How to analyze a speech

The Communication Situation

 Who is speaking to whom on what occasion, in what language and with what
intention?
o Take notes to each heading in the rhetorical pentangle:

Audience What sort of people constitute the audience?

On what occasion is the speech made? Under what circumstances

Circumstances
(physically/politically/etc.)?

Topic What is the speech about?

Language What sort of language (vocabulary, style, syntax) does the speaker use?

Purpose What seems to be the speaker's purpose?

Genre
 What sort of speech is it?
o a political speech

o an informative speech

o a celebratory speech

o a persuasive speech

Content/topic
 What is the speech about?
o Give a brief outline.

Structure
 How is the speech structured?
o Introduction – body – conclusion

o Is there a governing idea running through the speech?

Argumentation
 How does the speaker build his argumentation?
o What is the central claim/what are the central claims?

o What grounds are given? (The evidence and facts that help support the claim.)
o What kinds of warrants (an underlying belief that connects a reason), backing
(Backing refers to any additional support of the warrant. In many cases, the
warrant is implied, and therefore the backing provides support for the warrant by
giving a specific example that justifies the warrant.), qualifiers (Qualifiers are
words like some, most, many, in general, usually, typically and so on--little words
whose value to an argument is immeasurable. Example of a qualified claim:
Many books by Charles Dickens are fun to read) and rebuttals are used? (A
rebuttal is an argument that is opposed to another argument. It stands against
the argument it is opposed to. But it does not necessarily refute that argument.
Refutation is something more powerful).

Syntax
 Short/long sentences
 Hypotaxis/parataxis
Coherence

 Do the various parts of the speech relate logically?

Cohesion:
 How are the individual parts tied together?
o What connecting words are used?

o How does referencing work? (e.g. use of personal pronouns)