The rhetorical speeches of the 21st century cover an amazingly diverse range of topics and may take dozens of different media forms. We Americans are still at it—forcefully making the case for everything from the risks posed by climate change to the need for more (or less) freedom of speech. Just as our ancestors have done for the past 200 years, we stand up for what we believe, attempting to change the direction of the country or—sometimes—just the behavior of our peers.
You may have read this essay about the dangers of texting while driving earlier in this course, where it was provided as a model for a rhetorical essay that you were asked to write. The essay was written by Trevor, a teen driver himself. Read the essay again (or read it for the first time). Think about which sentences would work well spoken aloud to a live audience and which sentences would not.
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Now listen as the same message is delivered as a speech. (Keep the original essay open in front of you and note what changed from essay to speech.)
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Question
In transforming his essay into a speech, what purpose does Trevor share with Patrick Henry when he made his 1775 speech to the Virginia Assembly?
