April 26: Semicolons + Persuasive Speech Analysis

Group work 4/26:

Group Members: Alec Hakimian, Alessandra Aguirre, Celeste Addison 

White rhinos are famous for their big horns; they are among the endangered species.

The teacher didn’t know if she should laugh or cry, but she knew it was quite hilarious.

Three things matter in life: perseverance, commitment, and aptitude for learning.

A dog trotted over to the computer in Sara’s office, typed out a perfect letter, and printed it!

The manager was stunned, but she told the dog; “The sign says you have to be good with the computer, just because you’re good at typing doesn’t mean that you are good with it”.

A man walked into a pet shop and ordered three things: a centipede, a kitten, and a parrot.

Sama was the best person for the job because she had an excellent service record in one key area; community health training. 

Amy served with 4 stars in the army, therefore, she was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Rhetorical Analysis:

Julia Chang’s award winning speech about the loss of heritage and language was extremely strong in structure, content, and organization. Chang used her own personal experience with her mother and being raised speaking a second language to open her topic and indeed closed with her personal story as well. This symmetry and connection to emotion not only humanized her and her message but also created an underlying sense of understanding and credibility. The use of other examples such as proposition 227 strengthened Chang’s words. I do however have one criticism to this award winning speech.

Yes, it is important to acknowledge the content in Chang’s speech is vastly different from the CNN speech by Emma Gonzalez after the parkland shooting, the tone and difference in reality are complete opposites. I felt that Chang’s speech sounded very dry and fake. She did have certain bouts of emotion but she mostly sounded like she was reading off of notecards. I thought that this made it hard to follow. As I watched Gonzalez’s speech I felt every word of their message. The parkland shooting speech may have not been as structurally or factually developed, but it I felt it more and understood it easier. I think ultimately with a speech you need to find a balance between formality and casualness. Ultimately each speech was extremely impressive and I hope to be able to formulate a final project that aims to be on their level.

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