Description
The purpose of this speech is to persuade, not simply to argue. You might be able to develop a perfectly
logical argument that is wholly unpersuasive to an audience. Persuading an audience means that you
create community, i.e. you address areas that move your listeners and present your thoughts in a way
that sways their opinion. What is important is that you speak to an issue that affects your audience as a
collective and is debated publicly.
For this purpose, you should write an inspiring, persuasive speech that will make your audience (i.e.
instructors, classmates) vote you into a public office, e.g. Student Union leader, President of a club. This
vote, of course, is fictional, but it should help you picture what is expected of you. Your speech should
convince us to take your side, to believe you, and to act upon what you proposed.
You need to apply everything you have learnt:
• the promotional strategies of advertising to promote yourself and your ideas
• the argumentative and opinionated voice of the op-ed
• the delivery and rhetoric of speeches
Convince us that you are the best candidate for the role you run for.
NOTE: You will need to do research and find a suitable role. Use the correct term and write a speech
specific to this position
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News Folio: Speech assignment
The Speech assignment comprises a political speech that you write (1000 words) and a
reflective essay (1000 words). It is worth 40% of your grade.
General guidelines:
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Submit one Word document – doc, docx
Word count: Please make sure that both texts are +/-10% of the word count. Please indicate
the word count at the end. Headlines do not count towards your overall word count.
1. Speech – 1000 words – worth 20%
The purpose of this speech is to persuade, not simply to argue. You might be able to develop
a perfectly logical argument that is wholly unpersuasive to an audience. Persuading an
audience means that you create community, i.e. you address areas that move your listeners
and present your thoughts in a way that sways their opinion. What is important is that you speak
to an issue that affects your audience as a collective and is debated publicly.
U
For this purpose, you should write an inspiring, persuasive speech that will make your audience
(i.e. instructors, classmates) vote you into a public office, e.g. Student Union leader, President
of a club. This vote, of course, is fictional, but it should help you picture what is expected of
you. Your speech should convince us to take your side, to believe you, and to act upon what
you proposed.
You need to apply everything you have learnt:
• the promotional strategies of advertising to promote yourself and your ideas
• the argumentative and opinionated voice of the op-ed
• the delivery and rhetoric of speeches
Convince us that you are the best candidate for the role you run for.
NOTE: You will need to do research and find a suitable role. Use the correct term and write a
speech specific to this position.
• Target audience: Your class, i.e. voters between the ages of 20-40 with a University
education, international background, mixed race and gender
• Content:
1. Greeting
2. Introduction: briefly introduce yourself to establish common ground, why you
are here, why you are qualified for this office
3 Agenda: address one agenda item that you passionately care about and that
will be the primary goal of your candidacy (e.g. climate change action,
poverty/homelessness, crime, discrimination, unemployment)
4 . Salutation
Delivery/Formatting of the speech:
You do not need to give the speech, BUT you need to transcribe it as if it were spoken . This
means that paralinguistic features (e.g. pauses, emphasis ) need to be visual in your
submission. We will discuss this more in the tutorial.
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Think: A speech is meant to be spoken. We need to perceive your speech at its best, when we
mark it.
Further tips:
• Follow your own interest/passion. Topic can be local, regional, national or international –
but it must be of public relevance.
• Use rhetoric devices and narrative technique
• Balance ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos
• Good persuaders do not ignore the opposition, nor do they simply attack the opposition.
They engage with the opposition’s arguments.
• Speak your speech. Deliver it in order to hear which sections work, and which do not.
Research & Referencing
REMEMBER that independent research is essential and part of your grade! You need to
back up your arguments with facts.
If you take information from another source, you must cite this source – otherwise you commit
plagiarism.
For the speech, do not use footnotes or citation in brackets! You are writing a speech that is
given orally. For that reason, please use in-text references and hyperlinks (same as op-ed).
For example, you include statistics of the Australian Government in your speech.
The Australian Government Department of Health estimates that almost half of all Australians
from sixteen to eighty-five years of age will experience mental illness at some point in their life.
Hyperlinking is a very common practice in online writing and will enable you to acknowledge
from where you took a particular point (rather than pass off that point as being your own).
If you do not know how to include hyperlinks in Word, please speak with your tutor.
In addition, please include a reference list. You may use any reference style you like (e.g.
APA, MLA, Harvard etc.). Just be consistent and please indicate the reference style you chose,
e.g. References (APA).
These references do not count towards your overall word count.
References (APA):
Australian
Government Department of
Health. (n.d.). Mental health.
https://www.health.gov.au/healthtopics/mental-health
Feedback round:
Please have a draft of your speech ready for the tutorial in Week 12.
In break-out groups, you will get to deliver your speech. This is going to help you edit your
speech. It’s all work in progress and you will get valuable feedback.
1. Essay – 1000 words – worth 20%
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Along with your speech, please submit an essay that explains why you wrote your speech the
way you did. Please address:
• Audience: How did your understanding of your audience affect your speech?
• Setting: Where would you give this speech? (e.g. lecture hall, cafeteria, pub in the
evening?) How does this setting influence your speech?
• Content/Agenda: First, provide an overall view of the topic (relevance, impact etc.).
Second, explain how you tailored this topic for your audience. Explain why they will
care/listen.
DON’T: I care about this, so my audience cares about it too. DO:
Provide facts, statistics etc.
• Language: Outline your rhetorical choices including language, paralanguage,
argumentative structure. Which rhetorical elements have you applied and why?
IMPORTANT: The main focus of your essay (i.e. the main chunk of writing) should focus on
content and language. Audience and setting mainly informed your content and language
choices.
Research & Referencing
REMEMBER that independent research is essential and part of your grade! You need to
back up your decisions with facts. The essay is primarily logos and ethos!
If you take information from another source, you must cite this source – otherwise you commit
plagiarism.
In-text citations: Use parentheses, e.g. Smith (2010, 7) explains that …
Note: Footnotes are not used to indicate the source of citations. Use them only to
provide additional information (e.g. a translation, a definition etc.) or to further
discuss a topic. Number them consecutively throughout the text and use single line
spacing.
Reference section: You may use any reference style you like (e.g. APA, MLA, Harvard etc.).
Just be consistent and please indicate the reference style you chose, e.g. References (APA).
These references do not count towards your overall word count.
Feedback round:
Please have a draft of your essay ready for the tutorial in Week 12.
After you have given your speech, you will also get the chance to discuss your choices and to
hear your peers’ opinion on your persuasive strategy. It’s all work in progress.
Formatting
Ensure your work is 1.5 or doublespaced. Ensure that your file name
includes your name.
Keep copies of ALL your pieces on your computer / backed up online.
Reading
Required reading:
Lester, Ada. (2023, May 11). So many young Australians like me will rent forever – it
needs to be made livable and affordable. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/12/so-many-young-australianslike-me-will-rent-forever-it-needs-to-be-made-livable-and-affordable
Bray, T. H., & Christy. (2020, July 29). We Have a Question for Jeff Bezos and Other
Billionaires. The New York Times; The New York Times Company.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/opinion/amazon-union-congressantitrust.html?login=email&auth=login-email&login=email&auth=login-email
Stephens, Bret (2017, Aug. 25) Tips for aspiring op-ed writers, The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/opinion/tips-for-aspiring-op-ed-writers.html
Required reading:
Coleman, S., & Freelon, D. (2015). Introduction: conceptualizing digital politics. S
Coleman & D. Freelon (Eds.), Handbook of Digital Politics (pp. 1–14). Edward Elgar.
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4337/9781782548768
Pond, P. (2020). The Political Public. Complexity, Digital Media and Post Truth Politics:
A Theory of Interactive Systems (pp. 165–192). Springer.
Required reading:
Finlayson, A., & Martin, J. (2008). ‘It Ain’t What You Sayy’: British Political Studies and
the Analysis of Speech and Rhetoric. British Politics, 3(4), 445–464.
Recommended reading:
N., N. (2004, July 27). Barack Obama’s Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic
National Convention. PBS; PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/barack-obamaskeynote-address-at-the-2004-democratic-national-convention
Links to an external site.
History has seen many people exploit the power of rhetoric for their own agenda. In this
lecture, we discuss the abuse of rhetoric, the difference between persuasion and
propaganda, and how to spot spin doctors.
Required reading:
Miller, D., & Robinson, P. (2019). Propaganda, Politics and Deception. The Palgrave
Handbook of Deceptive Communication (pp. 969–988). Palgrave.
Week 11 Reading
In our final week, we share our views on media writing: past, present, and future.
Speech workshopping in seminars this week.
This lecture covers the basics of speechwriting and provides useful strategies to help
you write your own political speech.
Required reading:
Campbell, K. K., Huxman, S. S., & Burkholder, T. (2015). The resources of language.
The rhetorical act (pp. 165–197). Cengage Learning.
Week 12 Reading
In our final week, we share our views on media writing: past, present, and future.
Speech workshopping in seminars this week.
Please have a draft of your speech and/or essay ready for the seminar this week. In
teams, you will get to deliver your speech. This is going to help you edit your speech.
After you have given your speech, you will also get the chance to discuss your choices
and to hear your peers’ opinion on your persuasive strategy. It’s all work in progress.
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