[http://alexfranklin.pbwiki.com/f/prof+pic.jpg|http://alexfranklin.pbwiki.com/f/prof%20pic.jpg

Speech Outline

1. Intro

a) Attention Getter: Imagine yourself, as you are now, a college student, in 1968. You are at the heart of a turning point in United States history. The Do-Wop-esque tunes you use to listen to as a kid have become outrun by the alternative rock legends: The Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix, and the Rolling Stones. If you are a male, there is a good chance you’ve been enlisted in a War you are not even sure is worth fighting for, and if you are a minority, a Civil Rights Movement is storming its way across America lead by the powerhouse himself, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. High hopes and determination for a bigger and brighter future amongst all minorities seems to be well-within grasp when on April 4th, at 6:01 pm., Dr. King is fatally shot standing outside is second story motel room in Memphis, Tennessee.

b) Credibility: While this was occurring, Democratic presidential hopeful, Robert F. Kennedy was campaigning in Indiana. He had just wrapped up a day of speaking to college Students at Notre Dame and Ball State University, when he received the news about Dr. King. While on his way to a primarily black campaign stop in Indianapolis, he decided to address his supporters with the horrific news. While his speechwriter Adam Walinsky wrote down a few points he should address, Kennedy ultimately decided to take on the matter for himself, and only said what he thought was appropriate.

c) Preview of Main Points: Senator Kennedy had informed and addresses his audience by pertaining to their sensitivity on the subject matter. By giving his own input about the experience, he was able to encourage others to make the right steps towards a better future.

d) Thesis: By giving his Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy assures us to keep moving forward and live out the dream, Martin Luther King Jr. worked so hard to inspire.

2) Transition to Body: Robert F. Kennedy chooses to speak to this particular audience of the assassination for a multitude of reasons

3) Audience

a) To inform the audience of the news

i) At this point in time, the news about Dr. King’s death still had not been announced to the public. The audience in which Kennedy spoke to had been there to support his cause to run for the presidency

b) Kennedy knew that because the rally consisted of a predominantly African Audience they would take the news especially tough

i) African American’s would take the news very personally

ii) He had been their leader and inspiration in their struggle towards equality

iii) Kennedy and his campaign writers feared potential riots, so he took the opportunity to calm the distressed public and give them advice about how they could move from the tragic blow they had all just received

c) Also needed to generalize the speech so it could accurately be applied and understood by all Americans.

d) Kennedy finally breaks the news

i) The audience cries and wails

ii) He waits for them to calm down and then follows through with the speech that accompanied the tragic news.

4) Transition: Because he was speaking to a specific community that was so highly affected by the devastation, he needed to address them so they could sincerely take his important messages to the nation into account.

5) Exigence:

a) What does RFK address in his speech?

i) He addresses the fact that it’s a natural reaction to feel so angry because a devoted peace activist was killed brutally out of an act of violence.

ii) Gives two separate ways in which America can handle the problem in a matter of two ways

a) We can let this get to the best of us, or we can learn something

b) Direct quote from RFK: “You can be filled with bitterness, and hatred and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization -- black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.

b) Why did it matter to the society back then?

i) Like I stated earlier Martin Luther King represented a turning point in United States history.

a) Blacks were finally getting the courage to speak out and demand that their voice be heard

b) Doing so through non-violent marches and powerful, charismatic speech that appealed to so many and in which he gained so much support for his cause.

c) Beloved to many, not just minorities because he pushed for the progression of equality for all human beings and value each individuals worth.

d) Why was did his speech seem more valid, rather than if it had been given by somebody else?

a) He came from a subjective point of view. He experienced the same exact thing with a beloved member of his immediate family.

b) Because he has specific experience, his view is well warranted

c) He learned how to move on and grow from his brother’s death and wanted to share with the world how to deal with their grievances.

6) Transition: With all of his compelling points however, he still had to restrict himself in a way that he would not upset his audience anymore than they already were.

7) Constraints:

a) Because what occurred with Martin Luther King Jr. was such a horrific event, it would have been inappropriate to conduct the speech as if it was not a serious matter.

b) He was talking to a primarily black audience so he had to hyper-sensitive to the fact that the man that many had looked to as their own personal inspiration

c) Important to keep the speech short so his audience would be free to grieve upon the news.

d) No matter what he said he couldn’t helped the riots

i) They occurred in over 60 cities

ii) Still offer some sense, so after all anger and frustration was out of their systems, they would have had wise advice so that they can grow from the experience

8) Transition from Body: By analyzing the affect of Martin Luther King Jr.’s message to his culture, it easy to see what Robert F. Kennedy’s motives were when giving his remarks of the assassination.

9) Conclusion:

a) Thesis: Robert F. Kennedy assures us to keep moving forward and live out the dream, Martin Luther King Jr. worked so hard to inspire, by giving his Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

b) Review of Main Points: Senator Kennedy’s speech to Indianapolis was useful because he was very aware of who his audience was, and what needed to be said in order to halt them from reacting violently. By offering up his own experience and relating to their anger and hostility, he was able to motivate them into using his death as a learning experience and an opportunity to grow as kind-hearted, compassionate human beings.

c) Decisive Closing:

i) The life and death of Martin Luther King Jr. still means so much to people in today’s world.

ii) During his term, Bill Clinton held a rally in the very same city in which Kennedy delivered his speech. Both The King and Kennedy families attended and recalled what it was like at the specific time. While people all over the world were burning torches and starting riots, the people of Indianapolis remained touched by the courage and wisdom implemented upon them by Senator Kennedy

Sources

"Great Speeches Collection." History Place. 1996. History Place. 5 Feb. 2008 <http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/rfk.htm>.

"Robert F. Kennedy's Speech on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr." Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. 24 Jan. 2008. Wikipedia Foundation Inc. 5 Feb. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy's_speech_on_the_assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.>.

Zuckman, Jill. "Clinton Pays Tribute to Fateful Night in 1968." The Boston Globe 15 May 1994, City ed. Lexis Nexis. 5 Feb. 2008.

Comments:

Apparantly I'm the first person to do these, and I feel compelled to tell everyone I'm commenting on that I feel really stupid about that fact. Either that, or I'm posting these in the wrong place and then I should feel really really stupid. Moving on. Good speech. You seemed nervous but that's no big deal. I liked how you set the scene right in the beginning. It helped me visualize it, as if I was there. You did a great job. - Nate Scarbrough

Quan,Zou: Your topic impressed me a lot and your performance was also pretty good. Maybe more eye-contact will make your speech more perfect.

Joe Belack: Your attention getter was great. The eye contact was a bit of a struggle, but your speed, content, and closer were all good.

Maria Martin: You really set the scene with your intro- it painted a clear picture and was a great way to start your speech. It was easy to follow from point to point also. You obviously knew alot about your subject and it was really interesting. You might want to work on eye contact a little, but who doesn't- I know I do too. Great job with your speech.

Scot Brown: There was a large amount of discussion of the actual content of the speech, at the expense of context. It was good, but some of it could have been saved for the next speech. Also there was little on Bobby Kennedy's relationship with King and the Civil Rights movement, which is a significant part of this story.

YB Dong: I didn't take many notes on your speech because you had me interested the whole time. I really like how you were able to make a relationship between John Lennon and the music at the time with Vietnam. You had great transitions and a decisive closing. Great job!

Speech 2:

I. Introduction

Attention Getter: (Refer to Visual Aid): This picture was taken in 1963. It was taken at the white house during the time JFK met with the leaders of the civil rights movement. These two men, had the support and the potential to change the world. The one on the left dedicated his life to the civil rights movement, while the one on the right preached similar messages of equality in his race towards the presidency. Unfortunately, five years later the man on the left was assassinated, leaving the man on the right to try and carry out his message as long as he could, until his untimely death a few months later.

Credibility: The last time I talked about Bobby Kennedy’s remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, I identified his audience, exigence, and constraints. By studying those three elements of the better speech, I was able to grasp a better idea on the content, which I will share with you today

Preview of Main Points: The interesting thing about Bobby Kennedy’s speech to the group of African Americans in Indianapolis is the fact that it serves as three types: motivational, persuasive, and inspirational. All of these modes of speeches are touched upon in the way he effectively uses rhetoric.

Thesis Statement: By successfully using ethos, logos and pathos, Bobby Kennedy was able to motive, inspire and persuade the citizens of Indianapolis to have compassion and remain peaceful in the waking hours of Martin Luther King Jr’s death.

Transition to Body: During my last speech I talked about the constraints Kennedy was faced with when delivering his speech to a group of his African American campaign supporters in Indianapolis, Indiana. I am now going to explain how he took those constraints and developed them into a positive ethos.

II. Ethos

1. Ethos

i. Ethos is how the audience perceives the speaker

A.The challenge

ii. As a Caucasian male, his mere presence in addressing this group already set him up for a negative ethos. When addressing this group of African Americans, he was no longer perceived as their politic hero. He was a white man. He was just a small part of the majority that was keeping them oppressed.

iii. He was no different or better than the actual white man, James Earl Ray, who took away Martin Luther King’s life.

1. According to a witness of the night Bobby Kennedy spoke he proclaimed the audience’s immediate reaction to be: “People just wanted to go out there and destroy the white man. Fight, you know. It was just a natural instinct that you think when something like that happens.”

B. How he to rose to the occasion

i. He understood he had to relate to a demographic whose race was different than his own.

1. According to our textbook, “If listeners judge you to be very different than themselves, they may be less likely to respond positively to your message” (Zarefsky 75).

a. Kennedy knew that, in the sense that he was not a minority, he could relate exactly how to they were feeling. He specifically addressed African Americans and the emotions that they may have felt, which will be discussed later in my speech

ii. When it came down to how America could move forward from the tragedy, he effectively used ethos by using the word “we”.

1. An example from the speech when he repetitively uses the word we, is when he says, “What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred, what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness”

2. The word we was essential because it created a community between him and his audience

3. He did not remove himself from the audience’s situation, therefore was able to reestablish himself a positive perception.

Transition: In order for Kennedy to establish a strong character, he also needed to establish strong reasoning to back up his points.

III. Logos: Logos is the object or reasoning the speaker uses in a speech in order to try and get them to think in a certain way.

A. What message does Robert Kennedy want us to act upon as a result of Martin Luther King’s death?

i. He wanted us to live out Martin Luther King’s dream. He did not want his death to be just another reason to segregate Blacks from whites.

ii. More specifically, he wanted the people of Indianapolis to not only say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther, but for the whole country. That we could move on with a better understanding of love and compassion.

iii. The fact that a leader whose fight against racial discrimination was rooted in the ideas of civil disobedience and non-violent protest was killed out of an act of bloodshed was enough to infuriate people. That’s not what Martin Luther King would have wanted however.

B. How did he establish his reasoning?

i. Kennedy Immediately states “Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and justice between his fellow human beings.” In the heart of his dedication to the cause, he was tragically taken. His mind was never changed, and his goal constantly remained the same.

ii. The country could move on from this experience in one two possible ways:

a. We could give up the fight. We could use his assassination as a reason to continue to fight, and isolate ourselves from one another.

b. The option would be, to grow from the experience. As Kennedy states we can “replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.”

c. For somebody who dedicated his entire life to justice, I think that it is quite obvious that Martin Luther would have wanted his supporters to choose the latter choice.

C. Did his reasoning work for his audience in Indianapolis?

a. The answer to this question would be yes.

b. While riots broke out in 76 different cities, killing 46 people and injuring 2,000, the people of Indianapolis remained peaceful.

a. Many feared for Kennedy’s safety because he was supposedly speaking in a dangerous ghetto. Instead he left them touched by his valuable words of wisdom.

c. An African American citizen from Indianapolis said, “We were blessed that he was here. We were absolutely blessed.

Transition: Although logos are important, for its based on reason, one is more likely to act if they are driven by emotion. Which brings me to my next point: pathos.

IV. Pathos

-Pathos is the emotional appeal that drives the speech.

I. Tone: Kennedy immediately sets the tone in the opening line of the speech by stating, “I have some very sad news for all of you”

A. From the very beginning, the audience understands that he is serious.

B. Even after the news is broken, he remains consistently serious in his tone, and does not deviate from his initial tone.

II: Emotion: The emotion that drives the speech is compassion, because from sadness comes compassion. Compassion is what is needed for the audience to heal from the initial blow of the news.

A: From the beginning, he lists the possible emotions that those in his audience may have been feeling. As he states, they may have been filled with feelings of “bitterness” or “hatred” or a “desire for revenge.”

B. Instead of putting them down for it, he tells them that he understands what they are going through.

i. He does so, by relating back to his own personal experiences. He had a brother who was also killed by a white man.

C. By sharing his experience and relating to their sorrow, he is acting as a model for how he thinks his audience she react to the news, which was discussed in the logos part of the speech.

Transition From Body: By analyzing the ethos, logos, and pathos of Bobby Kennedy’s speech, one can understand how he positively affected so many people in Indianapolis the night of Martin Luther King’s death.

V. Conclusion

I. Thesis: Robert Kennedy was able to successfully calm a crowd severely affected by Dr. King’s assassination by successfully using ethos logos and pathos.

II. Review of main points: By using rhetoric affectively, his speech was able to motivate, persuade and inspire people. He motivated the citizens of Indianapolis by persuading them that acting violently towards Dr. Kings death would have been the opposite of what he wanted. He inspired them, through his own compassion, to show love for one another by remaining peaceful.

II. Decisive Closing: Martin Luther King once said. “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” This passage exhibits exactly what Kennedy was trying to relay to his audience. The path to move forward and grow is an effort that needs to be made by all. The death was just the beginning of the struggle in the race to move forward.

Bibliography

1963. The White House, Washington DC. 29 Feb. 2008 <http://www.putclub.com/showimg.php?iid=8>.

Bloom, Autumn. "Rhetoric: Ethos and Identity." 2008. Associated Content, Inc. 29 Feb. 2008 <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/370476/rhetoric_ethos_and_identity.html>.

Garrow, David. "The Assassin's Name is James Earl Ray." The New York Times 24 Apr. 1997. 28 Feb. 2008.

Kennedy, Robert F. "Robert F. Kennedy." American Rhetoric. 4 Apr. 1968. 28 Feb. 2008 <http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/rfkonmlkdeath.html>.

"Martin Luther King Jr." Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. 2008. Wikipedia Foundation Inc. 29 Feb. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.>.

"Robert F. Kennedy." Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. 2008. Wikipedia Foundation Inc. 29 Feb. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy's_speech_on_the_assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.>.

"The Ripple of Hope." 2008. Covenant Productions. 29 Feb. 2008 <http://rippleofhopemovie.com/>.

Zarefsky, David. Public Speaking Strategies for Success. 2004-2005 ed. Boston: Pearson Custom, 2005.

Comments:

Michael Chiang: I liked your speech! I think your tone is very confident a well-paced. I also how you used ethos, logos, and pathos, especially when you define them, reminding us what they mean. You have good eye-contact, however, there were times were you looked at your outline to read off what you wrote. Your main points were easy to distinguish and well developed. I liked your visual aid, the image of MLK and Kennedy.

Michael McKenna: Your transitions were very clear. The points you made were well developed. Overall eye contact was good, but I think with a little more practice, you would have had more solid and consitent eye contact. Great job.

Liza McKenna: You seemed really well prepared and confident but you did say "um" and other fillers a few times. I also thought that quoting witnesses was really effective. Well Done!

Joe Belack - Your pace through each transition was very good. Volume was good as well. At some parts you seemed like you were running out of breath so maybe during some parts you could slow down a little bit. Quoting in the speech was nice to hear.

Christina- You had good information in your speech and added specific details. You could use a little more eye contact, but overall you presented well.

Paper 2