Analysis of a stump speech

AIM: What steps do I need to take to analyze a speech?

SUMMARY OF LEARNING EXPERIENCE.

To achieve this aim, you will read two analysis of the political stump speeches of President Obama and President Clinton at the Democratic National Convention published by CNN.com. You will analyze these articles to identify the characteristics that an analysis of a speech should have. You will then prove you understand these characteristics by writing your own analysis of the Mitt Romney Republican National Convention speech.

NOTES. 

A speech is a type of text that has two aspects, a written part and a performance part.

A Text  is anything that is composed of set of symbols and transmits some kind of informative message; it can have many forms. For example: novel, essay, poem, song, drawing, painting, drama, soap opera, opera, dance performance, speech, movie, music video, etc.

To analyze a speech you must be clear on what it is to analyze. 

To Analyze is to break down complex information into component parts and discover the relationship between these parts in order to come up with a deeper understanding of the item being analyzed.

Textual analysis
To analyze a text you must consider:

1. WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF THE TEXT? 
    - Who is the author?
    - What is the intent of author (is goal of author to: educate, inform, motivate, persuade, entertain, etc.)?
    - How might the lived experience of the author impacted the intention of the author and the content of the text

2. WHAT IS THE CONTEXT OF THE TEXT?. when/where did the author create or perform the text? What was happening in the society when the text was created? How did this impact the intention of the author and the content of the text?

3. FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF THE TEXT.
    - type of text will help you determine the aspects of the text that you need to focus on.
    - title of text
    - what happens in the text (i.e. its conent? in order to find this out you must experience the text (read it; listen to it; observe it);
    - how is its content structured or organized?  in order to find this out while you experience the text you should take notes to keep track of the text's content and understand how it is organized or structured.
    Note: Up until this step you will be able to give a descriptive summary of the text. You need to do more if your goal is to analyze the text.

4. ANALYZE CONTENT. Analysis of a text usually focuses on its content.
     (1) After you familiarize yourself with the text you can take the first step of analyzing the content which is to break down the content into its mayor parts or categories (and subcategories). You can review your notes or refer back to the original text to figure out what these categories are.
     (2) Study the characteristics of each part. It is very useful to create some sort of diagram or chart that shows the different parts of the text and the characteristics of each part.
     (3) Now that you understand the parts, you can see how the parts work together to create a whole meaning. The diagram or chart you created can capture visually the relationship of the parts.

5. AUDIENCE. (who is the intended audience; what meaning did the audience create; did the audience "get"or understand the author's intended meaning; did the audience react the way author intended or in an unexpected way because "got"or understood the text differently than what the author intended?)

NOTE: When you familiarize yourself with a text you should determine what type of text it is because that will help your analysis of the text. 

For example, when you analyze a speech there are things you make concentrate on that you don't when you analyze a different type of text. In speech analysis it is important to consider:

•  the audience (demographic features), 
• who spoke before, who spoke afterwards; 
• the delivery skills and techniques, and even 
• intangibles like the technical sound. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON POLITICAL SPEECHES

POLITICAL SPEECHES GIVEN BY CANDIDATES WILL CAMPAIGNING ARE ALSO KNOW AS STUMP SPEECHES. 

Origins of stump speeches in U.S>

The term is derived from the custom in 19th century America for political candidates campaigning from town to town to stand upon a cut down tree's stump to deliver a standard speech. Because the busy pace of campaigning often forces candidates to address people several times per week or even per day, the candidate and his or her staff will usually write a single speech to be delivered at most public appearances.

The beginning of the speech is usually tweaked to include mentions of local elected officials and campaign staff, with local references sometimes peppered throughout, but most of the speech remains identical from day to day. The need for a stump speech stems from a desire to keep candidates focused on their message and to consistently present certain arguments or point out certain aspects of their political platform. Candidates will often use major events to unveil a new or substantially revised stump speech.

U.S. campaigns

In presidential campaigns in the U.S., a candidate's speech at his or her party's presidential nominating convention usually forms the basis for the stump speech for the duration of the national campaign.
Stump speeches are not meant to generate news, outside of local media covering a candidate's appearance. National media usually ignore their contents in their daily news coverage. The predictability of stump speeches allows reporters to generally know when a candidate is preparing to wrap up. A famous example of this comes from Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller, who would constantly use the phrase "the brotherhood of man, under the fatherhood of God" toward the end of his speeches during his multiple bids for the Republican Party presidential nomination. Reporters covering Rockefeller came to abbreviate the expression as BOMFOG.

from <<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stump_speech_(politics)>>

READING STRATEGIES. Since you will reading two analysis of the Clinton and the Obama DNC speeches, use these strategies while, during and after you read. I will be checking for evidence of these strategies.

Before reading. 

1. Scan title and subtitles
2. Look at images
3. Consider type of text, author, and publisher.
4. Activate prior knowledge. (what do you know about subject)
5. Make predictions on what text will be about.

During first reading.

1. High light important information
2. Circle unknown words of phrases and try to figure out definition in context. DO NOT STOP TO LOOK UP WORDS IN DICTIONARY! 
3. Reread sentences before and after of sentences you don't understand very well.
4. Take mental notes (or write them in margins of text if you can) of connections, questions or comments that come to mind while you are reading: "I wonder...,, I think..., Why..., I am confused about... This reminds me of..." If you can't write on document, use sticky notes that you  take off.

After first reading.

1. Only after you completed the first entire reading, can you to a dictionary and look up word. Write the definition in margin with arrow to word or even better maintain a chart (like the one I gave you today in class) with the word, the context (sentence you read it in), the dictionary definition that best seems to fit the context). Using an online dictionary if you please such as "Www.wordreference.com" make this process much faster.

Second reading.

1. Reread entire text if possible, but if too long like a novel, only the sections with the words you didn't understand to see if you understand it better.
2. While you are reading for second time, take detailed notes and organize your notes in chart and or make drawings of content.

After second reading.

1. Write 1-4 sentence of the main idea of the text. 

Work to attain the goal of the analyzing of political stump speeches:

1. Complete a KWL chart on President Obama, democratic nominee for President 
2. Watch the Obama full 2012 DNC Speech and take detailed, organized notes.
3. Watch the Clinton DNC speech and take detailed, organized notes; Make sure you follow rubric for notetaking that I gave you
4. Do research on who Barack Obama is and fill out a Candidate Research Team Handout for Obama. You can visit his website www.barackobama.com to learn about him and complete chart.
5. Complete a KWL chart on Mitt Romney, Republican nominee for President.
6. Watch the Mitt Romney full 2012 RNC Speech and take detailed, organized notes. Make sure you follow rubric for note-taking that I gave you.
7. Do research on who Romeny by visiting www.mittromney.com/ and complete filling out the Candidate Research Team Handout for Romney. 
8. Use your sample notes ditto I gave you, the notetaking rubric I gave you, and your notes on the Obama and Clinton DNC speeches to write a reflection entitled "Current Beliefs and Practices--Note Taking".  Write you reflection (paragraph form).
   Title: Reflection on my Current Beliefs and Practices--Note Taking
   Your reflection should answer the following questions:
   1. What is my purpose of taking notes in class? Be honest!!!!
   2. What is my personal style of note-taking?
   3. What do I do with my notes after I take them?
   4. How can one of the styles of note-taking Mrs. Home presented to me help me improve my notes?
   5. Compare your notes on Obama and Clinton. Explain how they are different. Did they improve or not? Why or why not?
9. With your group, design a chart that presents the categories of the content of Bill Clinton 2012 DNC Speech. The speech and how they relate to each other. Below is link to the transcript of the full speech so you read it, instead of listening to it; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/05/us/politics/transcript-of-bill-clintons-speech-to-the-democratic-national-convention.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www. After you present your chart as a group, take notes of how you can make it better when Mrs. Home gives you constructive criticism. Each group should hand in a copy of the blank chart to Mrs. Home. Each individual member however should take make a copy of the chart with the suggestions Mrs. Home gave you and fill it in with information from Bill Clinton DNC speech. This will count as an individual assignment. 
10. Familiarize yourself with the CNN Analysis of Obama DNC 2012 Speech: Analysis: Obama hit the marks he needed and  the CNN Analysis of Clinton DNC 2012 Speech: Analysis: Clinton speech hits Obama's marks. To do this you must read it a couple of times follow the reading strategies I gave above. The key to using your reading time effectively is to be an active reader. Your readings should show evidence of your active reading strategies. I should see underlined sentences, circled words, comments in the margins of your articles. 
11. Fill out a chart "Understanding the words you read" for each CNN article you read; one for  Analysis: Obama hit the marks he needed and  the CNN Analysis of Clinton DNC 2012 Speech: Analysis: Clinton speech hits Obama's marks. 
12. Read article on "How to Study and Critique a Speech" and pay attention to the subtitles (categories). Then using the subtitles as your guide to create a checklist of all the categories and subcategories that should be included in the analysis of a speech analysis. To separate categories from subcategories just indent. Note: the title of your check list will be " Checklist: Speech Analysis:". You can make your checklist by hand or you can use MS Word: Guide tomake checklist using MS Word. You should make two copies of your check list.  Here is an example of a checklist: 

13. Use one copy of your check list you created to check off the aspects of a speech analysis are included in the CNN Analysis of Clinton DNC 2012 Speech: Analysis: Clinton speech hits Obama's marks . Then use the other copy your check list to do the same for CNN Analysis of Obama DNC 2012 Speech: Analysis: Obama hit the marks he needed. Note:  Since they are very short analysis, they will not have all of the aspects your check list has. Only check off the aspects that the articles have. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

9/24: Today you should of turned in your Cliton chart filled in. Tomorrow you should have assignment 10 and 11. 

9/25: Today I gave you folders to put all your work in. If you didn’t take it home with you, make sure you bring all your assignments to class, in order (1-14) with titles on Thurs. You will not get time to organize your work in class. Do that at home. You will get 4 min to get your folder and place your in your folder and turn it in. If not in order I will not check it. 

9/26: Today you were supposed to put all your work in your folder and hand it in at end of class. Remember that you each assignment counts individually and counts as 10% of your grade. Then, your portfolio counts as 40%; to get the full 40 points of your portfolio you should have all your work in it (including all homework, even if you didn't get credit for it as an individual assignment) and it should be your best quality.  You always should be improving the quality of your work. Make sure you all always working to make your portfolio the best it can be. For homework, you are to work on your portfolio.

Future Work to attain goal

1. Read transcript of Mitt Romney full 2012 RNC Speech and update your detailed notes on this speech. Then use your checklist of a speech analysis to make an outline for writing your own analysis this speech.
2. Write your own analysis of Mitt Romney full 2012 RNC Speech

EXTRA CREDIT

View any of the speeches  presented at the RNC in support of Romney and take detailed, organized notes from that speech 

Useful links:

Note: Since you will be writing and presenting your own stump speeches endorsing one of the presidential candidate (you will pick name randomly out of hat), I suggest you familiarize yourself with website: Sixminutes.dlugan.com which is a guide to becoming confident speaker.