English 10 Quarter 3 (Week 22 )

My Dear _______________________,
This Worksheet 19 will not only improve your writing skills but will also develop your ability in
gauging the effectiveness of the speaker’s content and delivery. Stay safe and have fun learning kids!

The Learner is expected to:

 Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a speech.

A critique is a genre of academic writing that briefly summarizes and critically evaluates a
work or concept. Critiques can be used to carefully analyse a variety of works.
Writing a critique on a work helps us to develop knowledge of the work’s subject area,
understanding of the work’s purpose, and recognition of the strengths and weaknesses of the
work.
Like an essay, a critique uses a formal, academic writing style and has a clear structure,
that is, introduction which names the speech, when it was delivered, and the name of the
speaker; the body which summarizes the main points and identifies both the strengths and
weaknesses; and the conclusion which indicates the overall evaluation of the work.

Activity: Read the excerpt of a sample speech critique below and answer the questions
that follow.

In the year 2009, at the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, former

prisoner Elie Wiesel delivered a passionate speech reminding the world of a horrific
incident in history. His purpose was to commemorate the lives lost at the Buchenwald
camp during the torture and extermination of its prisoners over half a century ago. My
analysis will focus on how Wiesel used the strategies of storytelling, intonation,
articulation, pause, quotation, and redundancy to engage and maintain his audience’s interest, as well as
evoke their sympathy. Utilizing the three major divisions of a speech, his introduction captured the
audience’s attention; the body presented his position; and his conclusion summarized the theme he
wanted to portray (Beebe 13).

Wiesel opened his speech with a humble and clear tone- loud enough to be audibly heard, yet soft
enough to portray the deep pain he still felt as he told the story of how his father called his name just
before dying in the bunk bed above him. He explained that he was too afraid to go to his father’s deathbed
for fear the German guards would see him. His opening story of his father’s death was a powerful attention
grabber (Beebe 134,137).

Without overloading the audience with long descriptive details of his horrific experience, he enabled
them to feel his pain and perceive his honesty. He does not shy away from remorseful words of
recollection, either (Beebe19, 79). Using these tactics combined with direct eye contact, Wiesel stood erect
before the audience with his hands held loosely together in a humble display of character and integrity
(Beebe 142-143).
 English 10 Quarter 3 (Week 22 )
My Dear _______________________,
This Worksheet 20 will not only improve your writing skills but will also develop your ability in
gauging the effectiveness of the speaker’s content and delivery. Stay safe and have fun learning kids!

The Learner is expected to:

 Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a speech.

Continuation of the Worksheet 19

To ensure a warm reception, Wiesel assessed his audience and appropriately referenced the
current German Chancellor’s civic contribution and President Obama’s earlier speech on humanity (Beebe
43). He challenged the world’s claim of having learned from the historical atrocities of the past by
referencing victims in Rwanda, Darfur, and Bosnia, selecting the examples that best suited his theme
(Beebe 97, 118). Wiesel spoke with an intonation of measurable staccato, in addition to pausing to
emphasize his dissatisfaction with what people have purportedly learned. In perfect pitch, he asked the
crowd, “Will the world ever learn?” (Beebe 190).

As the speech moved from the introduction, through the body, and onto the conclusion with
carefully crafted verbal transitions, the speaker used an appropriate quotation to drive home the
seriousness of his feelings (Beebe 111, 121). He closed his speech with a quote from the philosopher Albert
Camus, author of The Plague.

Elie Wiesel’s speech captures me and everyone else exposed to it from the beginning. Whether it be
the heart-wrenching story of how he and others suffered at the hands of sadistic national socialists, or his
repetitive claim and proof that the world hasn’t learned from their mistakes (Beebe 190), the speech is
sure to affect a listener emotionally. Although he paced his speech so that every word could be heard and
understood, at times, I found the pace to be a little too slow for my taste. However, I understand that the
subject matter is very grave, and he didn’t want to risk under-emphasizing his misery and disappointment
with the atrocities of the past.

Questions:

1. In what manner did the speaker deliver his speech?

Answer:_____________________________________________________________________________________

2. Which parts of the speech did the writer evaluate?

Answer:_____________________________________________________________________________________

3. What were the strengths of the speech? Weaknesses?

Answer:_____________________________________________________________________________________

I have read and answered the above lesson and activity.

______________________________ ____________________________
Name and Signature of Student Name and Signature of Parents