit emotion, and ethos is the credibility and trustworthiness of the speaker. In other words, does the speaker have expertise in this particular subject?

Evaluating a Speech

Critical speech analysis should revolve around the three pillars. As you analyze, you’ll need to determine whether the speech maker is using enough facts and logical evidence to establish credibility.

For instance, if a speaker is delivering information on protecting the environment, is he using credibly sourced facts to support his statements, or is he speaking in generalities? Is he using words, phrases and personal anecdotes that elicit emotion from the audience, or is he using vague words that have no emotional impact?

Finally, through education or background, is the speaker qualified to be speaking on this particular subject? Is she passionate about the subject, or is she coming across as a boring, monotone speaker? Is she using appropriate gestures and body language? Is her voice clear and loud enough to be heard? Finally, is her tone appropriate for the audience?

Use a Speech Analysis Rubric

A rubric can be an effective tool to help you analyze a speech, as it can help you assign a numeric value to each specific component of a speech. If you’re analyzing a speech for a classroom assignment, you’ll likely be given a rubric from which to work. If not, you can easily find one online by searching for “critical speech analysis rubric.”

Many readily available rubrics focus on aspects of Aristotle’s rhetoric by addressing a speech’s structure, format, research, delivery and style and will help you determine whether the speech was appropriate for its particular audience and met its overarching goals.

How to Write an Analysis of a Speech

If you’re working on the critical analysis of a speech for a class assignment, you’ll likely need to complete a written assignment to accompany your assessment. As with any other essay, a written analysis of a speech should include a strong introduction and clear thesis statement, several body paragraphs with topic sentences and strong transitions that clearly support your analysis and an effective conclusion that summarizes your critique.

Be sure that the essay is free of grammar and spelling mistakes and typos. As with any piece of writing, it’s always helpful to have another person review it before you publish it or submit it for a grade.

Related Articles

How to Write a Speech Essay

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Help to Do a Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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Speech Vs. Essay

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• Brigham Young University: Basic Questions for Rhetorical Analysis

Jennifer Brozak earned her state teaching certificate in Secondary English and Communications from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., and her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Pittsburgh. A former high school English teacher, Jennifer enjoys writing articles about parenting and education and has contributed to Reader's Digest, Mamapedia, Shmoop and more.

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Speech Analysis #1: How to Study and Critique a Speech

The Speech Analysis Series is a series of articles examining different aspects of presentation analysis. You will learn how to study a speech and how to deliver an effective speech evaluation. Later articles will examine Toastmasters evaluation contests and speech evaluation forms and resources.

• How to Study and Critique a Speech
• The Art of Delivering Evaluations
• Modified Sandwich Technique for Evaluations
• Evaluation Forms, Tools, and Resources
• Toastmasters Evaluation Contests

The first in the series, this article outlines questions to ask yourself when assessing a presentation . Ask these questions whether you attend the presentation, or whether you view a video or read the speech text. These questions also apply when you conduct a self evaluation of your own speeches .

The Most Important Thing to Analyze: The Speech Objectives

Knowing the speaker’s objective is critical to analyzing the speech, and should certainly influence how you study it.

• What is the speaker’s goal? Is it to educate , to motivate , to persuade , or to entertain ?
• What is the primary message being delivered?
• Why is this person delivering this speech ? Are they the right person?
• Was the objective achieved ?

The Audience and Context for the Speech

A speaker will need to use different techniques to connect with an audience of 1500 than they would with an audience of 15. Similarly, different techniques will be applied when communicating with teenagers as opposed to communicating with corporate leaders.

• Where and when is the speech being delivered?
• What are the key demographic features of the audience ? Technical? Students? Elderly? Athletes? Business leaders?
• How large is the audience?
• In addition to the live audience, is there an external target audience ? (e.g. on the Internet or mass media)

Speech Content and Structure

The content of the speech should be selected and organized to achieve the primary speech objective. Focus is important — extraneous information can weaken an otherwise effective argument.

Before the Speech

• Were there other speakers before this one ? Were their messages similar, opposed, or unrelated?
• How was the speaker introduced ? Was it appropriate?
• Did the introduction establish why the audience should listen to this speaker with this topic at this time ?
• What body language was demonstrated by the speaker as they approached the speaking area? Body language at this moment will often indicate their level of confidence .

The Speech Opening

Due to the primacy effect , words, body language, and visuals in the speech opening are all critical to speaking success.

• Was a hook used effectively to draw the audience into the speech? Or did the speaker open with a dry “ It’s great to be here today. “
• Did the speech open with a story ? A joke ? A startling statistic ? A controversial statement ? A powerful visual ?
• Did the speech opening clearly establish the intent of the presentation?
• Was the opening memorable ?

The Speech Body

• Was the presentation focused ? i.e. Did all arguments, stories, anecdotes relate back to the primary objective?
• Were examples or statistics provided to support the arguments ?
• Were metaphors and symbolism use to improve understanding?
• Was the speech organized logically ? Was it easy to follow?
• Did the speaker transition smoothly from one part of the presentation to the next?

The Speech Conclusion

Like the opening, the words, body language, and visuals in the speech conclusion are all critical to speaking success. This is due to the recency effect .

• Was the conclusion concise ?
• Was the conclusion memorable ?
• If appropriate, was there a call-to-action ?

Delivery Skills and Techniques

Delivery skills are like a gigantic toolbox — the best speakers know precisely when to use every tool and for what purpose.

Enthusiasm and Connection to the Audience

• Was the speaker enthusiastic ? How can you tell?
• Was there audience interaction ? Was it effective?
• Was the message you – and we-focused , or was it I- and me-focused ?
• Was humor used?
• Was it safe and appropriate given the audience?
• Were appropriate pauses used before and after the punch lines, phrases, or words?
• Was it relevant to the speech ?

Visual Aids

• Were they designed effectively?
• Did they complement speech arguments ?
• Was the use of visual aids timed well with the speaker’s words?
• Did they add energy to the presentation or remove it?
• Were they simple and easy to understand ?
• Were they easy to see ? e.g. large enough
• Would an additional visual aid help to convey the message?

Use of Stage Area

• Did the speaker make appropriate use of the speaking area?

Physical – Gestures and Eye Contact

• Did the speaker’s posture display confidence and poise?
• Were gestures natural, timely, and complementary ?
• Were gestures   easy to see ?
• Does the speaker have any distracting mannerisms ?
• Was eye contact effective in connecting the speaker to the whole audience?

Vocal Variety

• Was the speaker easy to hear ?
• Were loud and soft variations used appropriately?
• Was the speaking pace  varied? Was it slow enough overall to be understandable?
• Were pauses used to aid understanding, heighten excitement, or provide drama?
• Was the language appropriate for the audience?
• Did the speaker articulate clearly?
• Were sentences short and easy to understand?
• Was technical jargon or unnecessarily complex language used?
• What rhetorical devices were used? e.g. repetition, alliteration, the rule of three , etc.

Intangibles

Sometimes, a technically sound speech can still miss the mark. Likewise, technical deficiencies can sometimes be overcome to produce a must-see presentation. The intangibles are impossible to list, but here are a few questions to consider:

• How did the speech make you feel ?
• Were you convinced ?
• Would you want to listen to this speaker again?
• Were there any original ideas or techniques?

Next in the Speech Analysis Series

The next article in this series – The Art of Delivering Evaluations – examines how best to utilize speech evaluation skills as a teaching tool.

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• Speech Analysis #3: Modified Sandwich Technique for Evaluations
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40 comments.

I absolutely loved this article. It gave me a major idea of what to write on my speech critique. Great information, organized, and detailed!

Great post. I have to say, it was when I started to do exactly what you say that my skills took off.

If anyone wants to go farther, just teach a class on public speaking. You do not need a degree to teach continuing ed. It will help you, as some of my students who went on to teach to improve even more. This is because not only are you observing your students for these points. You are actually teaching them how to attain some of these skills.

oh my god….thank you!! i had no idea where to even start my speech analysis!

Excellent article. Will refer members of my club to it.

Dear Eugenia You refer to “members of your club” and I wanted to know an online public speaking club. Does this exist. Regards Berty

Your article is very informative. Hope you post more tips on writing a speech and how to analyse it!! 😎

Thanks for providing this information. I am writing an essay critiquing my own speech in third person. A tough task, but these pointers made it easier. Thank you.

i loved this information very much.now i am preparing for my examination and i think this article will help me to get good mark. thanks

Great summary/overview on basic things to evaluate while listening to a speech. Will be very much helpful when i have to do evaluations for speech class!

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Thank you Andrew, great articles and valuable information. I recently joined a Toastmaster’s group and this will really help. Once I figure out how to “tweet” I will be “tweeting” this site to Kwantlen University Students and Alumni.

I absolutely loved this article it gave me a major idea of what to write on my speech critique great information, organized, and detailed!

Fantastic article. For someone that is new to Taostmasters this gives me at least an idea of how I should approach giving an evaluation…frigthening me more than giving a speech!! Thanks!

hi Andrew, this is a great article for someone who is a beginner to evaluate a speech. thanks a lot. -Venkat

very informative article will certainly help me to develop my speech technique.

Thus really helpful…we always read text resurfacely I gained alot from this article. now I know where to start when I want to present information through speech to the public

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thanks a lot this just help me with my paper. you explain it better than my teacher

I am a toastmaster who loves to compete. I believe these articles will help me help other to deliver their speeches and both of us can grow.

Hi Andrew Dlugan, i am really happy to come across your site as new trainee in the public speaking and writing profession. i am programmer but i have passion for writing especially poems.Do you have any advice or resources to help me survive in the world of speaking and writing.

Thank You, Best Regards, Lawal Abdulateef Olawle

I came here looking for a speech review but reading this article helped me a lot in my opening speech. I hope many people who are having trouble in analysing there speech they should really open this website. Thank you

This is a helpful source to me. Thanks a lot

Great article. I am preparing to critique a public speaking competition this weekend and I found this article quite helpful Thanks a lot

Hi Andrew, May I use your article in our club newsletter? It is particularly timely as we approach the contest season in Toastmasters. I will source it to your web site and also include a link under the Articles about speaking of our club website.

John Sleigh Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia

Amazing breakdown of how to not only analysis a speech but to also push yourself that inch further to get more scope for marks. I really recommend this webpage. Thank you

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Really GREAT JOB! thanks so much! Best! Rasha

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This information was very informative and knowledgeable.Thank you.

Your articles are very thorough. I really enjoyed reading the first one.

Can you give me some examples of relevant puns used in speeches?

One more treasure trove on the internet. Thanks for sharing DLugan.

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How to Conduct a Speech Analysis and Present It Like a Pro

Who doesn't dream of delivering the perfect speech? Every person who speaks in front of a crowd wants to leave them moved. However, not everyone can do that.

Even the greatest speakers have worked for years to master the art of public speaking . Although we may not know their secret, we can learn a lot from their work. That's where speech analysis helps. Let's find out what it is and how to benefit from it.

What Is Speech Analysis?

You probably know the standard definition already – it is a process of studying a speech's good, bad, and pain points. However, what does it have to offer to you?

In essence, speech analysis means understanding the useful information in the speech and setting it aside from what isn't handy. For instance, a renowned speaker comes on stage to deliver a speech , and you have to perform a speech analysis – what will you look for?

You will observe the speaker's gestures, body language , confidence, usage of terms, sentence structure, quality of speech, proper delivery of the message, and much more.

This plethora of factors contributes to a single word called speech analysis. Now that you know what it is, let's have a comprehensive look into these factors.

How Does Speech Analysis Work?

For analyzing a speech, the first thing you need is information.

You need to know the perfect way to begin the speech , convey the message and give an immediate call to action.

You also must identify where the speaker is wrong and what was lacking in the speech.

For instance, if the targeted audience is teenagers, you should be able to tell if the humor and jokes used were appropriate. Was the speech engaging or lackluster? Did the audience understand the message?

Let's see what these aspects entail below.

Introduction of the Speech Analysis

First thing's first, add an introduction. It usually begins with a hook, something to entice the reader. Then it mentions the time and place of the speech, followed by an overview of the address.

Next, you need to mention the speaker, the topic, and the key points of the speech.

Body of the Analysis

Once done with the analysis, you need to begin crafting the body. This includes some special and some general details of the content and delivery, and writing them in a critique manner.

Usually, this begins with a certain action of the speaker, like tone, gesture , or emotion.

The description of some of the common factors is given below.

Identify the Objective of Speech

The purpose plays the most important part here as it is the deciding factor of the nature of the speech.

Is it an entertainment speech with a few jokes and funny lines here and there or an educational speech delivering quality information?

Was it a script written to motivate the audience for a bigger cause? Was it delivered in a manner to promote a product among the audience?

What is the message being conveyed? If it promotes peace and equality and focuses on making the world a better place, your analysis should consider that.

Similarly, identify if the person delivering the speech is the right person for the job. He must deliver the speech perfectly or at least achieve the purpose set.

Once you get your head around these points, making an analysis becomes easy.

Be Mindful of the Target Audience

A good speaker knows that a speaking style used for 50 cannot be used for 2000 people. Similarly, the tone or technique used with business leaders cannot be used with homemakers.

You need to see how well the topic resonates with the audience and how engaged they are.

Say a spokesperson delivers a speech about leading SEO strategies in 2022. The audience will comprise people familiar with digital marketing or those who want to learn it.

It will include related terms, anecdotes, stories , facts, and stats that will bind the audience to the topic.

For the speech analysis, you must also consider if the speech is being broadcasted to an external audience on streaming platforms.

Bring in the Juicy Part: Content of the Speech

The heading says it all.

We cannot stress enough. The content of the speech is by far the most vital part of the script. It can make or break the overall mood.

The Opening: Pay special attention to the opening of the speech. Usually, a hook, controversial statement, or question is used to garner the audience's attention.

An interactive, intuitive opening is much preferred to a dry opening, saying, "Hello everyone, thank you for having me."

The Main Body: Once you write all this down, move on to the body of the content. You need to deduce if the topic was authoritative. Did it include a particular focus on the subject matter? Did it have stories and facts that connected back to the issue?

How did the speaker transition from point to point ?

Speech analysis also requires you to check if statistics or visuals were used to support the arguments. It is better to use graphics to convey the message better, and you need to study if they did the work. You must analyze how well the speech was constructed and organized efficiently.

The Ending Words: Lastly, determine how valuable, memorable, and well defined the ending of the speech was.

Was it concise? Did the review do justice to the speech? Did it list the good and bad parts of the speech? These points will make up for a strong conclusion influencing the reader's mind that you have a strong hold on the subject here.

These were the main three points of speech content; the opening, body, and conclusion. This is an easy approach to follow and can help you with speech analysis quickly.

Observe Style and Delivery Manner

In scripting and speaking, the delivery style and techniques are the best tools, provided you know when and how to use them.

When analyzing a speech, you must view the speech from a critic's perspective. Observe the mood and vibe of the audience during the speech.

Were people bored or engaged ? Was the session interactive? Did it teach you something you didn't know?

These questions will tell you the experience of the audience. Try putting yourself in the audience's shoes, and you will understand how useful it was for them.

Next, observe the speaker.

Was he nervous ? Did he know what he was saying? Often at such times, the body language communicates the confidence of the speaker .

You may also notice the stage area used by the speaker. Did he pace around the stage or stand in one place? All these factors determine the speaker's delivery style and make a significant portion of the analysis.

Determine Correct Usage of Visuals

Yet another critical factor of speech analysis; determining the proper use of visuals. This adds so much life and energy to the speech. The experience becomes more realistic.

According to research, more than 67% of people feel more inclined and engaged in speeches that include visuals.

This is generally true too. An average person would enjoy a speech with infographics, charts, images, short clips, and figures rather than a dull, verbal presentation.

You need to see if the speaker used sufficient visual aids and whether they were succinct in delivering the message.

Did the visuals complement the speech? Were they fun and easy to understand? Did the audience like and engage with them?

Observing these during the speech will make the analysis quick and condensed.

Consider Language and Choice of Words

Since language and words are the modes of communication for the speaker here, it is essential to know how he uses them.

Say the topic is about the best places to buy Bitcoin. You now need to see if the speaker uses the proper terms to address the topic.

Does he explain the concept of Crypto and how it works? Does he tell how Bitcoin reached fame and all its background?

That makes for the comprehensiveness of the topic.

Next, inspect the use of language. Is it appropriate for the audience? Does it use slang words, or is it too bland? Are the terms difficult to understand?

A fine point to make in your speech analysis would be the flow of the speech. In this, you can mention how fast or slow the speaker was.

His articulation of words , the length of sentences, and their ease of understanding. You can also mention the uniqueness or repetitiveness of words, sentences, ideas, or rhetorical devices in the speech .

The only way you can do justice to a speech analysis is by mentioning every good and bad point of the speaker.

Sound Experience

You might wonder why this is important – truth be told, this is an essential factor in crafting a speech analysis. How you hear something tells your mind how to perceive it.

For example, you purchase an online course.

As soon as you hear the tutor's voice, you feel annoyed and request a refund. Why?

Because the first thing your brain captured was the voice of the video playing in your mind, it might have been too sharp, distorted, or garbled for you to hear.

The same is the case with a speech; what you hear and how you hear influence your willingness to listen to the script .

So, you must include how well the speakers worked in your speech analysis. The pitch of the sound, how easy it was to hear and discern the words of the speaker.

This section in the analysis could also use the speaking pace of the reader. Additionally, talk about how the speaker paused after regular intervals to create suspense, arouse excitement, express grief, make a remark or add value to his words.

You will feel special if someone looks you in the eye while you speak – so does the audience. Being a critic and speech analyst, you must observe how the speaker makes eye contact with the audience.

Does he shy away? Does he smile while making direct contact? Or does he keep looking elsewhere, avoiding the audience?

Adding all these points to your analysis will give it leverage over the others.

Gestures also include the movements and timings of the speaker. Did he use his hand to add energy and influence to his words? Were the gestures natural or forced? Were they distracting?

This part won't take up as much space or information but can help identify the right person.

Conclusion of the Speech Analysis

The conclusion is the final part of the analysis, where you summarize the speech and write an ending note.

Say you heard a speech about a woman who lost her husband to the DEA agents. She told with extreme pain and grief how they encountered him and shot him at point blank.

Now here's how you can write its conclusion:

"Samantha's speech engulfed me and the entire audience the moment she began her story. It hooked me, and I could feel her pain moving like waves in the hall and the audience.

However, I believe that the tone and pace should have been slightly lighter for my liking. Otherwise, the unfortunate incident with her husband didn’t allow her to control her emotions."

This will be your judgment and remarks that you acquired throughout the speech analysis. That makes up for a satisfactory conclusion to your speech analysis.

Final Verdict

You might find it challenging to analyze a speech at first, but once you learn the pain points, it's a child's game. Use the above factors to analyze your next speech and get an A+ on that assignment.

A good speech analysis manifests the intent, the audience, the content, the delivery style, visuals, and much more. Now that you know how speech analysis works, you're well versed with all the points.

That brings us to the end of this post. Happy Speaking!

Related: How to Give a Speech Evaluation in Toastmasters

Writing a Critical Analysis

What is in this guide, definitions, putting it together, tips and examples of critques.

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This guide is meant to help you understand the basics of writing a critical analysis. A critical analysis is an argument about a particular piece of media. There are typically two parts: (1) identify and explain the argument the author is making, and (2), provide your own argument about that argument. Your instructor may have very specific requirements on how you are to write your critical analysis, so make sure you read your assignment carefully.

Critical Analysis

A deep approach to your understanding of a piece of media by relating new knowledge to what you already know.

Part 1: Introduction

• Identify the work being criticized.
• Present thesis - argument about the work.
• Preview your argument - what are the steps you will take to prove your argument.

Part 2: Summarize

• Provide a short summary of the work.
• Present only what is needed to know to understand your argument.

Part 3: Your Argument

• This is the bulk of your paper.
• Provide "sub-arguments" to prove your main argument.
• Use scholarly articles to back up your argument(s).

Part 4: Conclusion

• Reflect on  how  you have proven your argument.
• Point out the  importance  of your argument.
• Comment on the potential for further research or analysis.
• Cornell University Library Tips for writing a critical appraisal and analysis of a scholarly article.
• Queen's University Library How to Critique an Article (Psychology)
• University of Illinois, Springfield An example of a summary and an evaluation of a research article. This extended example shows the different ways a student can critique and write about an article
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A 9-Step Practical Guide On How To Analyze A Speech – Speech Analysis of I have A Dream Speech as an Example

A speech, as we all know, is a vocal opinion of a speaker’s stand. Speeches are usually used as an effective tool for rallying support, conveying opinion, as well as influencing the thoughts of others (usually the audience) to accept or agree with the thoughts of the Speaker.

However, in most cases, there is usually a need to consider what was not said in a speech, or what the motive of the Speaker was. For this reason, speech analysis comes in handy in order to have a full understanding of a speech.

What is Speech Analysis?

In its simplest form, speech analysis or speech interpretation can be said to be the process of extracting important pieces of information that are contained in a speech. When carrying out speech analysis, there is usually a need to take note of some essential and necessary components of the Speech . These include;

1. Analyzing the purpose or intent of the Speech

2. the target audience and how the speech relates to them.

Also of paramount importance during speech analysis is  taking note of who the target audience is, and how the Speech relates to the audience .

3. The effective and validity of the Speech 

Still using the same above example about a speech about a pay rise in an organization, the Speaker may have to include facts such as the agreed terms for a pay rise in the organization. 

The I Have A Dream Speech by Martin Luther King Jr (with Video+Audio+Full Transcript and Historical Context)

What is the First Step in Rhetoric Analysis?

The Structure of a Speech

Introducing a speech with such powerful elements is an excellent way to give the audience reasons why they should listen to the Speaker, instead of starting with a dry  “hello everyone, it’s a great privilege to talk to you today.”

After the introduction comes the body of a speech, which is the part that contains the Speaker’s main points. These points are usually expected to be supported with relevant examples, details, statistics, and facts, which are explained in simply and concisely.

The concluding part of a speech also packs as much power as the other two parts mentioned earlier. 

How to Analyze and Interpret a Speech? 9 Key Questions to effective speech Analysis.

However, when analyzing a speech, don’t feel satisfied by merely outline these nine important questions in the Speech and answering them. Instead, there should be a complementary explanation or example of how these nine key questions work using a speech as an example. So, in analyzing a speech, here are the 9 key questions you must give appropriate answers to for effective speech analysis .

1. Who is the Speaker?

2. who is/are the audience, 3. what is the type of speech.

In this regard, the Speech delivered might be one that is intended to inform or educate the audience, entertain, or even persuade the audience to take certain steps of action.

4. What is the Structure of the Speech?

5. what is the purpose of the speech, 6. what is the content/circumstances of the speech.

In evaluating the content and circumstances of a speech, you consider the events that have created the need for the Speech. In doing this, you may have to pay closer attention to specific elements such as;  

7. What are the Techniques used by the Speaker?

8. is the intention of the speech achieved.

By analyzing a speech to see whether or not it has achieved its purpose, you may have to carry out some evaluations to ascertain if the Speech was successful.

9. What is the overall result of the analysis of the Speech?

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The 4 Methods or Types of Speech Delivery

The 7 basic elements of public speaking, an easy guide to all 15 types of speech, analyzing the i have a dream speech by martin luther king jr.

In a bid to have a full understanding of how the various questions that should be considered when carrying out speech analysis work, we shall be considering the heroic Speech delivered by a civil rights leader – Martin Luther King Jr, on August 28, 1963, in front of the Lincoln Memorial Mall. 

Alternatively, you can just watch the 17 minutes full Speech through the link below;

However, it is evident that members of media were present to cover the event, and so it is obvious that the Speech was open to everyone who could have access to a live stream of the Speech

“And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.”

“But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.”

“And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquillizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”

“There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote, and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Also worthy of note and analysis is the geographical location where the Speech was delivered and the choice of such location. 

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

“I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.”

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”

I also noted the use of irony to express the supposed reasons why the negroes are undergoing injustice and segregation in America.

“But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

In summary, I think that the “I Have A Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr was a timely call for the freedom of the negroes in America after the successful completion of 100 years after the emancipation proclamation by Abraham Lincoln.

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Formal speech style examples, 19+ public speaking techniques and skills (#18 is gold), the 10 key elements of a great presentation explained, how to draft the best persuasive speech outline, 6 solid tips about making eye contact, how to bring up salary during the job interview (and when).

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How to Critique a Speech

Last Updated: February 13, 2023 Approved

This article was co-authored by Lynn Kirkham and by wikiHow staff writer, Christopher M. Osborne, PhD . Lynn Kirkham is a Professional Public Speaker and Founder of Yes You Can Speak, a San Francisco Bay Area-based public speaking educational business empowering thousands of professionals to take command of whatever stage they've been given - from job interviews, boardroom talks to TEDx and large conference platforms. Lynn was chosen as the official TEDx Berkeley speaker coach for the last four years and has worked with executives at Google, Facebook, Intuit, Genentech, Intel, VMware, and others. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 80% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 196,793 times.

A good speech critique helps build the speaker’s skills by honestly identifying areas for improvement in a constructive, encouraging manner. Offering a good critique can also benefit your own public speaking skills! This article lists several questions you should ask yourself while critiquing a speech’s content and the speaker’s delivery, then provides pointers for effectively sharing your findings.

Does the speech resonate?

• If possible, note audience reactions to the speech. Do they seem to understand it? Are they paying close attention or getting bored?
• Remember to view the speech from the perspective of the target audience, which can be a bit tricky if you’re not actually in the target audience. Use your best judgment.

Is the speech easy to follow?

• Is the introduction effective? Does the speaker make their primary argument apparent within the first few sentences, or does it take awhile before you figure out what they are getting at?
• Is the speech full of distracting tangents that do not relate to the primary topic, or does it build in a logical manner toward the conclusion?
• If you were to summarize the speech to someone else, could you recite all the main points or would you have trouble remembering what it was really about?

Is the speech convincing?

• Listen for clear evidence (like names, dates, statistics, and other data) that backs up the points the speaker is making. Take notes so you can do some fact-checking to make sure the evidence is accurate.
• Once you’ve evaluated the quality of the evidence, make sure it supports the arguments and analysis made in the speech. A truly convincing speech has to hit on both elements—solid evidence and strong analysis.

Is the speech entertaining?

• Does it start with a good hook? Good speeches usually start with a funny or intriguing point that draws the audience in.
• Does it stay engaging the entire time? Well-placed anecdotes and jokes can grab and keep listeners' attention.
• Are the anecdotes and jokes distracting, or do they help build the speaker’s argument?
• Does the speaker use examples judiciously? One really superb, memorable example is better than three that don't stick with the audience.

Does the speech have a strong closing?

• It’s natural for the audience’s focus to lag as the speech carries on, so the closing should regain their attention by being powerful, thoughtful, deep, and concise.
• Both the speech and the speaker should exude confidence during the conclusion. This helps the audience gain confidence in the presentation.

How is the speaker’s vocal delivery?

• A person who is speaking too loudly may seem aggressive, while one who is speaking too quietly may struggle to be heard. See if the person seems to have a good sense of how loudly to speak.
• Many speakers tend to speak too quickly without realizing it. See if the person is speaking at a pace that sounds natural and easy to understand.
• Well-placed and well-timed pauses help the audience digest what’s just been said and prepare for what’s about to be said. Pauses that are too short or non-existent don't give the audience these opportunities, while pauses that are too long are distracting.

How is the speaker’s body language?

• Make easy, natural eye contact with audience members scattered throughout the crowd. This helps every part of the audience feel included.
• Stand up confidently, but not stiffly, and without fidgeting too much.
• Use natural arm and hand gestures from time to time, especially to emphasize key points.
• When appropriate, walk around the stage in a confident but relaxed manner instead of staying behind the podium.

Is the speaker showing high anxiety?

• Note any repeated movements or gestures that take away from the content of the speech; these could be signs of nervousness.
• A shaky voice or tendency to mumble are also signs of nervousness.

Did they read, memorize, or master the speech?

• Mastering the speech allows the speaker to better engage with the audience and make adjustments “on the fly” without wrecking the speech’s flow.

Take notes during and after the speech.

• Instead of a blank notebook, you may instead want to jot down several key questions or areas of focus (like those listed in this article) as a checklist you can refer to during the speech. Make sure to also take notes to flesh out your checklist, though.
• If there are no restrictions against it and you have time, record video or just audio of the speech. Always get the permission of the speaker first. [12] X Research source

Critique the speech’s content first.

• Note which elements of the speech were interesting, which parts were confusing, and which areas need more references to back them up.
• Identify jokes or anecdotes that either really hit the mark or just didn’t work. It’s better to be honest now than to let the person tell the same bad joke twice!
• Note whether you felt the speech was appropriate for the intended audience.

Critique the speaker’s delivery second.

• If, for example, the speaker seemed really nervous, it’s important to point this out as a distracting element that blunted the impact of the speech. You might also constructively point out techniques that help reduce stage fright, like exercising before the speech, laughing before the speech, and practicing in front of a small group of people first.

Offer positive encouragement throughout.

• Try the feedback sandwich technique: give the person a compliment on an element of their speech, tell them what needs improvement, then give them another compliment. For example, tell them they started with a brilliant hook, then explain that the second point was confusing, and finish by noting how the conclusion clarified the main point. [16] X Research source
• As a way to encourage the person to keep learning and improving, you might suggest they watch videos of speeches given by famous speakers. Point out similarities and differences between the speech you’re critiquing and the famous speech.

Expert Q&A

• Use a standardized evaluation form, rating scale, or point system in a classroom setting or competition. This helps you assign a grade to the speech or decide who presented a better speech. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ http://faculty.washington.edu/mcgarrit/COM220/online%20readings/Peer_Critique_Assignment_Description.pdf
• ↑ Lynn Kirkham. Public Speaking Coach. Expert Interview. 20 November 2019.
• ↑ http://www.uvm.edu/~cals183/spring2017/outside.html
• ↑ http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/speech-evaluation-1-how-to-study-critique-speech/
• ↑ https://www.psycom.net/glossophobia-fear-of-public-speaking
• ↑ https://hbr.org/2020/02/dont-just-memorize-your-next-presentation-know-it-cold
• ↑ http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/speech-evaluation-2-art-of-delivering-evaluations/
• ↑ https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2016/oct2016/evaluation
• ↑ http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/speech-evaluation-3-modified-sandwich-technique/

About This Article

To critique a speech, start by evaluating whether or not the speaker made their argument apparent in the first few sentences of their speech. Then, decide if the rest of the speech supported that argument in a smooth, understandable manner. You should also focus on the speaker’s voice inflections, like speaking at a natural pace and knowing when to pause for effect. Additionally, evaluate their body language, which should project confidence with gestures like making eye contact and standing up straight without fidgeting too much. For more advice, including how to give constructive feedback in areas like credibility and emotional intelligence, keep reading. Did this summary help you? Yes No

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• How to write a literary analysis essay | A step-by-step guide

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay | A Step-by-Step Guide

Published on January 30, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 14, 2023.

Literary analysis means closely studying a text, interpreting its meanings, and exploring why the author made certain choices. It can be applied to novels, short stories, plays, poems, or any other form of literary writing.

A literary analysis essay is not a rhetorical analysis , nor is it just a summary of the plot or a book review. Instead, it is a type of argumentative essay where you need to analyze elements such as the language, perspective, and structure of the text, and explain how the author uses literary devices to create effects and convey ideas.

Before beginning a literary analysis essay, it’s essential to carefully read the text and c ome up with a thesis statement to keep your essay focused. As you write, follow the standard structure of an academic essay :

• An introduction that tells the reader what your essay will focus on.
• A main body, divided into paragraphs , that builds an argument using evidence from the text.
• A conclusion that clearly states the main point that you have shown with your analysis.

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Table of contents

Step 1: reading the text and identifying literary devices, step 2: coming up with a thesis, step 3: writing a title and introduction, step 4: writing the body of the essay, step 5: writing a conclusion, other interesting articles.

The first step is to carefully read the text(s) and take initial notes. As you read, pay attention to the things that are most intriguing, surprising, or even confusing in the writing—these are things you can dig into in your analysis.

Your goal in literary analysis is not simply to explain the events described in the text, but to analyze the writing itself and discuss how the text works on a deeper level. Primarily, you’re looking out for literary devices —textual elements that writers use to convey meaning and create effects. If you’re comparing and contrasting multiple texts, you can also look for connections between different texts.

To get started with your analysis, there are several key areas that you can focus on. As you analyze each aspect of the text, try to think about how they all relate to each other. You can use highlights or notes to keep track of important passages and quotes.

Language choices

Consider what style of language the author uses. Are the sentences short and simple or more complex and poetic?

What word choices stand out as interesting or unusual? Are words used figuratively to mean something other than their literal definition? Figurative language includes things like metaphor (e.g. “her eyes were oceans”) and simile (e.g. “her eyes were like oceans”).

Also keep an eye out for imagery in the text—recurring images that create a certain atmosphere or symbolize something important. Remember that language is used in literary texts to say more than it means on the surface.

Narrative voice

Ask yourself:

• Who is telling the story?
• How are they telling it?

Is it a first-person narrator (“I”) who is personally involved in the story, or a third-person narrator who tells us about the characters from a distance?

Consider the narrator’s perspective . Is the narrator omniscient (where they know everything about all the characters and events), or do they only have partial knowledge? Are they an unreliable narrator who we are not supposed to take at face value? Authors often hint that their narrator might be giving us a distorted or dishonest version of events.

The tone of the text is also worth considering. Is the story intended to be comic, tragic, or something else? Are usually serious topics treated as funny, or vice versa ? Is the story realistic or fantastical (or somewhere in between)?

Consider how the text is structured, and how the structure relates to the story being told.

• Novels are often divided into chapters and parts.
• Poems are divided into lines, stanzas, and sometime cantos.
• Plays are divided into scenes and acts.

Think about why the author chose to divide the different parts of the text in the way they did.

There are also less formal structural elements to take into account. Does the story unfold in chronological order, or does it jump back and forth in time? Does it begin in medias res —in the middle of the action? Does the plot advance towards a clearly defined climax?

With poetry, consider how the rhyme and meter shape your understanding of the text and your impression of the tone. Try reading the poem aloud to get a sense of this.

In a play, you might consider how relationships between characters are built up through different scenes, and how the setting relates to the action. Watch out for  dramatic irony , where the audience knows some detail that the characters don’t, creating a double meaning in their words, thoughts, or actions.

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Your thesis in a literary analysis essay is the point you want to make about the text. It’s the core argument that gives your essay direction and prevents it from just being a collection of random observations about a text.

If you’re given a prompt for your essay, your thesis must answer or relate to the prompt. For example:

Essay question example

Is Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” a religious parable?

Your thesis statement should be an answer to this question—not a simple yes or no, but a statement of why this is or isn’t the case:

Thesis statement example

Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” is not a religious parable, but a story about bureaucratic alienation.

Sometimes you’ll be given freedom to choose your own topic; in this case, you’ll have to come up with an original thesis. Consider what stood out to you in the text; ask yourself questions about the elements that interested you, and consider how you might answer them.

Your thesis should be something arguable—that is, something that you think is true about the text, but which is not a simple matter of fact. It must be complex enough to develop through evidence and arguments across the course of your essay.

Say you’re analyzing the novel Frankenstein . You could start by asking yourself:

Your initial answer might be a surface-level description:

The character Frankenstein is portrayed negatively in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

However, this statement is too simple to be an interesting thesis. After reading the text and analyzing its narrative voice and structure, you can develop the answer into a more nuanced and arguable thesis statement:

Mary Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

Remember that you can revise your thesis statement throughout the writing process , so it doesn’t need to be perfectly formulated at this stage. The aim is to keep you focused as you analyze the text.

Finding textual evidence

To support your thesis statement, your essay will build an argument using textual evidence —specific parts of the text that demonstrate your point. This evidence is quoted and analyzed throughout your essay to explain your argument to the reader.

It can be useful to comb through the text in search of relevant quotations before you start writing. You might not end up using everything you find, and you may have to return to the text for more evidence as you write, but collecting textual evidence from the beginning will help you to structure your arguments and assess whether they’re convincing.

To start your literary analysis paper, you’ll need two things: a good title, and an introduction.

Your title should clearly indicate what your analysis will focus on. It usually contains the name of the author and text(s) you’re analyzing. Keep it as concise and engaging as possible.

A common approach to the title is to use a relevant quote from the text, followed by a colon and then the rest of your title.

If you struggle to come up with a good title at first, don’t worry—this will be easier once you’ve begun writing the essay and have a better sense of your arguments.

“Fearful symmetry” : The violence of creation in William Blake’s “The Tyger”

The introduction

The essay introduction provides a quick overview of where your argument is going. It should include your thesis statement and a summary of the essay’s structure.

A typical structure for an introduction is to begin with a general statement about the text and author, using this to lead into your thesis statement. You might refer to a commonly held idea about the text and show how your thesis will contradict it, or zoom in on a particular device you intend to focus on.

Then you can end with a brief indication of what’s coming up in the main body of the essay. This is called signposting. It will be more elaborate in longer essays, but in a short five-paragraph essay structure, it shouldn’t be more than one sentence.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

Some students prefer to write the introduction later in the process, and it’s not a bad idea. After all, you’ll have a clearer idea of the overall shape of your arguments once you’ve begun writing them!

If you do write the introduction first, you should still return to it later to make sure it lines up with what you ended up writing, and edit as necessary.

The body of your essay is everything between the introduction and conclusion. It contains your arguments and the textual evidence that supports them.

Paragraph structure

A typical structure for a high school literary analysis essay consists of five paragraphs : the three paragraphs of the body, plus the introduction and conclusion.

Each paragraph in the main body should focus on one topic. In the five-paragraph model, try to divide your argument into three main areas of analysis, all linked to your thesis. Don’t try to include everything you can think of to say about the text—only analysis that drives your argument.

In longer essays, the same principle applies on a broader scale. For example, you might have two or three sections in your main body, each with multiple paragraphs. Within these sections, you still want to begin new paragraphs at logical moments—a turn in the argument or the introduction of a new idea.

Robert’s first encounter with Gil-Martin suggests something of his sinister power. Robert feels “a sort of invisible power that drew me towards him.” He identifies the moment of their meeting as “the beginning of a series of adventures which has puzzled myself, and will puzzle the world when I am no more in it” (p. 89). Gil-Martin’s “invisible power” seems to be at work even at this distance from the moment described; before continuing the story, Robert feels compelled to anticipate at length what readers will make of his narrative after his approaching death. With this interjection, Hogg emphasizes the fatal influence Gil-Martin exercises from his first appearance.

Topic sentences

To keep your points focused, it’s important to use a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph.

A good topic sentence allows a reader to see at a glance what the paragraph is about. It can introduce a new line of argument and connect or contrast it with the previous paragraph. Transition words like “however” or “moreover” are useful for creating smooth transitions:

… The story’s focus, therefore, is not upon the divine revelation that may be waiting beyond the door, but upon the mundane process of aging undergone by the man as he waits.

Nevertheless, the “radiance” that appears to stream from the door is typically treated as religious symbolism.

This topic sentence signals that the paragraph will address the question of religious symbolism, while the linking word “nevertheless” points out a contrast with the previous paragraph’s conclusion.

Using textual evidence

A key part of literary analysis is backing up your arguments with relevant evidence from the text. This involves introducing quotes from the text and explaining their significance to your point.

It’s important to contextualize quotes and explain why you’re using them; they should be properly introduced and analyzed, not treated as self-explanatory:

It isn’t always necessary to use a quote. Quoting is useful when you’re discussing the author’s language, but sometimes you’ll have to refer to plot points or structural elements that can’t be captured in a short quote.

In these cases, it’s more appropriate to paraphrase or summarize parts of the text—that is, to describe the relevant part in your own words:

The conclusion of your analysis shouldn’t introduce any new quotations or arguments. Instead, it’s about wrapping up the essay. Here, you summarize your key points and try to emphasize their significance to the reader.

A good way to approach this is to briefly summarize your key arguments, and then stress the conclusion they’ve led you to, highlighting the new perspective your thesis provides on the text as a whole:

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

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Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments

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Traditionally, teachers have encouraged students to engage with and interpret literature—novels, poems, short stories, and plays. Too often, however, the spoken word is left unanalyzed, even though the spoken word has the potential to alter our space just as much than the written. After gaining skill through analyzing a historic and contemporary speech as a class, students will select a famous speech from a list compiled from several resources and write an essay that identifies and explains the rhetorical strategies that the author deliberately chose while crafting the text to make an effective argument. Their analysis will consider questions such as What makes the speech an argument?, How did the author's rhetoric evoke a response from the audience?, and Why are the words still venerated today?

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Nearly everything we read and hear is an argument. Speeches are special kinds of arguments and should be analyzed as such. Listeners should keep in mind the context of the situation involving the delivery and the audience-but a keen observer should also pay close attention to the elements of argument within the text. This assignment requires students to look for those elements.

"Since rhetoric is the art of effective communication, its principles can be applied to many facets of everyday life" (Lamb 109). It's through this lesson that students are allowed to see how politicians and leaders manipulate and influence their audiences using specific rhetorical devices in a manner that's so effective that the speeches are revered even today. It's important that we keep showing our students how powerful language can be when it's carefully crafted and arranged.

Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

Materials and Technology

• ReadWriteThink Notetaker
• Teacher Background and Information Sheet
• Student Assignment Sheet
• List of Speeches for Students
• Queen Elizabeth I’s Speech with Related Questions
• Historical Speech Research Questions
• Peer Response Handout
• Essay Rubric

This website contains audio of the Top 100 speeches of all time.

Included on this site is audio of famous speeches of the 20th century, as well as information about the speeches and background information on the writers.

The "Great Speeches Collection" from The History Place are available here in print and in audio.

This website includes information on finding and documenting sources in the MLA format.

Preparation

• Review the background and information sheet for teachers to familiarize yourself with the assignment and expectations.  Consider your students' background with necessary rhetorical terms such as claims, warrants, the appeals (logos, pathos, ethos), and fallacies; and rhetorical devices such as tone, diction, figurative language, repetition, hyperbole, and understatement. The lesson provides some guidance for direct instruction on these terms, but there are multiple opportunities for building or activating student knowledge through modeling on the two speeches done as a class.
• Check the links to the online resources (in Websites section) make sure that they are still working prior to giving out this assignment.
• Decide whether you want to allow more than one student to analyze and write about the same speech in each class.
• Look over the  List of Speeches for Students to decide if there are any that you would like to add.
• Look over the suggested Essay Rubric and determine the weights you would like to assign to each category.  For example, you might tell students that Support and Research may be worth three times the value of Style. Customize the Essay Rubric to meet the learning goals for your students.
• Reserve the library for Session Three so the students can do research on their speeches.
• President Obama’s Inauguration Speech.
• Former President Bush’s Defends War in Iraq Speech.
• Former President Bush’s 9/11 Speech.
• Former President Clinton’s “I Have Sinned” Speech.

Student Objectives

Students will

• analyze a speech for rhetorical devices and their purpose.
• identify an author’s purposeful manipulation of language.
• identify elements of argument within a speech.
• write an analysis of a speech with in-text documentation.

Session One

• Begin the lesson by asking students what needs to be present in order for a speech to occur. Though the question may seem puzzling—too hard, or too simple—at first, students will eventually identify, as Aristotle did, the need for a speaker, a message, and an audience.
• The class should discuss audience and the importance of identifying the audience for speeches, since they occur in particular moments in time and are delivered to specific audiences. This is a good time to discuss the Rhetorical Triangle (Aristotelian Triad) or discuss a chapter on audience from an argumentative textbook. You may wish to share information from the ReadWriteThink.org lesson Persuasive Techniques in Advertising and  The Rhetorical Triangle from The University of Oklahoma.
• Next distribute Queen Elizabeth’s speech to the troops at Tilbury and use the speech and its historical context as a model for the processes students will use on the speech they select. Provide a bit of background information on the moment in history.
• Then, as a class, go over  Queen Elizabeth’s speech and discuss the rhetorical devices in the speech and the purpose for each one. Adjust the level of guidance you provide, depending on your students' experiences with this type of analysis. The questions provide a place to start, but there are many other stylistic devices to discuss in this selection.

Discuss the audience and the author’s manipulation of the audience. Consider posing questions such as

• This is a successful speech.  Why?
• Elizabeth uses all of the appeals – logos, pathos, and ethos – to convince all of her listeners to fight for her from the loyal follower to the greedy mercenary.  How?
• The tone shifts throughout the selection.  Where?  But more importantly, why?

Martin Luther King, Jr. uses an appeal to pathos in his “I Have a Dream” speech through his historical allusion to Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.” This is particularly effective for his audience of people sympathetic to the cause of African American men and women who would have been especially moved by this particular reference since it had such a significant impact on the lives of African Americans.

Session Two

• Continue the work from the previous session by distributing the  Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments handout and discussing the assignment and what it requires. See the  background and information sheet for teachers for more details.
• Tell students they will be getting additional practice with analyzing a speech as an argument by showing a short  10-minute clip of a presidential speech . Ask students to think about how the particular moment in history and the national audience contribute to the rhetorical choices made by the speaker.
• Lead a discussion of the speech as an argument with regard to purpose and intent. Work with students to identify warrants, claims, and appeals.
• Ask students to consider how the author manipulates the audience using tone, diction, and stylistic devices. What rhetorical devices aided the author’s manipulation of his audience? Discuss a particular rhetorical device that the President used and the purpose it served.
• Share the Essay Rubric and explain to students the expectations for success on this assignment.
• Allow students to select a speech from the List of Speeches for Students . If they wish to preview any of the speeches, they can type the speaker's name and the title of the speech into a search engine and should have little difficulty finding it.

Session Three

• Take the students to the library and allow them to research their speeches. They should locate their speech and print a copy for them to begin annotating for argumentative structure and rhetorical devices.
• What was the speaker up against?  What is the occasion for the speech?
• What did the author have to keep in mind when composing the text?  
• What were his or her goals?  
• What was his or her ultimate purpose?  
• What was his or her intent?
• Remind students that the writer of the speech is sometimes not the person who delivered the speech, for example, and this will surprise some students. Many people assume that the speaker (president, senator, etc.) is always the writer, and that’s not always the case, so ask your students to check to see who wrote the speech. (They might be surprised at the answer. There’s always a story behind the composition of the speech.)
• Help students find the author of the speech because this will challenge some students. Oftentimes, students assume the speaker is the author, and that’s sometimes not the case. Once the speechwriter is identified, it is easier to find information on the speech. Help students find the history behind the speech without getting too bogged down in the details. They need to understand the climate, but they do not need to be complete experts on the historical details in order to understand the elements of the speech.
• If they wish, students can use the ReadThinkWrite Interactive Notetaker to help them track their notes for their essays. Remind them that their work cannot be saved on this tool and should be printed by the end of the session so they can use it in future work.
• For Session Four, students must bring a thesis, an outline, and all of their research materials to class for a workday. Remind them to refer to the Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments , the Essay Rubric , and any notes they may have taken during the first two sessions as they begin their work.
• The thesis statement should answer the following question: What makes this speech an effective argument and worthy of making this list?

Session Four

• Set up students in heterogeneous groups of four. Ask students to share their outlines and thesis statements.
• Go around to check and to monitor as students share their ideas and progress. The students will discuss their speeches and their research thus far.
• Have students discuss the elements of an argument that they plan on addressing.
• Finally, have students work on writing their papers by writing their introductions with an enticing “grab” or “hook.” If time permits, have students share their work. 
• For Session Five, students should bring in their papers. This session would happen in about a week.

Session Five

• In this session, students will respond each other's drafts using the Peer Response Handout .
• Determine and discuss the final due date with your students. Direct students to Diana Hacker’s MLA site for assistance with their citations if necessary. 
• Remind students that their work will be evaluate using the essay rubric .  They should use the criteria along with the comments from their peer to revise and polish their work.
• During the process of analyzing  Queen Elizabeth I’s Speech , consider showing the related scene from the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age . Though the text of the speech is drastically cut and altered, seeing one filmmaker's vision for the scene may help reinforce the notion of historical context and the importance of audience.
• Allow students to read and/or perform parts of the speeches out loud. Then, they can share some of their thinking about the argumentative structure and rhetorical devices used to make the speech effective. This activity could happen as part of the prewriting process or after essays have been completed.
• Require students to write a graduation speech or a speech on another topic. They can peruse print or online news sources to select a current event that interests them.  Have them choose an audience to whom they would deliver an argumentative speech.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• After peer response has taken place, use the essay rubric to provide feedback on student work. You may change the values of the different categories/requirements to better suit the learning goals for your classroom.
• Calendar Activities
• Lesson Plans
• Student Interactives
• Strategy Guides

Students explore the ways that powerful and passionate words communicate the concepts of freedom, justice, discrimination, and the American Dream in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

While drafting a literary analysis essay (or another type of argument) of their own, students work in pairs to investigate advice for writing conclusions and to analyze conclusions of sample essays. They then draft two conclusions for their essay, select one, and reflect on what they have learned through the process.

Useful for a wide variety of reading and writing activities, this outlining tool allows students to organize up to five levels of information.

This strategy guide clarifies the difference between persuasion and argumentation, stressing the connection between close reading of text to gather evidence and formation of a strong argumentative claim about text.

• Print this resource

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• Kindergarten K

My Favorite Speeches for Rhetorical Analysis: 10 Speeches for Middle School ELA and High School English

Teaching rhetorical analysis is one of my absolute favorite units to complete with my students. I love teaching my students about rhetorical strategies and devices, analyzing what makes an effective and persuasive argument, and reading critical speeches with my students. Here is a quick list of some of my favorite speeches for rhetorical analysis.

I absolutely LOVE teaching rhetorical analysis. I think it might be one of my favorite units to teach to my high school students. There are just so many different text options to choose from. Here is a list of some of my favorite speeches to include in my rhetorical analysis teaching unit.

10 Speeches for Teaching Rhetorical Analysis

1. the gettysburg address (abraham lincoln).

Some notable things to mention in this speech include allusion and parallel structure. To make your analysis more meaningful, point out these devices to students and explain how these devices enhance the meaning of the text.

Teaching Resource : The Gettysburg Address Rhetorical Analysis Activity Packet

2. Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech (Lou Gehrig)

This speech is one that many of my athletes love to analyze, and it is an excellent exemplar text to teach pathos. And like The Gettysburg Address, it is short. This is another speech that you can read, analyze, and even write about in one class period.

When I use this speech in my class, I have students look for examples of pathos. Mainly, I have them look at word choice, tone, and mood. How does Lou Gehrig’s choice of words affect his tone and the overall mood of the speech?

3. I Have a Dream (Martin Luther King,  Jr.)

In the classroom, it is important to point out the sermonic feel to the speech and also to have your students look for calls to action and pathos. Have your students look for tone, allusions, and word choice to help them notice these rhetoric expressions throughout it.

Teaching Resource : I Have a Dream Close Read and Rhetorical Analysis

4. Speech at the March on Washington (Josephine Baker)

This is another important speech that held a lot of importance for the changes that needed to be made in America. The speech is a shorter one, so in the classroom, it will not take as long to analyze it, and students can understand the significance of the use of rhetoric in a shorter amount of time than some other speeches.

When teaching this speech, I like to remind my students to search for devices that portray an excellent example of the pathos that is so present in this speech. Some of these devices could be mood, repetition, and diction.

5. Steve Jobs’ Commencement Speech (Steve Jobs)

In class, it is good to have your students annotate and analyze the speech just as they have done for the others. The organization of the speech will help them to notice the similarities and differences between each point Jobs makes.

6. Space Shuttle Challenger (Ronald Reagan)

This speech represents a strong sense of pathos as a movement to help the American people cope with loss after the deaths of the astronauts aboard the Challenger. It is another speech that is not too long, so it should not take a long time to both analyze and annotate the entire speech.

When teaching this speech in class, be sure to mention how pathos is the driving force behind the speech, through the tone and the diction. How does Reagan use emotion to focus on the astronauts as humans, rather than solely focusing on the tragedy?

7. The Perils of Indifference (Elie Wiesel)

This speech is a good one to teach because it both makes students question their own lives, but also how the world works. The speech relies on pathos, and a little ethos too, to get the audience to feel the full effect of the tragedy of the Holocaust and what the speaker went through. It is a long speech so it may take longer for the students to fully grasp all the details that make it such a persuasive speech.

When I teach this speech, I like to have students annotate every place they notice an example of pathos, and then have them explain why in their annotations this makes them feel an emotion. The same with the ethos, and then we can further analyze the rest together.

8. 9/11 Address to the Nation (George W. Bush)

This speech shows another example of the use of pathos in the midst of a tragedy. The President wanted to show the American people how much he was feeling for those lost in the tragedy of 9/11. It is not a long speech, but the amount of emotion within the words is significant for students to notice.

When teaching this speech, it is essential that students look very closely at each part of it, noticing each piece that reveals tone, mood, and other literary devices. How do the different devices add to the pathos of the speech?

FREE TEACHING ACTIVITY : September 11 Address to the Nation Sampler

Teaching Resource : September 11 Address to the Nation Rhetorical Analysis Unit

9. We are Virginia Tech (Nikki Giovanni)

This speech is probably the shortest speech on this list but provides one of the most emotional and pathos-filled rhetoric. This describes another tragedy that is spoken about with pathos to give the audience a safe feeling after such an emotional thing. Students can spend time analyzing the different devices that make the piece so strong in its emotion.

In the classroom, make sure your students make a note of the repetition, and what that does for the speech. Does it make the emotion more impactful? How does it make the audience feel like they are a part of something bigger?

10. Woman’s Right to the Suffrage (Susan B. Anthony)

This is another short speech that holds a lot of power within it. A lot of students will enjoy reading this to see how much the country has changed, and how this speech may have some part in influencing this change. It is a great speech to help teach logos in the classroom, and it will not take a long time to analyze.

Make sure your students notice, and they also understand, the use of allusions within the speech. These allusions help to establish the use of logos, as Anthony wants the use of American historical documents to show how logical her argument is.

Ready-For-You Rhetorical Analysis Teaching Unit

You might also be interested in my blog post about 15 rhetorical analysis questions to ask your students.

Teaching rhetorical analysis and speeches in the classroom is a great way to teach informational text reading standards.

Rhetorical Analysis Teaching Resources:

These resources follow reading standards for informational text and are ideal for secondary ELA teachers.

• Rhetorical Analysis Unit with Sticky Notes
• Ethos, Pathos, Logos: Understanding Rhetorical Appeals\
• Rhetorical Analysis Mini Flip Book

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A Short Analysis of Mark Antony’s ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen’ Speech

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Mark Antony’s ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen’ speech from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is a masterclass of irony and the way rhetoric can be used to say one thing but imply something quite different without ever naming it . Mark Antony delivers a funeral speech for Julius Caesar following Caesar’s assassination at the hands of Brutus and the conspirators, but he is only allowed to do so as long as he does not badmouth the conspirators for their role in Caesar’s death.

Antony’s references to Brutus as an honourable man subtly and ingeniously show that Brutus is anything but honourable, while also serving to show that Caesar was not the ambitious man Brutus has painted him to be.

The best way to analyse this key speech from the play is to go through it, summarising it section by section.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

Mark Antony has ‘read the room’ and knows the mood among the crowd: they still support the assassination of Julius Caesar and so side with Brutus and the other conspirators.

Mark Antony treads carefully, brilliantly going against their expectations and reassuring him that he is simply there to deliver a funeral oration, not to take the dead general’s side (it’s worth remembering that Julius Caesar was a general, not an emperor: although he was called Caesar, he wasn’t ‘a’ Caesar, the name given to later emperors of Rome in his honour).

The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones;

Daniell notes helpfully that these lines, which have become much more famous thanks to Shakespeare’s play, are proverbial and their sentiment (albeit with different wording) predate Shakespeare.

The meaning is obvious enough: when people die, the bad things they did often stick in people’s memories, while their good deeds are forgotten. As Antony goes on to say, ‘So let it be with Caesar’.

Immediately, then, he is cleverly saying that he is happy for everyone to focus on Caesar’s bad points and forget the good the man did; but in referring to the latter, he is subtly reminding them that Caesar did good as well as evil things. (By the way, a note on scansion or metre: because Mark Antony is addressing the crowd using blank verse or unrhymed iambic pentameter , ‘interred’ should be pronounced as three syllables, not two.)

So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.

Mark Antony now takes up Brutus’ words about Julius Caesar and responds to them. He doesn’t contradict Brutus, but instead uses the subjunctive ‘If’: ‘If it were so’. He refuses to say that Caesar was ambitious, but grants that if it were true, it was a terrible fault.

The purpose of this is to cast doubt on the very idea that Caesar was ambitious (supposedly the very reason for his assassination), but in such a way that doesn’t rub the crowd (which still supports Brutus) up the wrong way. He then goes on to point out, however, that if Caesar was ambitious, he’s now dead, so has ‘answer’d’ or paid the penalty for his fault.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest– (For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men) Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.

Mark Antony makes a performative gesture to Brutus’ supposed generosity in letting him, Mark Antony, speak at Caesar’s funeral. He says that such generosity is a sign of Brutus’ honour: he, and the rest of the conspirators, are ‘honourable men’.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man.

Antony now slowly begins to ease in some praise for Caesar, but keeps it personal to him, rather than making grand, universal statements about Caesar’s good qualities: he was his friend, and faithful and just to him . But then, Brutus says Caesar was ambitious, and Brutus is honourable, so ‘I guess I was wrong (but I know I’m not)’. Obviously this last bit is implied, not spoken aloud – but that’s what Mark Antony is building towards.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

Let’s look at what Caesar did: he took many enemies prisoner and brought them here to Rome, and these captives’ ransoms, when paid, helped to make Rome rich. Does this seem ‘ambitious’ behaviour to you?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man.

When the poor of the city suffered, Caesar wept with pity for them. Hardly the actions of an ambitious man, who should be harder-hearted than this! But Brutus says Caesar was ambitious, and Brutus is honourable, so … it must be true … right? Note how Antony continues to sow the seeds of doubt in the crowd’s mind.

You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man.

Antony reminds the Romans that at the festival of Lupercalia (held in mid-February, around the same time as our modern Valentine’s Day; so just a month before Caesar was assassinated), he publicly presented Julius Caesar with a crown, but Caesar refused it three times (remember, he was ‘just’ a general, a military leader: not an emperor). Again, Antony appeals to the crowd: does this seem like the action of an ambitious man?

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know.

Although he clearly is disproving what Brutus claimed of Caesar, Antony maintains that this isn’t his aim: he’s merely telling the truth based on what he knows of Caesar.

You all did love him once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?

Antony reminds the crowd of Romans that they all loved Caesar once too, and they had reasons for doing so: Caesar was clearly a good leader. So why do they now not mourn for him in death? (Note Antony’s skilful use of ‘cause’ twice here: they loved Caesar with good cause, but what cause is responsible for their failure to shed a tear at his passing?)

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me.

Observe the clever pun on Brutus’ name in ‘brutish beasts’: Antony stops short of calling Brutus a beast, but it’s clear enough that he thinks the crowd has been manipulated with violent thugs and everyone has lost their ability to think rationally about Caesar. The mob spirit has been fomented and everyone has made Caesar, even in death, the target of their hatred.

Mark Antony brings his ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen’ speech, a masterly piece of oratory, to a rousing end with an appeal to personal emotion, claiming that seeing Rome so corrupted by hatred and blinded by unreason has broken his heart. He concludes, however, with a final line that offers a glimmer of hope, implying that if Rome would only recover itself, he would be all right again.

You can watch Damian Lewis reciting this famous speech here .

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2 thoughts on “A Short Analysis of Mark Antony’s ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen’ Speech”

We are going into drama soon and will be studying this speech. You have brought to my attention aspects I had noticed, even though I have taught it for years. Thanks!

Thanks for the comment, Pam – that’s praise indeed! I hope you have a fruitful discussion :)

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Literary Techniques for your Speech, with Examples Analyzed

March 2, 2021 - Dom Barnard

Planned use of language has a major impact on how your speech is received by the audience. Saying the right words at the right time, and in the right way, can achieve a specific impact.

Use language to achieve impact

Careful use of language has produced many powerful speeches over the years. Here are a few literary devices you can employ for your next speech.

Rhetorical Questions

Start your next presentation with an open question. It engages the audience and gets them thinking about your speech early on. Use questions throughout and leave pauses after, letting the audience think about an answer.

Pause at the Right Moment

This adds impact to sentence just before or after the pause. This is a good literary technique to use for the key message of your speech. Don’t be afraid to wait 3-5 seconds before speaking, adding maximum impact to your words.

Messages and words are remembered best in groups of three. The power of three is used in all aspects of speaking in public and by the media. Couple words in groups of three with alliteration for maximum impact, such as “They grew up with a long, lasting, love for each other.”

Repeat the Key Point

A technique used frequently by politicians, a word needs to be said on average 5 times before the audience begins to take in what is being said.

Dramatic Contrast

Contrasting two points, such as “Ten years ago we had a reputation for excellence. Today, we are in danger of losing that reputation.”

For additional literary techniques, check out these links:

• Stylistic Devices (Rhetorical Devices, Figures of Speech)
• BBC Literary Techniques

Spend time planning which of these language techniques you will use in your speech. You can add these in after your first draft of the speech has been written.

Two great speeches analyzed

1. martin luther king – i have a dream, transcript snippet.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

Literary devices and techniques used

Anaphora  – Repetition of the “I have a dream” phrase at the beginning of each sentence.

Metonymy  – The phrase “The let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia… Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee… Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi“, King uses these well-known racist locations to enhance his point.

Hyperbole  – King uses the words ‘all’ and ‘every’ many times, exaggerating his point, “when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city”

Alliteration  – used throughout the speech, alliterations add a poetic quality to the speech, for example this sentence “judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Amplification  – King repeats many of his points a second time, with greater emphasis and explanation the second time, “America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.”

Speeches which mastered literary techniques

• Martin Luther King, Jr. – I Have A Dream
• Winston Churchill – We shall fight on the beaches
• John F. Kennedy – Inaugural Address
• Margaret Thatcher – The Lady’s Not For Turning
• Barack Obama – The Audacity Of Hope
• Elizabeth Gilbert – Your Creative Genius
• J. K. Rowling – Harvard Commencement Address

For addition detail on these speeches, check out  this article  on speeches that changed the world.

2. Winston Churchill – We shall fight on the beaches

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end.

We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.

We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

And if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

Anaphora  – The repetition of the phrase “we shall fight” can be seen in the transcript snippet. This adds dramatic emphases on the words he is saying in these paragraphs.

Alliteration  – Churchill uses repetition of letters to emphasize the dark time Europe was in, “I see also the dull, drilled, docile, brutish masses of the Hun soldiery plodding on like a swarm of crawling locusts” and “your grisly gang who work your wicked will.”

Antistrophe  – The repetition of words at the end of successive sentences, “the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace“.

Hypophora  – Churchill asks various questions and then answers them himself, “You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air” and “You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word, it is victory”.

Rule of Three  – Churchill uses this literary technique in many of his speeches, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning” and “Never before in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many, to so few”.

Easy to use literary techniques for your next speech

Rhetoric Question

Start your next speech with a rhetoric question – “Who here has used a virtual reality headset?”

Repetition of Phrase

Repeat a key phrase around 5 times throughout the speech, the phrase should be short – “Virtual reality is changing the world”.

Use the Rule of Three

Emphasize a product or service by describing it with three words – “Our software is faster, cheaper and easier to use”. For greatest impact on your audience, combine this with alliteration.

Ask a question then immediately answer it – “How many virtual reality headsets were sold last month? Over 2 million.”

Critical Analysis of Business Strategy and Key Limitations in Costco Wholesale Corporation

This essay about the evolution and merger of Price Club and Costco explores the origins and business philosophies of these pioneering companies in the warehouse club retail sector. Highlighting the innovative strategies of Price Club’s founders in 1976 and Costco’s establishment in 1983, the essay discusses how both companies prioritized low prices on bulk items, quality, and customer satisfaction. The 1993 merger, forming Costco Wholesale Corporation, combined Price Club’s expertise in serving small businesses with Costco’s focus on individual consumers, creating a powerful retail entity. This merger capitalized on shared values and distinct strengths, reinforcing a commitment to value, employee welfare, and membership satisfaction. The essay concludes by reflecting on Costco’s ongoing success, its adherence to founding principles, and its influence on modern retail, emphasizing the importance of visionary leadership and strategic collaboration in achieving sustainable growth.

How it works

The retail landscape underwent a transformation in the late 20th century with the emergence of warehouse clubs, a concept that revolutionized how consumers approached bulk purchasing. At the forefront of this revolution were Price Club and Costco, two entities that would later merge to form the behemoth known today as Costco Wholesale Corporation. This essay explores the origins, philosophies, and subsequent merger of Price Club and Costco, shedding light on how their combined strengths have shaped the modern retail experience.

Price Club, founded by Sol Price and his son Robert in 1976 in San Diego, California, was the pioneer of the warehouse club model.

Sol Price’s vision was to create a membership-based retail outlet that offered low prices on bulk items, primarily targeting small businesses. The innovation didn’t stop at the business model; the operational strategies, including minimalistic store designs and high-volume, low-margin sales, were radical at the time. Price Club’s success soon attracted not just businesses but also individual shoppers, paving the way for a new kind of retail environment.

Meanwhile, Costco, founded in 1983 by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman, adopted a similar approach, focusing on providing exceptional value to its members. From the outset, Costco emphasized quality alongside value, a principle that has remained at the core of its business model. The founders were inspired by Sol Price’s concepts and set out to refine them, expanding the range of products offered and placing a greater emphasis on customer satisfaction. Costco’s approach to treating both its customers and employees well, including offering higher wages and benefits than competitors, contributed to its rapid growth and loyal customer base.

The merger of Price Club and Costco in 1993 was a landmark event in the retail industry, uniting two giants with shared values but distinct strengths. The combined company, named Costco Wholesale Corporation, leveraged Price Club’s experience in serving small businesses and Costco’s expertise in catering to individual consumers. This fusion created a powerful retail force that offered an unrivaled selection of goods at competitive prices, backed by a commitment to customer satisfaction and employee welfare. The merger was driven by the recognition that together, the two companies could achieve greater scale and efficiency, further driving down costs and passing the savings on to members.

Today, Costco Wholesale Corporation stands as a testament to the vision of its founders and the transformative power of the merger. With hundreds of warehouses globally, Costco has maintained its dedication to the principles established by Price Club and Costco. The company continues to prioritize value, quality, and sustainability, adapting to consumer needs and market changes without compromising its core values. Costco’s enduring success can be attributed to its innovative business model, operational efficiencies, and unwavering focus on membership satisfaction.

The legacy of Price Club and Costco, and their merger, provides valuable lessons in retail and beyond. It underscores the importance of visionary leadership, the strength of clear and consistent business philosophies, and the potential of strategic collaborations. The Costco story is one of adaptation, innovation, and commitment to principles, offering insights into building a sustainable, member-centric business in a competitive landscape. As Costco moves forward, it carries forward the legacy of Price Club and Costco, continuing to impact the retail industry and the shopping habits of millions around the world.

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‘I Am Running and We’re Going to Win,’ Biden Says in Michigan

An energized President Biden delivered a fiery speech in the key battleground state, forcefully attacking his rival, Donald J. Trump, as he tried to stem concerns about his ability to run and win in November.

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Maggie Haberman

Biden attacked Trump and took shots at the media. Here’s the latest.

Doing his best to push back against doubts about his stamina and health, President Biden delivered a fiery and forceful speech at a rally in Michigan on Friday night, railing against Donald J. Trump and the news media amid continued pressure from fellow Democrats to step aside for a younger candidate.

Mr. Biden, who has confronted criticism from members of his own party since his abysmal debate performance against Mr. Trump at the end of June, zeroed in on Mr. Trump’s criminal conviction, his various indictments and even the civil case in which he was found liable of sexually abusing a New York writer .

The crowd in Detroit raved over his performance. “Don’t go, Joe,” they chanted at one point. “Let’s get this done!” Mr. Biden shouted.

Here’s what else to know:

Making his case: “Hopefully with age comes a little wisdom,” Mr. Biden told the crowd in Michigan on Friday, adding that he knew “how to do this job.” He also homed in on Project 2025 , a collection of personnel and policy initiatives prepared by a network of conservative think tanks ahead of a Republican presidential administration. He will travel to his beach home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., after the campaign stop.

Donors freeze cash: Some major Democratic donors told the largest pro-Biden super PAC, Future Forward, that they were freezing roughly $90 million in pledged donations as long as President Biden was atop the ticket, according to two people briefed on the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.

Missing in Michigan: He was met by House Democrats, state lawmakers, union leaders and the award-winning actress Octavia Spencer when he arrived in Michigan on Friday. But the state’s highest profile Democrats — like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters — were not at his side . While all of them have been supportive of the president, they were also all otherwise occupied.

Thursday’s news conference: More than 23 million people tuned in on major television networks on Thursday to watch Mr. Biden’s nearly hourlong appearance, according to Nielsen data — a very high number for a news program. His handling of the event did not seem to worsen Democrats’ fears about his viability, but it also did not silence the calls for him to drop out.

Democratic defections: After he was done speaking on Thursday, three more House Democrats urged Mr. Biden to end his campaign, and Representative Mike Levin of California added his voice to those calls on Friday. Nearly 20 congressional Democrats have now done so.

Standing by him: The president delivered a competent presentation on Thursday, and his performance in the unscripted setting heartened some of his supporters. One of his key allies, Representative James E. Clyburn, said on Friday that the party should stop talking about whether the president is fit to run and respect his decision to stay in the race. If he stepped aside, Mr. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, said he would “absolutely” endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee.

Trump’s V.P. pick: The former president said in a radio interview that he would prefer to announce who his running mate will be during the Republican National Convention “or just slightly before the convention, like Monday,” which is the day the convention begins. He appears to be giving more weight to political calculations in his selection.

Chris Cameron , Michael Gold , Shane Goldmacher , Michael M. Grynbaum and Nicholas Nehamas contributed reporting.

Simon J. Levien

In an email to members, the Movement Voter Project — a political action committee that supports grassroots progressives and Democrats — said it would be joining the chorus of donor groups asking Biden to step aside. The PAC, surveying its grassroots partners, found that 74 percent of its respondents wanted another candidate — a rebuttal of the president’s claim that only “elites” were trying to push him out.

The PAC also confirmed it would support Next Generation PAC , which was aiming to raise $100 million for a top-ticket replacement to Biden.

Rebecca Davis O’Brien

Kennedy sent an apologetic text to a woman who accused him of sexual assault.

The independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. privately apologized last week to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in a recent magazine article, The Washington Post reported on Friday .

The woman, Eliza Cooney, now 48, had worked for Mr. Kennedy’s family as a weekend babysitter in her early 20s, the year she graduated from college, and at the same time was an intern at his environmental legal clinic at Pace Law School in White Plains, N.Y. In an article in Vanity Fair last week, she said Mr. Kennedy made unwanted sexual advances toward her while she was at his family home in the late 1990s, including by groping her in a pantry.

Ms. Cooney told The Post that Mr. Kennedy had called her twice on July 3 of this year, after the Vanity Fair article had run, and then sent her two text messages, which she also showed to The New York Times.

“I hope you are well,” he wrote in the first message. “Please call me if you have a moment.”

In the second, sent shortly after midnight, he wrote: “I read your description of an episode in which I touched you in an unwanted manner. I have no memory of this incident, but I apologize sincerely for anything I ever did that made you feel uncomfortable or anything I did or said that offended you or hurt your feelings.”

He said he hoped she would be willing to speak to him over the phone or in person.

Mr. Kennedy declined to comment on the messages or on Ms. Cooney’s allegations. In a podcast interview last week, after the Vanity Fair article came out, he declined to address her allegations but said he was not a “church boy.” He added, “I have so many skeletons in my closet that if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world.”

Ms. Cooney did not respond to his outreach, and did not welcome it, she told The Times. “Sending a text at 12:33 a.m. is not considering his actions’ effects on someone else — me,” she said. “At that time, on Fourth of July weekend, the last thing I wanted to do was talk to him.”

She added: “He claims to have no memory of not one, not two, but three examples of his predatory behavior. He expects a societal pass and forgiveness for saying that he’s ‘no church boy.’ I have paid the cost for his sexual misconduct for decades.”

The fall after she graduated from college in 1998, Ms. Cooney said, she moved in with Mr. Kennedy’s family, in the home in Mount Kisco, N.Y., that he shared with his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, and their children. Ms. Cooney was a weekend babysitter — the Kennedys had three children then (a fourth was born later) — and she worked as an intern in his law clinic at Pace.

Soon after she started working for the family, Ms. Cooney was sitting in the house’s kitchen with Mr. Kennedy and a volunteer for Riverkeeper — the environmental organization that Mr. Kennedy led — when she recalled feeling Mr. Kennedy move his hand up and down her leg underneath the table. She moved her leg away from his hand, she said. Later, she told the volunteer about the episode and wrote about it in her journal, she said.

Another time, she said, Mr. Kennedy came into her room shirtless and asked her to rub lotion on his back.

Ms. Cooney also described an incident when she was alone at the house with Mr. Kennedy. After she had gone into the kitchen pantry, she recounted, he came in behind her and put his hands on her backside, drawing them up along the sides of her body and along the sports bra she was wearing.

A few months later, after less than a year as the family’s babysitter, she moved out of the house.

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Michael D. Shear

Here is the challenge for Biden: This can’t be a one-night thing. He has to do these kinds of rallies again and again, sometimes two or three times in a single day. He needs to do them on weekends, not spending time at his beach house. And he needs to do them for the next four months.

Nicholas Nehamas

Biden has finished with the crowd screaming and cheering. That was a remarkably more energized and forceful performance than I’ve seen from Biden or his audiences in months.

Biden has been speaking for more than 35 minutes. His normal stump speeches are closer to 15 or 20 minutes — an indication that he is trying to show the stamina demanded by many Democrats.

The number of people who watch this speech will be far, far fewer than the number that watched the debate or even Biden’s news conference last night. But some Democrats on Capitol Hill are texting that this performance is reassuring.

This is the most forceful Biden has been since his State of the Union speech, one that largely quelled Democrats’ concerns about the his age at the time, but which was many months before the debate.

Biden seemed to almost repeat a stumble he made at the debate, nearly saying that he had “taken on” Medicare when he meant Big Pharma.

Biden turns to Project 2025, the effort to focus on policy and personnel for a next Republican administration, which several former Trump advisers are involved with and which the Biden team has discovered is an easy catchall for all of the radical plans Trump himself is proposing.

Biden is now laying into Project 2025, which he calls a “blueprint” for a second Trump term. “You’ve heard of it,” a pleased Biden says when the crowd responds with boos. This speech is the strongest and most forceful contrast with Trump that I’ve heard him deliver.

More than two weeks after the debate, Biden is finally going full-tilt against Trump. This is exactly what his anxious allies and supporters were terrified that he couldn’t or wouldn’t do anymore.

Reid J. Epstein

Biden is going deep on Trump’s conviction in New York, his liability in a sexual abuse case and now a section on Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Biden and his campaign this week have said they need to turn the focus of the campaign back on Trump — this is Biden trying to do just that.

Biden is now delineating the various criminal cases Trump is facing. It’s worth noting that the recent decision by the Supreme Court, whose makeup was shaped by Trump, granted him immunity that could have an impact on those cases.

When in doubt, attack the media. Biden often proclaims he understands the need for a free press. But inside his White House, his aides are dismissive of the press, and it comes from the top. Biden is extraordinarily sensitive about reporting about him, and almost as angry at the press as Trump has always been.

Biden says the press has been “hammering me” and the crowd starts booing and pointing fingers at the reporters gathered in the back of the room.

Biden said he refers to Trump as “Donald Herbert Hoover Trump,” which is not a thing I have ever heard anyone say out loud.

The Biden campaign promised the president would deliver a pointed speech taking on Trump and Project 2025 and laying out the plans for the first 100 days of his second term. So far, it is his standard stump speech, with a lengthy recitation of his first-term accomplishments.

This is as energized as we have seen Biden at recent rallies. It is perhaps a response to the ample criticism from within his own party that the president is too old to do the job, and one night after he admitted during a press conference that he needs more rest.

The crowd is now chanting “lock him up,” regarding Donald Trump. “Lock her up” became a chant at Trump rallies in 2016. Trump has vowed to use the government to to investigate the Bidens. But his allies also insist that he himself has faced a weaponized justice system, and those chants from the Biden crowd will play into that.

“I am running and we’re going to win,” Biden says, repeating his vow of the last two weeks. “I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party, the only Democrat or Republican who has beaten Donald Trump ever.”

Biden is ticking through his campaign promises: protecting I.V.F., Medicaid, the right to vote and the Affordable Care Act. He also said he will make Roe v. Wade “the law of the land,” which would be impossible without strong Democratic majorities in Congress.

Biden is shouting out the elected officials who did come to his event, after the Michigan’s biggest-name Democrats passed on joining him at his rally.

Biden is speaking from teleprompters, which has proved more comfortable for him than delivering remarks off the cuff.

Michael M. Grynbaum

More than 23 million watched Biden’s news conference, beating the Oscars.

The swirling questions about President Biden’s age and mental fitness for office have captured Americans’ attention.

More than 23 million people — a bigger audience than this year’s Academy Awards — tuned in on Thursday evening to see how Mr. Biden handled his first live news conference since a poor performance at last month’s debate with former President Donald J. Trump.

The television audience amounted to roughly 45 percent of the 51.3 million who watched the debate , according to Nielsen.

The president’s nearly hourlong appearance, at the NATO summit in Washington, was one of the most-watched telecasts of the year, outside of sporting events. It aired across several major TV networks, with ABC, CBS and NBC all pre-empting regular entertainment programming.

Millions more may have watched on digital news sites and social media platforms, which are, for the most part, not captured by Nielsen’s data.

Compared to his predecessors, Mr. Biden rarely grants solo news conferences, which added to the novelty of Thursday’s event.

Fox News attracted the largest audience of any network, 5.7 million, representing nearly a quarter of the overall television viewership. ABC was the highest-rated broadcaster, with five million viewers, possibly benefiting from a lead-in from “Jeopardy!,” the game show that aired immediately before Mr. Biden’s news conference.

Roughly four of five viewers were 55 or older, Nielsen said. ABC drew the largest audience among adults 25 to 54, the key demographic for advertisers in cable news.

Mr. Biden’s interview with George Stephanopoulos , which aired last Friday on ABC, was seen by 8.5 million viewers.

Michael Gold

Speaking at Trump’s convention: former Democrats, a rancher and Trump employees.

The Republican National Convention will feature more than two dozen “everyday Americans” as speakers who will help hammer home former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign themes and policies, including four people who previously backed Democrats, according to convention and campaign officials.

All four are from key constituencies that the Trump campaign is eager to win over from Democrats in November as Mr. Trump tries to reverse his election defeat in 2020 by chipping away at the coalition that elected President Biden, including Black voters, Hispanic Americans and blue-collar workers.

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have yet to fully announce a speakers list for the convention, which starts on Monday in Milwaukee. The testimonials from “everyday Americans” are expected to be peppered in between elected officials and candidates, party officials and Mr. Trump’s family members, though the convention has not provided a schedule for when any of its invited guests will speak.

On the list announced Friday is Linda Fornos, an immigrant from Nicaragua who attended Mr. Trump’s rally last month in Las Vegas , where she said she had been repeatedly disappointed by Democrats she had supported previously, including Mr. Biden. The Trump campaign has made winning over Latino voters a priority this year, particularly in battleground states like Arizona and Nevada with sizable Hispanic populations.

Also on the list is Robert Bartels Jr., known as Bobby, an official in a New York union who attended Mr. Trump’s visit with construction workers during the former president’s trial in Manhattan and said he was a “lifelong Democrat." Mr. Trump has pressed for the votes of blue-collar union workers since 2016 and has sought to divide them from union leaders who often support Democrats.

Annette Albright, a Black woman and a former school employee who convention officials said was a “lifelong Democrat,” spoke earlier this year at a town hall in North Carolina hosted by the political organization Moms for Liberty.

With polls showing backing for Mr. Biden slipping among Black voters, long a key Democratic constituency, Mr. Trump has been eager to highlight how he has capitalized, at times in clumsy ways.

Last month, the Trump campaign held an event at a Black church in Detroit where the crowd included a sizable number of white people. The pastor of the church, Lorenzo Sewell, will also speak at the convention next week.

And the convention will give the stage to Shabbos Kestenbaum, one of six Jewish students who sued Harvard University for discrimination . Mr. Kestenbaum is an Orthodox Jew who attended Harvard Divinity School, and the lawsuit claims that Harvard became a bastion of antisemitism, particularly in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel last October.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly insisted that Jews who vote for Democrats are insufficiently loyal to Israel or to their cultural and religious beliefs, a remark that critics have said revives an antisemitic trope that Jews have a “dual loyalty” and are not sufficiently loyal to their own countries.

Immigration will also be a dominant issue at the convention, and several people on the “ordinary Americans” list are expected to discuss it, including Michael Morin, the brother of Rachel Morin, 37, who the authorities say was raped and killed while jogging last year by an undocumented immigrant. Jim Chilton, an Arizona rancher whose property abuts the United States’ border with Mexico, and who has previously campaigned alongside Mr. Trump, will also speak.

A number of speakers will also discuss inflation and the economy, helping emphasize Mr. Trump’s contention that Mr. Biden’s policies are hurting business owners while doing little to address the cost of living. They include Sarah Workman, a single mother from Arizona who works two jobs, and Benjamin Josephs, a small-business owner in Michigan, according to the announcement from campaign and convention officials.

Not all of the speakers announced so far appear to serve thematic aims. Last month, Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden exchanged words at the debate over which of them had the better golf game, a fixation that Mr. Trump has since carried over to social media.

The convention will feature two employees of Mr. Trump’s golf properties: John Nieporter, the head golf professional at Mr. Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., who has served as Mr. Trump’s caddie; and Carrie Ruiz, the golf general manager at his club in Doral, Fla., where Mr. Trump held a rally this week.

Meta rolls back some restrictions on Trump’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Meta on Friday said it was rolling back some restrictions to former President Donald J. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts so people on its services could hear from those running for the presidency “on the same basis.”

Under the restrictions on Mr. Trump’s accounts, he could have been suspended from Meta’s services — which also include Threads and WhatsApp — if he had posted content that sought to delegitimize this November’s election, among other things. But Meta said it was now relaxing those restrictions, reducing the potential for a suspension if Mr. Trump violated the company’s terms of service.

The move further returns Mr. Trump’s social media accounts to what they had been before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. At the time, Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts were indefinitely suspended on the grounds that his posts ran the risk of inciting more violence. Last year, Meta reinstated Mr. Trump’s accounts, but with the restrictions.

As of Friday, those penalties are no longer applicable.

“We believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said in a statement . He said the penalties placed on Mr. Trump’s accounts had been “a response to extreme and extraordinary circumstances” after Jan. 6, and were no longer needed.

Presidential nominees still need to abide by Meta’s terms of service, however, the company said.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, Charles Kretchmer Lutvak, said that removing the restrictions on Mr. Trump’s accounts was “a direct attack on our safety and our democracy,” adding that the decision “will allow Trump and his MAGA allies to reach more Americans with their fundamentally undemocratic, un-American misinformation.”

At the Republican National Convention next week, Mr. Trump is expected to accept the party’s nomination for president. The Democratic National Convention is in August, though calls from prominent Democrats for President Biden to step aside as the nominee have complicated that process. Mr. Biden has maintained that he has no plans to drop out.

Axios previously reported on Meta’s policy update.

Chris Cameron

Biden’s visit to Detroit draws few high-profile Michigan Democrats.

When President Biden landed in Michigan on Friday for a campaign rally in Detroit, he was met by House Democrats, state lawmakers, union leaders and the award-winning actress Octavia Spencer .

Conspicuously absent, however, were many of Michigan’s highest-profile Democrats, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whose popularity in the battleground state has helped put her in the top tier of those talked about as potential alternative candidates should Mr. Biden end his re-election campaign.

Crain’s Detroit Business reported on Wednesday that Ms. Whitmer instead was scheduled to attend the Sun Valley Conference of tech and media executives in Idaho. In a statement on X soon after Mr. Biden landed, Ms. Whitmer wrote, “Motor City is all in for Biden-Harris.”

Ms. Whitmer, a co-chair of the Biden campaign, has ruled out running for president this year , even if Mr. Biden were to drop out, but that has not ended speculation about her candidacy. In a CNN interview on Wednesday, she said it “wouldn’t hurt” if Mr. Biden underwent a cognitive exam to reassure supporters of his health and fitness.

Also missing from Mr. Biden’s campaign event were Michigan’s two Democratic senators, Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, as well as Representative Elissa Slotkin, the leading Democratic candidate to fill the seat of Ms. Stabenow, who is retiring. Ms. Stabenow and Mr. Peters wrote statements of support for the president on social media soon after he landed, and they were shared by the Biden campaign.

In a video call with donors on Tuesday , Ms. Slotkin had said that Mr. Biden was trailing his rival, Donald J. Trump in Michigan, and noted that she was running for the Senate because Ms. Stabenow, 74, was “doing a radical thing and passing the torch.”

Robyn Bryan, a spokeswoman for Ms. Stabenow, said the senator was out of town for the event. A spokeswoman for Mr. Peters said the senator had previous commitments and could not be in Detroit on Friday. Representatives of Ms. Whitmer and Ms. Slotkin did not immediately respond to requests for comment on their absence.

Lisa Friedman

The Sunrise Movement, a leading environmental group, calls on Biden to step aside.

The Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate organization that helped elect President Biden, is now calling on him to quit the race for the White House.

The group’s leaders say they believe that Mr. Biden, who has overseen the most aggressive climate agenda of any president, cannot win against former President Donald J. Trump, who has dismissed global warming as a hoax.

“Joe Biden’s next climate legacy-defining act must be to pass the torch to a new nominee,” Aru Shiney-Ajay, the executive director of the Sunrise Movement, said in a statement.

“Another Trump presidency would cause catastrophic and irreversible damage to our climate,” she said. “After speaking with young people around the country over the last few weeks, I’m concerned that Joe Biden isn’t positioned to mobilize young people and win in November.”

The Biden campaign underlined the president’s commitment to fighting global warming. “No president has and will fight harder to address the climate crisis than President Biden,” Seth Schuster, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. He said Mr. Biden was “proud to have passed the most significant climate legislation in American history during his first term, and will ensure we continue the essential work to save our planet by defeating climate-denier-in-chief Donald Trump this November.”

Sunrise is the first major environmental group to publicly urge Mr. Biden to abandon his presidential campaign. It follows a highly anticipated news conference that Mr. Biden held on Thursday night in which the president said he was determined to run for re-election. “And I think I’m the best qualified to win,” he said.

His campaign had hoped Mr. Biden’s performance would help quell the concerns of Democrats and donors worried about the ability of Mr. Biden, 81, to beat Mr. Trump, 78, and to serve another four years.

The Sunrise Movement had not endorsed Mr. Biden’s re-election bid, in part because many members oppose the president’s strong support for Israel in its war against Hamas. In recent weeks, doubts about Mr. Biden’s electability have also emerged.

Sunrise Movement officials said the organization had been internally discussing whether to make its concerns public since Mr. Biden’s performance in a June debate against Mr. Trump, during which Mr. Biden stumbled repeatedly.

Ms. Shiney-Ajay said stepping aside was the best way for Mr. Biden to preserve his climate legacy, which includes the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that is pumping $370 billion into clean energy, and the creation of the American Climate Corps, which is training thousands of young people for green jobs.

She noted that in 2020, the organization’s volunteers had contacted 3.5 million young voters, urging them to vote for Mr. Biden. Since the June debate, she said, the “already low enthusiasm” for Mr. Biden among young people has continued to drop.

“To be very clear, regardless of where the process ends, Sunrise’s plan this fall is the same: organize like hell to defeat Donald Trump,” she said. But, Ms. Shiney-Ajay added, “With another ticket that energizes young volunteers, we could contact up to twice as many voters this fall.”

The group is considered an important player in the environmental movement. In the 2020 election, Sunrise initially endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. But once Mr. Biden clinched the Democratic nomination, the Sunrise Movement and the Biden campaign forged an alliance that benefited both: Mr. Biden got needed support from young voters and Sunrise pushed Mr. Biden to be more ambitious on climate.

Since Mr. Biden has taken office, the Sunrise Movement has pressured him to halt new oil and gas drilling. It has been more willing than some mainstream environmental organizations to criticize the president when he took positions they opposed, like approving the development of a huge oil project in Alaska known as Willow.

Mr. Biden has worked hard to court young climate-minded voters, and the administration had still hoped to win the endorsement of the Sunrise Movement by emphasizing the stark contrast between the president and Mr. Trump when it comes to climate change.

Mr. Trump routinely disparages and distorts climate science, and has pledged to “terminate” every one of Mr. Biden’s climate regulations. In April, Mr. Trump asked oil and gas lobbyists for $1 billion for his 2024 campaign so he could retake the White House and erase President Biden’s climate regulations, according to several people in attendance at the meeting.

Other leading environmental groups said they continued to support Mr. Biden.

“No president in history has taken more action on climate than Joe Biden,” Ben Jealous, the executive director of the Sierra Club, said in a statement. “We will work tirelessly to re-elect President Biden come November to guarantee Americans their right to clean air, clean water and a livable future — something we know Donald Trump wants to destroy.”

An earlier version of the picture caption with this article stated incorrectly the year of the demonstration in Washington. It was 2021, not 2020.

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