In case next week’s English LK Abitur features a speech, here’s some last minute material to help you prepare. A lot of this is audio stuff, but I suggest listening to it pen in hand, as so many phrases and words might come in (I know…) handy.
- In March 2008, I liked Barack Obama’s speech on race. I still think this is one of the best. And hey! the guy has stuck around, no doubt just to please me.
- Analyzing Obama’s speech and cadence by John McWhorter mostly focuses on the spoken word in the speeches, but it is very interesting nonetheless, and completely proves Zadie Smith’s point.
- Analyzing Obama’s Inaugural Address by Geoff Nunberg has some great thoughts on how rhetoric has really gone out of style and why this made the Inaugural Address a good speech. You will also incidentally learn some stylistic devices that are a bit more interesting than good old anaphora. It’s also funny:
Rhetoricians have been botanizing this stuff for millenia. Today, there’s no way to put two words together that doesn’t have a Greek label, preserved in aspic by English department pedants.
- my esteemed colleague Jochen Lüders has a lot of worksheets on stylistic devices on his Abitur service page. Great stuff!
- I also assembled a Quizlet list for you.
- More great speeches can be found at The Guardian, with additional essay for each one by well-known writers, journalists and politicians. The collection includes old faithful’s like MLK’s “I Have A Dream”, but you will also find Earl Spencer’s tribute to his dead sister, the most hunted person of the modern age. Tom Clark, the editor of the series, contributed an essay about the art of rhetoric in which he demonstrates the most basic stylistic devices. I strongly recommend it.
- At the risk of sounding dull – if you want to experience the power of oratory, why not prepare for your exams by quickly reading Imperium?
