By now, you should have a pretty clear idea of what you'll need to do with your own rhetorical essay to make it work as a speech. If you run out of ideas, though, be sure to look back at the suggestions and examples in this lesson.
Locate a rhetorical or persuasive essay that you've written—for this course or another—and turn it into a speech that you will share with your classmates. The slides below describe the steps that you should use to complete this assignment. After viewing the slides, click the Activity button at the bottom of the page to start working on your speech.
Step 1: Start with an essay.The essay you choose should develop a theme or tell a story that has a point. Two of the writing assignments in this course include just such an assignment. If you completed these lessons already, you can use the essay you wrote for one of those assignments. If you have not completed these lessons yet, you'll need to find another narrative or thematic essay that you've written--or find or even write a new one just for this assignment. Step 2: Identify the key parts of your essay/speech.Your essay should include an introduction and a conclusion as well as several body paragraphs. Locate the sentences that would work best for your speech's hook and clincher. Edit these sentences to make them more effective at performing their roles. Step 3: Select details and language that must stay in the speech.Some parts of your essay will work better in your speech than others. Identify and highlight those details or sentences that are particularly well suited to a speech (to make sure you don't remove them). Step 4: Edit out unnecessary details or sentences.Remember how long your speech should be? No longer than 15 minutes—and preferably closer to 10. Delete any details or language that is not absolutely essential to get your point across. Step 5: Sharpen rhetorical devices.
Now that you know what parts of your essay will stay in your speech, focus on making those parts work well as rhetoric. Add sentences that will increase the impact of your rhetorical devices. Then, edit the speech one more time to make sure it flows smoothly with the new material added. |
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Use the worksheet below to complete these steps. Then, submit the worksheet to your teacher.
Make sure you've completed all the requirements for this assignment. Look at the rubric below to see how you will be graded.
| Criteria | |
| Topic and Structure Selection 2 points |
1 Point: Your topic is narrow enough to require no more than fifteen minutes to deliver, but the details you plan to provide are adequate for creating an interesting speech. |
| 1 Point: The organizational pattern you selected for your presentation is a logical choice for the topic. | |
| Ideas for Hook and Conlcusion 2 points |
1 Point: Your ideas for “hooking” your audience seem likely to engage listeners and make them wonder what you will say next. |
| 1 Point: Your ideas for concluding your presentation seem likely to help listeners remember the topic and “point” of your presentation. | |
| Draft of Speech 1 points |
1 Point: Your draft of your speech, “exactly as you would say it,” includes all the required parts as outlined in this planning worksheet. |
