Persuasive Speech Essay

Did you know that only 19 states and the District of Columbia have laws in place that

The “I have a dream” speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the greatest speeches given during the civil rights movement. Appealing to the audiences’ emotions plays a crucial role in the act of persuasion and with his utilization of pathos, King does just that. “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” (King). The reference to his children helps charge an emotional image into the listener’s mind, more so because they are likely to pity the way the actions of others affect the younger generation.

In President Abraham Lincoln's famed speech, The Gettysburg Address, one can plainly see the way he skillfully employed pathos, the appeal to emotion, to persuade and move his audience. The purpose of his speech was to push the people toward their common goal of victory, despite their horrific losses. In his address, two lines specifically stand out regarding his use of pathos. In the first, President Lincoln states “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to do so” (Miss & Daly, 245). Undoubtedly, he is appealing to the desire of his audience to honor their soldiers and their mission.

Two of the most important speeches in history, The “Gettysburg Address” and the “Emancipation Proclamation”, were given by Abraham Lincoln within a year of each other. In both of Lincoln’s speeches, he uses Pathos and detail to grab the audiences attention and also understand the importance of the speech. Especially in the “Gettysburg Address”, Lincoln utilizes Pathos to get the audience to really understand the importance of the speech and feel pity and grief over the hero that fight for our country. Lincoln states that they must all, "dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live” (Lincoln). This is giving the reader a feeling of the sorrow that the fighters and their family’s went through

Just because a soldier comes back and has PSTD does not mean he will go into a work places snap and go on a violent rampage. These men and women come home and want come back into society and be accepted, welcomed, and feel like they have helped the people they fought for. The don’t wanna be singled out and and ignored because of what they went through, it is just not fair not to hire someone that is perfectly qualified and able to do a job and not give them that job because they were a veteran.

The message I will be conveying is the importance of embracing failure. My role will be myself as I understand myself the best. The audience addressed will be my fellow classmates. In the format of a speech.

A. People commit murders largely in the heat of passion, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or because they are mentally ill, giving little or no thought to the possible consequences of their acts.

Specific Purpose: To persuade the audience to support the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

TRANSITION: Now that we know some key difference between brand name drugs and generic drugs, we can take a look at their prices.

Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Health, United States, 2002. Flegal et. al. JAMA. 2002;288:1723-7. NIH, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults, 1998.

1. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revealed that 515,000 people were injured in various car crashes in the United States due to texting. Around 28 percent of all crashes in 2008 were caused by drivers in the age group of 18 and 29, who admitted to texting while driving. (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/texting-while-driving-statistics.html)

The World Wide Fund for Nature or WWF for short has worked at reducing our carbon footprint for over 45 years. Even since 1985, the World Wildlife Fund Network has invested over $1.165 billion in more than 11,000 projects. According to the WWF website, their mission is to conserve nature which they are actively doing in 100 countries with 1.2 million members in the United States and close to 5 million globally. There are several ways that everyone can do their part in supporting WWF. Supporters can donate money, adopt a species, or take action and directly help conserve our environment. I am going to discuss WWF’s cause and importance, how they are working to conserve nature, and how all of you can help support the cause.

a. The following poem by Robert Test entitled, "To Remember Me," shows the importance of organ donation.

Why spend money that is really needed for other things? Why live uncomfortably? Why be trapped in this hole called a home that belongs to another person? Why not live free and peacefully? When a person rents he or she usually throws away money that could be used to purchase something that belongs to them. Money is not easy to come by so why pay out hundreds toward something that is not benefit to the person paying it out. There is no good explanation for making a decision like this. The best option in a situation like this is to buy a house. Buying a house is a better option than renting an apartment.

An American literary theorist and novelist, Kenneth Burke, once said, “Wherever there is persuasion, there is rhetoric, and wherever there is rhetoric, there is meaning.” (Burke) Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr. and Fannie Lou Hamer all delivered powerful persuasive speeches that will go down in history. The use of these motivational individuals’ language and persuasion played a pivotal role within the civil rights movement, the movement that achieved the most important breakthrough in the equal rights legislation. We can observe this in the speakers’ rhetoric devices like ethos, logos and pathos.