Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream Speech and John Lewis’s 1963 March on Washington Speech were given at the same public protests and intended to accomplish the same goal of encouraging the American people and government to take immediate action concerning civil rights issues in the United States, particularly regarding workplace discrimination and police brutality. However, the two speeches attempt to motivate the audience in very different ways. With his impassioned delivery and impromptu ending, King appealed to people’s sense of humanity and patriotism, offering them a sense of hope that things could be different in the future. Lewis’s speech, on the other hand, drew on the African American community’s hardships in order to create a sense of urgency within his audience and convince D.C. legislatures that immediate action was necessary. Both speeches effectively took the rhetorical situation into account, while using different strategies to build trust with their audience and unity within the Civil Rights Movement.
In my first body paragraph, I will discuss how the political climate of the time influenced both speeches. I will also use talk about commonplaces employed in the speeches and talk about the ways in which they are similar.
In the second and third body paragraphs, I will talk about the differences in the approaches employed by King and Lewis to build trust with their audience. I will also talk about different rhetorical strategies.
In the final body paragraph, I will talk about the delivery of the speeches, specifically the impromptu nature of King’s speech at the end.
I really like how you chose speeches for both artifacts. I think that this is a great way to compare the different lenses in each of them, and also how both MLK and Washington delivered their words. I think that your speech outline looks great; I really like how the two body paragraphs are broken up based on similarities and differences among the speeches.
I like how you give a clear overview of what will be in your essay. Your comparison of the two speeches is very interesting, I’d love to hear more about it.
This looks like a very well thought out outline. I think it will pave the way for a very good essay. I think your use of lenses is very intelligent and will be applied well to both speeches.
I think you have set yourself up very well with this introduction and outline. Your introduction is setting the tone for the rest of your essay and your outline is full but not oversaturated to the point where your delivery could be harmed. The content also is very strong, you could literally model your speech on the speech you are giving a speech on and it would be great!