Kennedy Rhetoric Summary

There are many things that a speech must contain to make it a well written and spoken speech. John F. Kennedy 's speech he gave on September 12th 1962, titled “Address at Rice University on the Nation 's Space Efforts”, better known as “We Choose to go to the Moon” contains many of the important factors of a successful speech. Kennedy used rhetorical strategies and skills to help him influence the American people to help accomplish the major goal of reaching the moon. Kennedy did not only want to reach the moon, but he wanted to be the first country to do so. President Kennedy effectively told the objective he found important by using ethos, pathos and kairos throughout his speech to help get the support of the people. By using these three rhetorical strategies Kennedy gave a moving speech.

On a cold January day America’s newly appointed president John F. Kennedy delivered his inauguration address that was incredibly important to America’s success during the Cold War. Kennedy uses his speech as a call to arms, but not only to America but the World and our allies as a whole. He uses his strong powerful voice to appeal to the ethics of the country in the beginning of his speech telling America about the promise we made when we were founded and that we must uphold it still today, telling America we must make a difference. Kennedy also uses ethics to explain that we the people are united no matter what your background or where you are from, he refers to the Americas as one place, because he wants for us to feel unified not divided. Furthermore Kennedy’s use of powerful imagery, logic and pathos allows for him to effectively call the people of the World together during this terrible time.

On April 4, 1968 Robert F. Kennedy began his political campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in Indiana. Before boarding his plane, Kennedy found out that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot in Memphis, Tennessee. At his arrival in Indianapolis, Kennedy was informed that Martin Luther King, Jr. had died from the incident. Kennedy was scheduled to speak to a large African-American audience, and was advised by the Indianapolis Police to not speak. The Chief of Police warned Kennedy that he would not be responsible for whatever may happen, making this speech even more dangerous. Kennedy chose to ignore the warning signs, went into the conference campaign, and spoke to the audience. Robert Kennedy, putting his political aspirations aside, advises the Indianapolis African-American audience not to retaliate to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination with violence, but with prayer, understanding, and love as Martin Luther King, Jr. taught. This is done through the use of motivational appeals, rhetorical devices, and expressing to the audience a purpose.

The first rhetorical strategies is alliteration. Throughout Kennedy’s whole speech he uses alliteration, which is put into connotation as, multiple words in a sentence that have the same beginning sound. For example his first sentence. “Simultaneous and identical actions of the United States Steel and other leading steel corporations, increasing steel prices by some 6 dollars a ton…” (line 1-5). In his opening sentence Kennedy uses the letter “-s” about six times, in the words “simultaneous”, “state”, “steel”, and “some”. Using the same sound really emphasizes, and grabs ahold of the audiences attention. Another example is, “If this rise in the cost of steel is imitated by the rest of the industry, instead of rescinded, it would increase the cost of homes…” (line 22-25). In this sentence he uses the alliterations of the “-in” sound in the words

The first chapter introduced the reader to the art of rhetoric. He describes how rhetoric works through real life examples. He demonstrates ways that rhetoric persuades us like, argument from strength, and seduction. He tells the reader that the sole purpose of arguing is to persuade the audience. He showed that the chief purpose of arguing is to also achieve consensus, a shared faith in a choice.

There is a great importance in the use of rhetoric. Rhetoric is the ability to write, or speak, persuasively with the usage of figurative language, and the goal of this is to change the way someone views something. Rhetoric is often used to persuade an audience by the usage of three different methods; these methods are known as ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos is based off of credibility, which is based off of the speaker. Logos is based off of the use of reasoning and logic. Pathos is the usage of the audience’s emotions and feelings. By using these methods, the audience is more likely to agree with the speaker. Rhetoric is important because it changes people’s opinions and outlook on things. This is important due to the fact the use of rhetoric appears in our everyday

Rhetoric seems like a big word but the meaning is simple- persuasion. In the book Julius Caesar, Antony and Brutus, two major characters, are fantastic at persuading the Roman citizens. When one is reading the story, they might think that both have equal amounts but when you look closer, Antony has the better rhetoric strategies. In just a few short sentences, Antony convinced the people to believe that Caesar needed revenge even though he never came out and told them that. Just a couple of minutes ago, the citizens were on Brutus’s side and thought that Caesar needed to go.

In John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech, he worked on persuading audience or listeners for the idea which is American should do anything that should be done to assure the survival and the success of liberty. In his mind, American should hold their liberty forever, further guarantee other country freedom. Kennedy really used a lot of rhetorical strategies in his speech. Of course, he used those strategies successfully. One of the rhetorical devices he used was antithesis. Another rhetorical device that I found out was metaphor which is a good way to create a good image, further, make audience believed in his mind.

Rhetoric is a significant part of our everyday lives. Whether it's convincing our friends to go to a concert on the weekend, to go to a certain place for lunch, or even convincing yourself to do something that you should but don't want to do. Rhetoric is all around us today. Billboard ads, television commercials, newspaper ads, political speeches, even news stories all try, to some degree, to sway our opinion or convince us to take some sort of action. If you take a step back to look and think about it, rhetoric, in all actuality, shapes our lives. Every day we have an array of options of things to do or things to buy. So every day, our opinion or actions are being influenced, however minutely, by rhetoric.

Rhetoric gives you an avenue to tell a story from your perspective in a way that connects with the intended audience without having to be one hundred percent substantiated. This writing style is evident in almost everything we read from billboards to Internet ads and even political speeches.

Rhetoric has value as a tool that, if used correctly, can lead to not only financial and professional success, but a happier life and better familial interactions by providing the entire family with better ways of resolving conflict than verbally, and even physically, attacking each other. Rhetoric, at its base,

The famous speech spoken by Robert F. Kennedy in Indianapolis, bearing the news of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., given to a crowd of mostly black people, is a great example of the humanistic speech style of Robert F. Kennedy. Although a short speech, Kennedy’s words are heartfelt and timeless. Through rhetorical devices it is known that Kennedy was a clever, glowing public moderator who used his time at the podium not only to commemorate a life, but also build support for his own presidential campaign. I found that Kennedy uses many different types of rhetorical devices in his speech such as: anaphora, antithesis, epistrophe, pathos, logos, and ethos.

Rhetoric is a course in which students are taught the values of persuasion. And yet, behind this course is the utmost power to corrupt the world, changing it into a world of our own policies. This power, even though seldom discussed, has lead to many intriguing discoveries. One such discovery is how people are able to shape the world they live in simply by choosing the right words. Therefore those who would want the world to be a better place must protect this power. If in the wrong hands this power could cause serious damage. Several authors have striven to protect rhetoric and its power. Few agree on the matter of defining rhetoric, but they know that they must protect rhetoric from dark souls. A single definition of rhetoric must maintain a simplistic nature while incorporating every aspect of rhetoric. However, I argue that rhetoric is a means of persuading audiences of a situation and a particular reality through language and personal appeal. In order to prove this definition I will discuss how rhetoric creates a situation, the shaping of a different reality, the audience, the use of language, and the personal appeal. Finally, I will demonstrate the absolute need for rhetoric.

Rhetorical phrases can be used in an infinite amount of ways. Of these ways, many are ineffective, while others are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Additionally, only a select few were able to catch those effective usages, and of these people are Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Robert F. Kennedy. In many of their passages, these outstanding speakers and writers use many valuable phrases to help convey their points to the audience.

Rhetoric, Plato says, is the art of ruling the minds of men. But in democracies it is too common to hide thought in words, to overlay it, to babble nonsense. The gleams and glitter of intellectual soap-and-water bubbles are mistaken for the rainbow-glories of genius. The worthless pyrites is continually mistaken for gold. Even intellect condescends to intellectual jugglery, balancing thoughts as a juggler balances pipes on his chin. In all Congresses we have the inexhaustible flow of babble, and Faction's clamorous knavery in discussion, until the divine power of speech, that privilege of man and great gift of God, is no better than the screech of parrots or the mimicry of monkeys. The mere talker, however fluent, is barren of deeds in the day of trial (Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, 1872, p.