1. The Public Broadcasting website, http://www.pbs.org/greatspeeches/timeline/ has a large archive of political speeches. Look up the website and choose a speech for analysis.

What types of information does the speaker use?

Are there any examples of testimony, literal analogies, figurative analogies, brief examples, extended examples, hypothetical examples, statistics, explanations, or definitions?

2. The website for the publication Vital Speeches of the Day (http://www.votd.com) has many different speeches.

Pick a speech for analysis and examine the introduction and conclusion. Were they effective or not? Why?

Go through several different speeches and identify the way that each speaker gains the audience's attention.

Finally, go back through those same speeches and look at the last statements in the speeches. Were these conclusions effective? Memorable?

3. Numerous websites post collections of quotations, many of which you can search by key words. The following three websites have extensive collections: http://www.creativegrowth.com/qquotes.htm; http://www.bartleby.com/100/; http://www.famous-quotations.com/. Search these sites for quotes about your speech topic.

Would any of the quotes you found add credibility to the speech?

Are any of the sources recognizable to the audience?