I Had to Highlight the Words to Read to Me

"I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the almost memorable speeches of all time.

It is worthy of lengthy report as we can all larn speechwriting skills from King's historic masterpiece.

This article is the latest in a series of video speech critiques which help y'all clarify and learn from excellent speeches.

Spoken language Video: Martin Luther Rex Jr. delivers "I Have a Dream"

I encourage you lot to:

1. Sentinel the video;
2. Read the analysis in this speech critique;
3. Written report the oral communication text in the consummate transcript; and
4. Share your thoughts on this presentation.

Speech Critique – I Accept a Dream – Martin Luther King Jr.

Much of the greatness of this speech is tied to its historical context, a topic which goes beyond the scope of this article.

Instead, I'll focus on v cardinal lessons in speechwriting that we can extract from Martin Luther King'due south nigh famous spoken communication.

1. Emphasize phrases past repeating at the start of sentences
2. Echo central "theme" words throughout your speech
3. Apply appropriate quotations or allusions
4. Utilise specific examples to "ground" your arguments
5. Use metaphors to highlight contrasting concepts

Lesson #1: Emphasize Phrases by Repeating at the Beginning of Sentences

Anaphora (repeating words at the beginning of neighbouring clauses) is a commonly used rhetorical device. Repeating the words twice sets the pattern, and farther repetitions emphasize the pattern and increase the rhetorical effect.

"I accept a dream" is repeated in eight successive sentences, and is one of the well-nigh often cited examples of anaphora in modernistic rhetoric. But this is just one of eight occurrences of anaphora in this speech. By order of introduction, here are the key phrases:

• "One hundred years later…" [paragraph three]
• "Now is the time…" [paragraph 6]
• "We must…" [paragraph 8]
• "We tin can never (cannot) be satisfied…" [paragraph 13]
• "Become back to…" [paragraph 14]
• "I Have a Dream…" [paragraphs 16 through 24]
• "With this faith, …" [paragraph 26]
• "Permit freedom ring (from) …" [paragraphs 27 through 41]

Read those repeated phrases in sequence. Even in the absence of the remainder of the speech, these key phrases tell much of King'south story. Emphasis through repetition makes these phrases more than memorable, and, by extension, make King'south story more memorable.

Lesson #2: Repeat Key "Theme" Words Throughout Your Speech communication

Repetition in forms like anaphora is quite obvious, merely there are more subtle ways to use repetition every bit well. I way is to echo key "theme" words throughout the body of your speech.

If y'all count the frequency of words used in King's "I Have a Dream", very interesting patterns emerge. The about normally used noun is freedom, which is used twenty times in the speech. This makes sense, since freedom is one of the primary themes of the speech.

Other key themes? Consider these commonly repeated words:

• freedom (20 times)
• we (30 times), our (17 times), yous (8 times)
• nation (x times), america (5 times), american (4 times)
• justice (8 times) and injustice (3 times)
• dream (11 times)

"I Have a Dream" tin can exist summarized in the view beneath, which associates the size of the discussion with its frequency.

Lesson #3: Utilize Advisable Quotations or Allusions

Evoking historic and literary references is a powerful speechwriting technique which can exist executed explicitly (a direct quotation) or implicitly (allusion).

You tin can ameliorate the credibility of your arguments by referring to the (appropriate) words of credible speakers/writers in your speech communication. Consider the allusions used past Martin Luther Male monarch Jr.:

• "5 score years ago…" [paragraph 2] refers to Lincoln'south famous Gettysburg Address speech which began "Four score and seven years agone…" This innuendo is peculiarly poignant given that King was speaking in forepart of the Lincoln Memorial.
• "Life, Freedom, and the Pursuit of Happiness" [and the rest of paragraph iv] is a reference to the United States Announcement of Independence.
• Numerous Biblical allusions provide the moral basis for King'southward arguments:
  • "It came as a joyous daybreak to cease the long night of their captivity." [paragraph 2] alludes to Psalms 30:5 "For his anger is only for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the forenoon."
  • "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom past drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred." [paragraph 8] evokes Jeremiah ii:13 "for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living h2o, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no h2o."
  • More biblical allusions from King'south "I Accept a Dream" speech can be found here.

Lesson #4: Use specific examples to "basis" your arguments

Your oral communication is greatly improved when you provide specific examples which illustrate your logical (and mayhap theoretical) arguments.

One way that Martin Luther Male monarch Jr. accomplishes this is to make numerous geographic references throughout the speech:

• Mississippi, New York [paragraph thirteen]
• Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana [14]
• Georgia [18]
• Mississippi [xix]
• Alabama [22]
• New Hampshire [32], New York [33], Pennsylvania [34], Colorado [35], California [36], Georgia [37], Tennessee [38], Mississippi [39]

Note that Mississippi is mentioned on four divide occasions. This is not adventitious; mentioning Mississippi would evoke some of the strongest emotions and images for his audience.

Additionally, Male monarch uses relatively generic geographic references to brand his message more inclusive:

• "slums and ghettos of our northern cities" [paragraph xiv]
• "the South" [25]
• "From every mountainside" [40]
• "from every village and every hamlet" [41]

Lesson #5: Use Metaphors to Highlight Contrasting Concepts

Metaphors allow y'all to associate your voice communication concepts with concrete images and emotions.

To highlight the contrast between two abstract concepts, consider associating them with contrasting physical metaphors. For example, to dissimilarity segregation with racial justice, King evokes the contrasting metaphors of dark and desolate valley (of segregation) and sunlit path (of racial justice.)

• "joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity" [paragraph 2]
• "the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast bounding main of material prosperity" [three]
• "rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice" [6]
• "This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality." [seven]
• "sweltering with the rut of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of liberty and justice." [19]

How can you employ contrasting metaphors in your next speech?

Speech Transcript: I Have a Dream – Martin Luther King Jr.

Note: The formatting has been added past me, not by MLK, to highlight words or phrases which are analyzed in a higher place.

[1] I am happy to join with y'all today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

[2] Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon calorie-free of promise to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. Information technology came every bit a joyous daybreak to terminate the long night of their captivity.

[3] Only one hundred years later, the Negro withal is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is nonetheless sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. 1 hundred years later on, the Negro lives on a lone isle of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of fabric prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is nonetheless languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own state. And so we've come up here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

[four] In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a cheque. When the architects of our democracy wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Annunciation of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This notation was a promise that all men, yes, black men also every bit white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory notation, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come dorsum marked "insufficient funds."

[5] Only we refuse to believe that the depository financial institution of justice is broke. We decline to believe that there are bereft funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And then, we've come to cash this check, a cheque that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

[half dozen] We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the violent urgency of Now. This is no time to appoint in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. At present is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to ascent from the night and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the fourth dimension to elevator our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of alliance. Now is the fourth dimension to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

[7] It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an finish, just a outset. And those who promise that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude enkindling if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will exist neither rest nor repose in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will go along to milk shake the foundations of our nation until the brilliant 24-hour interval of justice emerges.

[8] Merely at that place is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the procedure of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Allow us non seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom past drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. Nosotros must forever conduct our struggle on the high aeroplane of dignity and discipline. We must not let our creative protest to degenerate into concrete violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

[9] The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must non lead united states to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, every bit evidenced by their presence here today, take come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably spring to our freedom.

[10] Nosotros cannot walk lonely.

[11] And as nosotros walk, nosotros must make the pledge that nosotros shall always march ahead.

[12] We cannot turn back.

[13] There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you exist satisfied?" Nosotros can never exist satisfied as long equally the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police force brutality. We tin can never be satisfied equally long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's bones mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger ane. We tin never be satisfied equally long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has cipher for which to vote. No, no, nosotros are non satisfied, and we volition non be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

[14] I am non unmindful that some of you lot have come up here out of nifty trials and tribulations. Some of y'all accept come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you lot have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Keep to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, get back to Alabama, go back to Due south Carolina, go dorsum to Georgia, go dorsum to Louisiana, get dorsum to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this state of affairs can and will be inverse.

[15] Let us non wallow in the valley of despair, I say to yous today, my friends.

[16] And so fifty-fifty though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I nonetheless have a dream. It is a dream securely rooted in the American dream.

[17]I have a dream that one twenty-four hours this nation volition rise up and live out the truthful significant of its creed: "Nosotros hold these truths to exist self-axiomatic, that all men are created equal."

[xviii] I have a dream that i 24-hour interval on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of one-time slaves and the sons of former slave owners will exist able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

[19] I have a dream that one mean solar day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an haven of freedom and justice.

[20] I have a dream that my four little children will i day live in a nation where they will not be judged past the color of their pare but by the content of their character.

[21] I have a dream today!

[22] I take a dream that 1 day, downward in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" — ane twenty-four hours correct there in Alabama little blackness boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

[23] I take a dream today!

[24] I have a dream that one solar day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall exist made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will exist made straight; "and the celebrity of the Lord shall exist revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

[25] This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

[26] With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a rock of hope. With this faith, we volition exist able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free 1 day.

[27] And this will be the twenty-four hours — this volition be the twenty-four hour period when all of God'south children will be able to sing with new pregnant:

[28] My country 'tis of thee, sweetness state of liberty, of thee I sing.

[29] Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim'south pride,

[30] From every mountainside, permit freedom band!

[31] And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

[32] And then let freedom ring from the biggy hilltops of New Hampshire.

[33] Let freedom band from the mighty mountains of New York.

[34] Let freedom band from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

[35] Let freedom ring from the snowfall-capped Rockies of Colorado.

[36] Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

[37] But not only that. Let liberty ring from Stone Mount of Georgia.

[38] Allow liberty ring from Picket Mountain of Tennessee.

[39] Let liberty ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

[forty] From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

[41] And when this happens, when we permit liberty ring, when nosotros let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we volition be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, blackness men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

[42] Free at last! Costless at final!

[43] Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

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Source: http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/speech-analysis-dream-martin-luther-king/

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