1. Motivational Appeals
Aristotle

2. Introduction to Speech Writing:
The Art of (Ethical)Persuasion
Three Crucial Motivational Appeals:
 Ethos: Establishing credibility; convincing
through your character, credentials, or
knowledge.
 Pathos: Appealing to emotions, values, and
beliefs.
 Logos: Appealing to reason or logic.

3. Martin Luther King Jr. has now been
dead longer than he lived. But what an
extraordinary life it was.
 At 33, he was pressing the case of civil rights with
President John Kennedy. At 34, he galvanized the
nation with his "I Have a Dream" speech. At 35, he
won the Nobel Peace Prize. At 39, he was
assassinated, but he left a legacy of hope and
inspiration that continues today.
 King's most famous speech, "I Have a Dream," was
delivered in 1963 at the March on Washington, one
of the largest political rallies for human rights in
United States history; it called for civil and
economic rights for African Americans.

4. “I Have a Dream”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

5. Ethos
 Ethos means the character of the speaker in the eyes
of the audience. King was born into a well-
educated, successful family, graduated from
Morehouse College, and, as the outstanding
member of his senior class, from Crozer Theological
Seminary. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy in
1955, and served as minister of the Dexter Avenue
Baptist Church from 1955 to 1968. His Nobel Peace
Prize was received one year after this speech was
given.

6. Pathos: King depends on his use of language
to draw emotion from his listeners. Figures of
speech predominate.
 Antithesis, or the setting of one clause or other member of a
sentence against another to which it is opposed, is heavily used.
“It came as a joyous daybreak to end their long night of
captivity,” is the first of many examples of antithesis used in the
speech.
 Simile is the comparison of two unlike things, connected with
the words “like” or “as” such as “justice rolls down like waters
and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
 Metaphor is a compressed simile (the “like” or “as” is
eliminated) and they are abundant: “manacles of segregation,”
“symphony of brotherhood.”
 Allusions, or references to literary, historical, and biblical
events, occur often. One obvious example is “Five score years
ago,” which refers to the Gettysburg Address.

7.  Personification: the attribution of a personal nature or character to
inanimate objects or abstract notions: "Death lays his icy hand on
kings”
 Hyperbole: obvious and intentional exaggeration: “to wait an
eternity.”
 Contrast: To evince a difference that can distinguish meaning:
“Voiced and voiceless”
 Colloquialisms: a word, phrase, or expression characteristic of
ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or
writing, as “She‟s out” for “She is not at home.”
 Repetition: repeated word aimed at stimulating thought on a
recurring theme; used to create an 'auditory' stimulus.
 Anaphora: a poetic device and a repetition device where the same
expression is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines,
clauses, or sentences.
 Parallelism: occurs when a writer or speaker expresses ideas of
equal worth with the same grammatical form: "Veni, vidi, vici," (I
came, I saw, I conquered)

8. Find examples of Pathos
through language use in King‟s
Speech
 Antithesis: the setting of one clause  Contrast: To evince a difference that
against another to which it is opposed. can distinguish meaning.
 Simile is the comparison of two unlike  Colloquialisms: a word, phrase, or
things, connected with the words “like” expression characteristic of ordinary
or “as.” or familiar conversation.
 Metaphor is a compressed simile (the  Repetition: repeated word aimed at
“like” or “as” is eliminated). stimulating thought on a recurring
 Allusions: references to literary, theme.
historical, and biblical events
 Anaphora: a repetition device where
 Personification: the attribution of a the same expression is repeated at
personal nature or character to the beginning of two or more lines,
inanimate objects or abstract notions. clauses, or sentences.
 Hyperbole: obvious and intentional  Parallelism: a writer or speaker
exaggeration. expresses ideas of equal worth with
the same grammatical form

9. Logos: A persuasive
strategy of logic
 In his “I Have a Dream” speech, King used
mostly his own personal experience and
observations to support his major
arguments. His thesis (or purpose) statement
is, “Now is the time to make justice a reality
for all of God‟s children.”

10. Organizing your Speech
A Method in Five Steps!

11. King followed Monroe‟s
motivated sequence.

The five steps of the Monroe motivated sequence are attention,
need, satisfaction, visualization, and action.
 In the attention step, speakers call attention to the situation. King, speaking from the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial, calls attention to Lincoln‟s signing of the
Emancipation Proclamation, the situation of the Negro today (“One hundred years
later, the Negro still is not free.”), and the fact that the words of the Constitution and
Declaration of Independence granting all people the unalienable rights of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have not been fulfilled.
 For the need step, speakers describe the difficulty, trouble, distress, crisis,
emergency, or urgency. King says, “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation [what
the Constitution and Declaration of Independence promise], America has given the
Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked „insufficient funds.‟”
And why have they come to Washington, D.C.? — to “remind America of the fierce
urgency of now.”

12. attention, need, satisfaction, visualization
and action.
 In the satisfaction step, speakers tell listeners how to satisfy the need they
establish. King says, “We must make the pledge that we shall always march
ahead.” To march ahead, he said, “We can never be satisfied.” Then he tells
listeners to go back home knowing their situation can and will be changed.
For visualization, speakers offer listeners a vision of what life can be once their
solution (offered in the satisfaction step) is adopted. This is where King offers
listeners his dream: “I have a dream” offered along with five different
descriptions of what life can and will be like in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama,
in communities, and around the world.
The final stage is the action step when speakers offer listeners a specific course
of action to follow. King‟s action step occurs when he asks his audience to “Let
freedom ring,” and he uses the phrase at the end of the speech focusing on
eight states symbolizing the whole nation.
 Courtesy of Richard L. Weaver II

13. Homework
 Find several examples of Pathos through language use in “I
Have a Dream. ” Post them.
 Use the list of strategies to generate several ideas for your own
speech. Post a few ideas.
 Rearrange your essay into a speech format similar to Kings
using Monroe‟s motivated sequence. Your essay and your
speech should not be exactly the same. The essay will likely be
longer.