All arguments, whether they are about dirty socks on the couch or international trade policy, are in one of three tenses: past, present, and future. The past tense is the language of forensics-- of finding out what happened, who did it, who is to blame or who gets the credit. The present tense is the language of values. It defines who we are and who we aren't, and it defines us versus them. The future tense is the language of solutions, options, and choices.
Listen to these famous speeches and make a note in the comments about what tenses these rhetorical examples use. Does their use of past, present, and future reflect blame, values and choices? Or is it more complicated than that?
In your comment write:
1. the speaker's name
2. the topic
3. the tense: past, present, future
4. the effect of the tense on the strength of the speech
Here's Bobby Kennedy, a young and promising politician, announcing the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Shortly after this, Bobby Kennedy himself was assassinated.
Here's a comedian, Charlie Chaplan, giving a speech in a movie. Isn't it so oddly incongruent that he is dressed as Hitler? He is reclaiming that image to rob it of its terror.
Would you, as a teenager, face the UN and tell them to shape up or ship out?
President Barack Obama, when he was still running for president, saying that words matter:
And a little while later, Barack Obama talking about what he will do (future!) and about the history of the US (past!)
Martin Luther King talking about what America means, in his last speech before he was killed. He says "we are not going to let any dogs or water hoses turn us around!" What's the context? If you don't know, find out.
Obama is the speaker. He was talking about the democrats and the people. This was in the past. And now hes talking about the future.and it makes more affective in the future.
ReplyDeleteKalelei Rogers--
ReplyDeleteSever Suzuki is the speaker. Her speach is absalutly true, she talks about little kids not having any future because there would not be any plants or animals fro them to see. People have been polluting the air so now she is afraid to be in the sun, she used to go fishing with her father but know cannot because the fish has canser. All of this is the result of to much pollution in the air and in the water.
The speaker is Severn Suzuki. Her topic is how the pollution on Earth is getting worse and how things have been damaged that cannot be fixed like the ozone layer. She spoke in future tense present tense, and some past tense. I think her speech was so true and it's good that she spoke on behalf of a lot of kids/people that want to stop pollution and damage on Earth. She was a good speaker because she was prepared, she knew what she was doing, and she was very concvincing!
ReplyDelete-Malana
The speaker's name is Martin Luther King, the topic is about the civil rights of African Americans and how he sees a future to have the same rights as the American people. He's talking about the future. Its a strong speech because he says to keep on fighting for your future rights even if he's not with them.
ReplyDeletemartin luther king from maka bailey
ReplyDelete