What do you notice about the rhetorical and stylistic elements of the speech?
A good rhetorician can make fairly accurate inferences about personal and political motivations behind a speech or a book, especially when they also do a little research.
A knowledge of current events, history, religion, culture, economy, and military issues concurrent with a particular time and place coupled with a keen rhetorical awareness can enable an educated observer to accurately read the surficial meanings and sub-text of most any speech, political ad, or doucment.
As we prepare leaders for tomorrow, we hope to prepare leaders who are discerning and can reach informed and independent conclusions about what things mean. We do not want intellectual sheep. We want researchers, thinkers, and visionaries.
My aim is to show you just how much rhetorical analysis and research can reveal to a thoughtful person. I want you to see how we can use a knowledge of history, current events, and language to better understand our world.
So let's take join Ron C. White, author of Lincoln's Greatest Speech, as he delves into the speech and what it reveals about Lincoln and the social and political issues era.
And just as White considers a variety of sources and synthesize his own viewpoint of Lincoln, next week you will learn how to combine research and rhetoric to arrive at and write about your own insights on a particular topic to which you are privy to multiple sources and viewpoints. So pay attention to how White does it; you will do a condensed version of this next week.
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