Using rhetoric to analyze a speech

What is rhetoric?

The roots of "rhetoric" stretch back to ancient Greece, where early philosophers defined rhetoric as the art of winning the soul through discourse or the art of persuasion. Rhetoric and its proposed nature have since shifted, with more modern sources describing rhetoric as a natural byproduct of language, the intentional framing of discourse, or the study of how humans use symbols and language to carry out human activity.

The art of classical rhetoric

Ancient orators snapped human communication in two: the open palm of persuasive rhetoric versus the closed fist of evidence-heavy dialectic. The former seeks to convince the many via one's speech, while the latter seeks the truth in an argument. In ancient Rome, rhetoric had five "canons": invention, arrangement, style, memorization, and delivery. Loading the rhetorical canons in order was meant to help orators craft an effective and impactful speech.

The rise of the campaign speech

What compels an audience shifts over time, meaning yesterday's popular speeches might not go over the same way if delivered today. However, impactful campaign speeches across time share some qualities, including taking the audience seriously, inviting listeners to engage with or respond to presented materials, and using everyday, informal language. Additionally, US political candidates typically promote themselves in their speeches, an approach initially considered vulgar in Australia and Britain.

Aristotle's 'Poetics': a breakdown for the overwhelmed student

"Poetics" by ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle is an analysis and commentary on theater. This 13-minute video by a theater student summarizes and explains the ancient publication, of which only a portion has survived since antiquity. Aristotle studied under Plato, another ancient Greek philosopher, for about 20 years. Aristotle's "Poetics" can be seen as a response to Plato's "Republic," which argued poets and poetry were corruptive forces.

Read an analysis of Roosevelt’s famous Congressional address by a speech writer

Former White House speechwriter Bob Lehrman breaks down why Roosevelt’s 520-word “Infamy” speech endures—showing how FDR used structure, urgency, radio-era reach and careful omissions to rally the nation and win near-unanimous support for war.

How to write a great speech

Before walking onto a stage or booting up a Zoom meeting to deliver a speech or presentation, you have to know what story you want to tell. This story acts as a keystone, providing an ideological foundation on which the rest of the speech balances. This story should be bigger than the moment it's delivered, giving listeners the ability to connect to expressed concepts across time.

Satirists sometimes use ironic personas

Satirists often embody a character to mock the kind of person who would believe what they argue are ridiculous ideas. One famous example was Stephen Colbert on “The Colbert Report,” who satirized right-wing pundits like Bill O’Reilly through a bombastic persona. When O’Reilly asked whether that meant he was owed money, Colbert responded with more satire: “There’s a difference between imitation and emulation … If you imitate someone, you owe them a royalty check. If you emulate them, you don’t.”

'So to Speak' is a podcast covering the front lines of free-speech debates today

Produced by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, this podcast covers the most contested free-speech issues of the moment—from campus censorship to social media regulation—and features interviews with lawyers, scholars, journalists, and activists.

A scholarly analysis of romance's enduring popularity

Diane Winston, a media scholar at the University of Southern California, argues that romance novels have remained popular because they've historically offered women shame-free ways to explore their identities and sexualities. She notes that's even more true today, with contemporary romance novels, from romantasy bestsellers to "Heated Rivalry," more willingly explore social dynamics.

The complicated use of rap lyrics as legal evidence

Rap artists are known for their vivid imagery, which can sometimes include gruesome acts of violence. That style has led to legal trouble for some artists (including popular acts like Young Thug) when songs are admitted as evidence in court cases. This legal analysis breaks down a history of the trend and explains why people are trying to stop it.

Orwell warned readers about how abuse of language can lead to dystopias

In his 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language," Orwell argues that language is the primary tool of political control and is "designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." The essay warns readers that how they use and consume language will dictate what they permit—or prohibit—in society.

The case that willfully being 'cringe' can be antisocial

While noting the prevalence of "cringe" in recent media discourse, the author argues that willfully engaging in cringe behaviors—an overzealous earnestness or awkward rupture of social norms, in many cases—is selfish and forces others to experience discomfort. The essay offers an interesting meditation on how artists often explore cringe as a concept to critique social norms, while others who encourage people to "embrace cringe" are promoting individual freedom over relational harmony.

How metaphors shape the way we think

A metaphor is often viewed as a form of art, deployed only in special circumstances to help an audience grasp something complex or unique. But metaphors are far more fundamental than that, shaping much of how we think about our relationship to others and the world. This article explores how a focus on the metaphors we use can clarify and strengthen our thinking. Learn more here.

Read a Langston Hughes poem on 'Jazz as Communication'

The essay, delivered in 1956 at the Newport Jazz Festival, offers a poetic take on defining jazz, suggesting that it is the root of both literature and music. “Jazz is a great big sea,” he says. “It washes up all kinds of fish and shells and spume and waves with a steady old beat, or off-beat.”

Shakespeare’s use of verse and prose signifies important characteristics

Structured verse signals formality, often used by high-ranking characters; in contrast, unstructured prose is typically used in informal, more witty situations by lower-status characters.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used disciplined organizing tactics to win civil rights

This resource focuses on Dr. King as a strategic organizer, detailing how he selected campaign targets, partnered with local leaders, adapted his tactics, developed leadership pipelines, and employed political pressure to convert moral protest into political change.

Reactions inside the House chamber during the State of the Union are highly choreographed

Applause, silence, and coordinated standing—or refusal to stand—are deliberate signals during the State of the Union, used by lawmakers to broadcast allegiance or dissent. At the same time, military leaders and Supreme Court justices largely avoid reacting to preserve institutional neutrality.

The perception of haunted places is influenced by psychology, setting and suggestion

Gothic architecture and tragic histories contribute to the perception of hauntings. Infrasound and black mold can cause experiences reminiscent of paranormal phenomena. Although paranormal investigators use technology to seek natural explanations, many paranormal experiences remain non-falsifiable.

How 'based on a true story' is that film? A scene-by-scene review

Films based on history may diverge from reality or try to replicate it exactly, though this is difficult for a viewer to evaluate. This tool takes dozens of popular films based on a "true story" and ranks each scene by its authenticity compared to known historical accounts. See reviews for "Hacksaw Ridge," "The Wolf of Wall Street," and more.

Linguistics professors believe memes are a language

It's generally agreed upon that languages exhibit at least some of the following characteristics: compositionality, social transmission, arbitrariness of form and meaning, and accomplishment of linguistic functions like asking questions and expressing emotions, among other qualities. Memes fulfill these basic requirements, giving them linguistic legitimacy.

Listen to an academic analysis of the 'Wizarding World of Harry Potter'

Potterversity examines the Harry Potter series through an academic lens—inviting scholars from diverse fields to uncover new interpretations and deeper meanings within the book series.

A sociologist makes the case for libraries and parks as essential public infrastructure

Eric Klinenberg argues that social infrastructure that brings people together is as vital to a community as roads or power grids. He contends that when communities invest in these spaces, residents grow more connected, and when they are neglected, isolation follows.

Exclusionary ads can help win over customers, some marketers argue

Slogans like "if you don't like dark roast, this coffee isn't for you," also known as "dissuasive framing," can entice specific groups of customers, some marketers say. The shift comes from the perceived authenticity of a company admitting that a product is not perfect for everyone.

How a Philadelphia soup kitchen taught business students about ethical decision-making

As the St. Francis Inn—a Philadelphia soup kitchen—struggled with decisions about moving its operations to serve more people, a management professor at St. Joseph's University realized his students might have been able to help. Business students used ethical decision-making frameworks to help the soup kitchen serve more people and attract more volunteers.

What is the Overton Window?

The concept of the Overton window is an excellent framework through which to analyze why politicians talk (or avoid) certain topics and policy positions, and how ideas change over time as societal attitudes evolve.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.