Speech Analysis: Obama's Acceptance of the Candidacy Speech

Obama's speech was simple and engaging. He expressed his views and opinions and managed to keep the audience engaged and interested in what he had to say. It was a well written speech that the writer seemed to have spent a lot of time on. His speech was effective and as we know now won over many hearts and votes. One of the main reasons that the audience remained engaged was the style of the speech and the rhetorical devices used in it.


In his speech, there were many important and effective rhetorical devices used such as repetition, metaphors rhetorical questions, reader inclusions, anecdotes and allusions. An example of an effective use of the rhetorical question in his speech is when he is talking about Senator McCain and says, "Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year?" Another example of a well used rhetorical device in his speech was anecdote. He managed to tell many anecdotes throughout his speech and keep the attention of the audience by including them. "In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships." He can relate to everyone in his anecdote and keep everyone engaged.


Reading the speech was very different from watching it. The facial expressions, the pauses and the tone of voice that Barack Obama used were very effective and added to the speech. he did an overall exceptional job and delivered a powerful message with his speech.