A Speech Analysis

A speaker’s capacity to engage in speech analysis will aid to accelerate their development as speakers. Understanding how to study a speaker is a crucial talent. In speech analysis, it is necessary to look at many features and how the speaker presents them. An individual might develop ideas for speech evaluation by analyzing a speech. The statement objective is among the most crucial factors to take into account while analyzing speeches. Understanding the speaker’s goal is essential since it should affect how you analyze the speech. One must determine the speaker’s method of engaging the audience (Flanagan, 2013). During speech analysis, there is need to understand how the speaker is organized and how the speech content and structure are brought forward in achieving the primary objective of the speech.

Many speeches have been given ranging from motivational speech, educational, political, and many others. The primary goal of the speech is always to capture the audience attention to enable them to understand the key messages from the address. Giving a speech can be very challenging at times because most people does not know their audience; therefore, they find a hard time in structuring their speech to cover the targeted audience. However, some expressions are useful because the speakers know their target audience. For example, the speech given by Julian Castro during Democratic National Convention in 2012 was very effective because the speaker was so precise in his points and how he was addressing his audience.

Julian starts his speech by showing that he is among the community, he tries to make the audience feel like he is one of them and he understands them even better. His introduction is very effective because his fans are likely to feel like they are under same situations and no one is special than the other. This is well noticed when he opens his speech by saying “My fellow Democrats, my fellow Texans, my fellow Americans: I stand before you tonight as a young American, a proud American, of a generation born as the Cold War receded, shaped by the tragedy of 9/11, connected by the digital revolution and determined to re-elect the man who will make the 21st century another American century—President Barack Obama.” This kind of introduction will draw the attention of every audience because you all share the same ambitions and have faced same experiences like 9/11.

Castro involves the appeal of Ethos in his speech as he tries to convince his audience to feel he is qualified for some posts. He captures this by saying ”But she probably would have thought it extraordinary that just two generations after she arrived in San Antonio, one grandson would be the mayor and the other would be on his way—the right people of San Antonio willing—to the United States Congress.“ Julian uses evidence in supporting his claims all through the speech; some are personal based on the experiences he has had while others are statistical facts that are affecting the public. First, he gives an evidence by using his personal stories to enable the audience to understand how far he has come from to be in the position he is in the present.

Castro evidently supports how he has toiled to be where he is by saying ”Twenty years ago, Joaquin and I left home for college and then for law school. In those classrooms, we met some of the brightest folks in the world (Kreiss, Meadows & Remensperger, 2015). But at the end of our days there, I couldn’t help but think back to my classmates at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio.” From that line in his speech, one can understand that he did not reach where he is from the blues, he probably worked his way through.

Castro further uses a statistical evidence to support one of his claims. He defended it by stating ”Four years ago, America stood on the brink of depression. Despite incredible odds and united Republican opposition, our president took action, and now we’ve seen 4.5 million new jobs.“ He supports what former President Obama achieved. Castro’s speech is well organized, he knows which points to stress on and how to capture the audience attention. By giving relevant examples in what the citizens are facing, he uses such examples to support his claims. Julian has given an excellent introduction to his speech, how he connects it with the body is even better. His points are well elaborated and every idea he illustrates with an example that is well conversant to the audience.

Castro has involved the use of appeal of pathos; he wants his audience to understand the direction that they should take, a direction that will be more beneficial to all. He convinces the audience by creating an emotional response. The appeal of pathos can be identified when he says, ”shaped by the tragedy of 9/11, connected by the digital revolution and determined to re-elect the man who will make the 21st century another American century — President Barack Obama.” By introducing this appeal, he convinces the audience on the argument that President Barack is defiantly the president to support because he will answer to the American dream.

Julian’s introduction is very active; he introduces his speech by first putting himself at the same level as his audience. His presentation captures the central theme that he is to address through the entire speech. The speech conclusion is even more compelling; he summarizes the important points he has covered in the statement (Trepanier, & Crenshaw, 2013). The end reminds people of what has been addressed in the speech, which Castro has well outlined. His conclusion involves every audience wishes, everyone’s prosperity and a request to God to bless everyone including America.

When giving a speech, increasing credibility is something of essence. It will attract the attention of your audience and will make them more eager to listen. Julian has gained credibility in his speech by being genuine of who he is; he illustrates this by telling the audience about his background. Castro covers this by saying, ”The unlikely journey that brought me here tonight began many miles from this podium. My brother Joaquin and I grew up with my mother Rosie and my grandmother Victoria. My grandmother was an orphan”.

Julian further increases credibility by adding insight based on analysis and research. He illustrates this by saying, ”And that’s the middle class—the engine of our economic growth. With hard work, everybody ought to be able to get there. And with hard work, everybody ought to be able to stay there—and go beyond.“ The audience can understand how important they are and that they can achieve everything they want. With hard work, they can move the country to higher economic level.

The speaker involved a broad range of vocal aspects in his speech. He was very audible as this could be noticed by the reaction of the audience. Julian uses the corrected pitch where necessary, like when stressing a point, he presents in a manner that one can understand how important that particular point is. His words are very clear, and everyone can understand him. Clarity can be identified, for example, when he says, ”America didn’t become the land of opportunity by accident“ one can understand every word from that statement. The speaker is very keen in his pronunciation; everyone he uses are well pronounced. Castro is very fluent, even though he is a Spanish-speaking community, he is good in English, and this is notable from how he speaks every word (Birdwhistelle, 2010). Fluency can be seen through the entire speech like in the example, ”That’s the country they envisioned, and that’s the country they helped build.”

The speaker uses body movement and gestures to communicate particular messages, he moves his arms and at times fold the tip of his fingers in contact when stressing a point. At some points, he stands still without movement, and this makes the audience to come to silence. The speaker then moves purposely from one side to another to show a transition of points.

In conclusion, the speech is very useful on how it addresses the target the audience, however, for a better speech delivery, the speaker should have involved a few individuals in public to ask him questions to help support him before he concludes the speech. Finally, speech analysis is of importance because it enables one to understand the basics covered in a speech. This will help one when they find themselves giving a speech one day for they will be well conversant with how to present their speech.

References

Birdwhistell, R. L. (2010). Kinesics and context: Essays on body motion communication. University of Pennsylvania press.

Flanagan, J. L. (2013). Speech analysis synthesis and perception (Vol. 3). Springer Science & Business Media.

Kreiss, D., Meadows, L., & Remensperger, J. (2015). Political performance, boundary spaces, and active spectatorship: Media production at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Journalism, 16(5), 577-595.

Trepanier, S., & Crenshaw, J. T. (2013). Succession planning: a call to action for nurse executives. Journal of nursing management, 21(7), 980-985.