Obama Speech Analysis Extract 1

330 Words2 Pages
In extract one, Barack Obama announces that he will be accepting his Presidential nomination. Throughout the speech he uses various strong strategies and techniques to engage his audience. At the beginning, he smiles and waves to the crowd. This gives us the impression that he is a friendly and welcoming individual who is happy to be one of the people. He opens his speech with repetition of the word thank you. He addresses his audience as brothers and sisters, implying that he feels part of a big family. He focuses on those who have helped him achieve what he has and adds a personal element of referring to the grandmother who helped raise him and this is quite emotive as he describes her “pouring everything she had into me”. He ends this part by dedicating the evening to her, This is short, snappy and effective.. Obama uses repeated pauses to add gravity to his words and to allow the audience to focus better on what he is saying. It gives the impression that he is considered in his wording and has thought and cares about the subject matter. He also addresses the whole of America by making references to various places, for example “Springfield”. He uses “our (primaries)” and “we (first stood together)” to give the impression that this achievement has been a joint effort with the people of America and makes the audience feel they have something to be proud of, ending with the statement “because of you,… tonight I can stand here and say…” This is an encouraging technique to inspire and praise his adoring crowd. Obama emphasizes key words such as “change” and “today” to inspire the audience and to add relevance. Finally, he builds up his speech to a climax as his tone of voice changes and he becomes more determined, creating a sense of excitement. He ends with his full title in contrast to the preceding short phrases which adds gravity to his
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