To revise my speech and paper, I plan to refocus back toward second hand smoke. Specifically, I feel as if I got slightly carried away and the speech lost focus as a result and after reading it aloud and to a few friends I realized it was confusing as a result. In my paper, I also plan to become more specific in my analysis and state even the most obvious aspects of the piece rather than some of the more general and overarching points I had. Lastly, I need to work on my wordier of sentences to make them more concise. Overall however, I was pleased with my work.

• Introduction
  • Attention getter: Asking audience how many have been subjected to second hand smoke. Possibly add statistics about the causes of smoking
  • Introduce civic artifact: Anti-smoking ad (“Blonde”) aimed focused on the effects of bystanders; tie it to relevance in society today.
  • Thesis: The advertisement calls people to act upon their civic duty to respect the lives of one another and condemn smoking through the tactics utilized in the gruesome image.
• Background
  • Discuss the organization sponsoring the image (Chilean Corporation Against Cancer)
  • Image itself is part of the “Act Responsible Collection”
  • Explain health concerns with second hand smoke to give basis for image
  • Possibly use the rhetorical situation to transition into why it works as a civic artifact
• Analysis
  • Common places: innocence of children, common good of man (no one wants to see another person suffer), and antismoking ads in general
  • Deliberate about the image’s use of few words but the significance the words have and the call to action they make the audience feel
  • Examine the emotions that are intended to be felt by those viewing from choices by the artist such as the color choice and expression of the child
  • Review the significance of the title of the collection the work is in and the questions that it raises about smoking
• Conclusion
  • Tie back to the introduction and explain the civic aspects of the ad and how it succeeds in its purpose
  • Finalize influence the ad has
  • End with closing thoughts on effectiveness of piece

In one of the most monumental speeches of American history, Abraham Lincoln reinforced the true meaning of the Civil War in his Gettysburg Address, eloquently recognizing the ideal of Civil Rights as the focus of the war. Lincoln’s words spoke passionately to the future even as he stood in dedication of a national cemetery honoring the past. In the months prior to the battle, the morale and spirit of many Union troops had begun to erode from a war many thought would be over in months, not years. During his Address, as Lincoln sought to honor the dead of both armies, he seized the opportunity to boost morale and inspire the Union army by reminding them that the war was being fought for the “greater good” and was much more than a contest for land or property between the north and south. President Lincoln’s speech for this reason employs one of the best examples of kairos.

Without kairos being a factor in Lincoln’s speech, the words and their true meaning would have lost resonance. The rhetorical situation aforementioned highlights the ominous situation in which the Union found itself. Lincoln used his ethos as president and the timing of his speech to arguably give those fighting for the north the power to win the war. His words gained power from the setting itself, not only the site of a great victory for the Union Army, but a cemetery in which he pledged that those who had fallen “shall not have died in vain”. If it had not been for his words (and the deaths to make sense of them), there was a possibility that his soldiers would have hoisted the white flag: a result of the shadow of a war that had cast itself over them. Lincoln’s timing was impeccable and gave all involved in the war the energy to fight on. Overall, the seemingly few words in Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address rose to such a high esteem among those listening as a result of it being said in the right time and right place.