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70 Rhetorical Analysis Essay Topics for Secondary ELA

May 28, 2019 //  by  Lindsay Ann //   8 Comments

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Before we get to the rhetorical analysis essay prompts (a.k.a. tons of ready-to-analyze texts at your fingertips), let’s take a time-out to lay the groundwork for understanding a rhetorical analysis essay using ethos, pathos, and logos.

Rhetoric is Defined As…

Put simply, rhetoric refers to any technique an author uses to persuade an audience.

Or, the behind-the-scenes choices an author makes to give you all the feels. 

Chances are, if you consider a text or speech to be  really good , rhetorical techniques are working like a master puppeteer to pull at your heart strings, make an impact on your brain, and get you to let down your guard because you trust the author or speaker.

That’s why political figures have speech writers.

That’s why authors spend time fine-tuning their words and sentences.

Rhetoric is important.

In addition, rhetoric goes back to the ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle, the “father” of rhetoric.

The Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Moving on, if rhetoric is the art of persuasion, then the rhetorical analysis essay analyzes how an author or speaker creates opportunity for persuasion in his/her text.

Writing a rhetorical analysis essay involves understanding of context and occasion for writing. It also involves understanding the subject matter of the speech and intended audience.

Beyond this, noticing how the author uses rhetorical appeals and rhetorical devices to impact the target audience can help you to write an in-depth rhetorical essay analysis.

The BEST Rhetoric Topics

As a teacher, I’m always in search of engaging texts for students to analyze. In this post, I’m sharing the best speeches, advertisements, and essays  for rhetorical analysis. You’ll never run out of rhetorical analysis essay topics again!

So, you’ll definitely want to stop right now and pin this post. 

Your future English-teacher-self will thank you. 

47 Rhetoric Examples in Speeches

The following speeches work well individually, but I’ve also tried to add value by pairing texts together.

Whether you’re analyzing rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos or looking at rhetorical devices, these speeches will work for discussion or as the text for a rhetorical analysis essay.

• Gettysburg Monologue in Remember the Titans  – Pair with “ The Gettysburg Address ” by Abraham Lincoln
• “ Full Power of Women ” by Priyanka Chopra – Pair with Emma Watson’s speech on the Power of Women
• Speech from Finding Forrester – Pair with “ Integrity ” by Warren Buffet
• Red’s Parole Hearing from Shawshank Redemption – Pair with the Freedom Speech from Braveheart
• Ending Scene from The Breakfast Club – Pair with  “ The Danger of a Single Story ” by Chimamanda Ngozi Achichi
• Authentic Swing Speech from The Legend of Bagger Vance – Pair with  “ How Winning is Done ” from  Rocky Balboa
• Maximus’ Speech to Commodus from Gladiator – Pair with  The Revolutionary Speech  from  V for Vendetta
• The Natural State of Mankind from Amistad – Pair with “ Our Diversity Makes Us Who We Are ” by Michelle Obama
• Denzel Washington’s  Dillard University Commencement Speech – Pair with “ The Last Lecture ” by Randy Pausch
• “ Like Pieces of Glass in my Head ” from The Green Mile – Pair with “ Eulogy for Beau Biden ” by Barack Obama
• Oprah’s  2018 Golden Globes speech – Pair with  Seth Myers’ Golden Globes Monologue  and/or  Ellen says #MeToo
• Independence Day speech – Pair with  Aragorn’s Helm’s Deep Speech  from LOTR: The Two Towers
• Pair  “I am Human”  &  “Love Liberates” , both by Maya Angelou
• Pink’s  VMA acceptance speech – Pair with “ If I Should Have a Daughter ” by Sarah Kay
• Ellen’s  People’s Choice Humanitarian Award Acceptance Speech – Pair with “ Pep Talk ” by Kid President
• Gandalf Speaks to Frodo in Moria  from  LOTR : Fellowship of the Ring – Pair with   Sam’s Speech   in LOTR: The Two Towers
• Obama’s  Final Farewell Speech – Pair with Al Pacino’s  Any Given Sunday  speech – clean version
• Harvard Graduation Speech by Donovan Livingston – Pair with Steve Jobs  2005 Stanford Commencement Speech
• “ Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator ” by Tim Urban – Pair with “ Five Second Rule ” by Mel Robbins
• Rachel Hollis “Inspire Women to be Their Best” (mild profanity)
• My Philosophy for a Happy Life by Sam Berns
• “ To this Day: For the Bullied and the Beautiful ” by Shane Koyczan – Pair with Kid President’s “ Pep Talk to Teachers and Students “
• “ The Power of Introverts ” by Susan Cain – Pair with “ Don’t Let Others Stop You From Living Your Own Truth “

Rhetoric in Advertising: 23 Examples

This next list holds a blend of print advertisements and commercials, perfect for introducing close reading and rhetorical analysis and for writing a rhetorical analysis essay.

Ads are short, but pack a punch. Honestly, my students love analyzing the rhetoric of advertisements a lot because they are accessible and visual.

Rhetoric Commercials & Print Advertisements

• “ Web of Fries “
• Duracell “ Teddy Bear ” Commercial
• Apple 1984 Commercial Introducing the New Macintosh Computer
• Nike “ Find Your Greatness ” Ads
• Pepsi, Superbowl 53 Commercial: “ More than Okay ”
• “ Get a Mac ” Commercial Compilation
• “ Can You Hear Me Now ” Verizon Wireless
• Apple iPhone X – “ Unlock ”
• Kiwi “ First Steps ” Print Advertisement
• Vauxhall’s  Backwards Cinderella
• Lego Print Advertisement
• Top 10 Powerful Ads of 2014

Rhetoric of the Image

• Entourage NGO for the Homeless Print Advertisement Images
• 33 Creative Print Ads
• Protege Group
• Greenpeace Print Advertisement Collection
• “ Divorce Furniture “
• L’Oréal Paris: “This Ad Is For Men, 1 ” L’Oréal Paris: “This Ad Is For Men, 2 ” L’Oréal Paris: “This Ad Is For Men, 3 ”
• “ It’s Not Acceptable to Treat a Woman Like One”
• “ 50 Creative and Effective Advertising Examples “
• Juvenile Protective Association
• Anti-Bullying Campaign
• 25 Serious Ads

Writing a Rhetorical Analysis Essay Using Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

No doubt, writing a rhetorical analysis essay is like taking apart a puzzle and putting it back together again. Teachers, help your students to understand how all of the pieces fit together in order to see the bigger picture of what the author is trying to accomplish.

First, take time to understand how a text “works” for a rhetorical analysis essay using ethos, pathos, and logos:

• Read or listen to understand overall content. Look up unfamiliar words.
• Mark the text for the author’s main points and sub-points.
• descriptive
• compare/contrast
• cause/effect
• argumentative
• Take notes on SOAPS: subject, occasion, audience, purpose, speaker
• Discuss the text(s) in Socratic Seminar .

Next, identify rhetorical appeals . 

• Ethos: How an author demonstrates credibility and builds trust.
• Pathos: How an author creates an emotional response.
• Logos: How an author demonstrates expertise and knowledge.

Look for rhetorical devices & patterns in the text.

• Rhetorical devices refer to an author’s use of diction and syntax.
• Does the author repeat key words / phrases? What’s the impact?
• Does the author return to the same idea or image? Why?

Finally, write a clear thesis statement & topic sentences for your rhetorical analysis essay.

• Use your thesis statement to generate topic sentences.
• In your body paragraphs, identify a technique, provide an example, and discuss the “right there” and “beneath the surface” meanings. How does the author’s choice impact the audience, further a message, establish a tone?
• What’s the context for the repetition?
• What connotations are important?
• How is the anaphora used to move the reader to greater understanding (logos), emotional investment (pathos), and/or trust in the author’s ideas (ethos)?

Six Strategies for Teaching Rhetorical Analysis

I’ve created an awesome free guide to inspire English teachers who teach rhetoric and the rhetorical analysis essay in their classrooms. Even if you don’t teach AP lang, you can benefit from these strategies !

Rhetorical Analysis Essay FAQ’s

How do you write a rhetorical analysis essay.

Writing a rhetorical analysis essay is like writing a literary analysis essay, except the focus is on one or more non-fiction texts and the analysis targets an author’s style or rhetorical “moves” (a.k.a. use of rhetorical appeals and/or devices). Rhetorical analysis essays usually prove a claim about the author’s message or purpose for writing. The paragraphs in a rhetorical analysis essay unpack “what” an author is doing to send this message and “how” these choices impact the audience.

What does it mean to write a rhetorical analysis?

Writing a rhetorical analysis means that you are aware, as an audience member, reader, listener, human being, of the messages you consume. As a critical consumer of others’ ideas, you ask hard questions about how these messages are shaped, why they’re being delivered in certain ways, and why this is important for you and for society.

What are the three rhetorical strategies?

The three most commonly known rhetorical strategies are known as rhetorical appeals. Ethos (ethics) refers to credibility and trustworthiness. Pathos (passion) refers to engaging an audience’s emotions. Logos (logic) refers to engaging an audience’s brain through logical organization and use of evidence and arguments.

About Lindsay Ann

Lindsay has been teaching high school English in the burbs of Chicago for 19 years. She is passionate about helping English teachers find balance in their lives and teaching practice through practical feedback strategies and student-led learning strategies. She also geeks out about literary analysis, inquiry-based learning, and classroom technology integration. When Lindsay is not teaching, she enjoys playing with her two kids, running, and getting lost in a good book.

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Reader Interactions

January 9, 2023 at 9:38 am

Hi Lindsay Ann, thanks so much for these great resources. Just wanted to gently point out a couple errors that you might want to fix:

#12: should be Seth Myers’ (not Seth Myer’s) #13: should be independence (not independance)

Teachers have to help each other out 🙂

Best, Nikkee

January 9, 2023 at 5:44 pm

Thank you so much for letting me know, Nikkee!

[…] a lot of options and extensions for analyzing rhetoric in social media. Who knows, maybe your next rhetorical analysis essay assignment will be focused on rhetoric in social […]

[…] 70 Rhetorical Analysis Essay Topics for Secondary ELA […]

[…] find that teaching rhetorical analysis and close reading skills go hand-in-hand with teaching voice in […]

[…] helps students to remember that everything comes back to the author’s purpose or message in rhetorical analysis. Author’s purpose is central to unpacking an author’s choices, including use of […]

[…] you assigning a rhetorical analysis essay? Why not try having students use rhetorical analysis sentence […]

[…] I introduced students to rhetoric. First, we journaled on this topic: Think of a time someone talked you into doing something or believing something. How did they do it? What tactics did they use? Students may share out journals. I gave students a graphic organizer with a PAPA analysis (purpose, audience, persona, argument) and picked a speech. Frankly, the speech I picked, which was Samwise Gamgee’s speech to Frodo Baggins in The Two Towers, failed spectacularly since students had no frame of reference. Note: that movie is old now. I know. It makes me sad, too. So go cautiously if you use this, but maybe pick something else. You can find a massive list here. […]

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10 famous speeches in English and what you can learn from them

Speech is an essential element of language, one that we all employ in our daily lives. What about a speech ?

A speech is a formal address, delivered to an audience, that seeks to convince, persuade, inspire or inform. From historic moments to the present day, the English language has given us some extraordinary examples of the spoken word. A powerful tool in the right – or wrong – hands, spoken English can, and has, changed the world.

We’ve chosen ten of the most famous speeches in English. They range from celebrated, world-changing pieces of rhetoric to our personal favourites, but most importantly they still rouse our emotions when we hear them today. We’ve examined each for the tricks of the oratory trade. After each speech you’ll find some bullet points outlining its most distinctive rhetorical features, and why a speech writer would include them.

Remember these celebrated rhetoricians the next time you have to give a speech in public – be this at a wedding, award ceremony or business conference.

Scroll down to the end of this post for our essential tips on crafting speeches.

1. Martin Luther King I Have a Dream 1963

We couldn’t have an article about speeches without mentioning this one. Incredibly famous and iconic, Martin Luther King changed the character of speech making.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

What makes this a great speech?

– Abstract nouns like “ dream ” are incredibly emotional. Our dreams are an intimate part of our subconscious and express our strongest desires. Dreams belong to the realm of fantasy; of unworldly, soaring experiences. King’s repetition of the simple sentence “I have a dream” evokes a picture in our minds of a world where complete equality and freedom exist.

– It fuses simplicity of language with sincerity : something that all persuasive speeches seek to do!

– Use of tenses: King uses the future tense (“will be able”, “shall be”, “will be made””), which gives his a dream certainty and makes it seem immediate and real.

– Thanks to its highly biblical rhetoric , King’s speech reads like a sermon. The last paragraph we’ve quoted here is packed with biblical language and imagery .

2. King George VI Radio Address 1939

This speech was brought back to life recently thanks to the film, The King’s Speech (2010). While George VI will never go down in history as one of the world’s gifted orators, his speech will certainly be remembered.

In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas, this message, spoken with the same depth of feeling for each one of you as if I were able to cross your threshold and speak to you myself. For the second time in the lives of most of us, we are at war. Over and over again, we have tried to find a peaceful way out of the differences between ourselves and those who are now our enemies, but it has been in vain.  

– At only 404 words long, the speech is impressively economical with language. Its short length means that every word is significant, and commands its audiences’ attention.

– This is a great example of how speechwriters use superlatives . George VI says that this moment is “the most fateful in history”. Nothing gets peoples’ attention like saying this is the “most important” or “best”.

– “ We ”, “ us ” and “ I ”: This is an extremely personal speech. George VI is using the first person, “I”, to reach out to each person listening to the speech. He also talks in the third person: “we are at war”, to unite British people against the common enemy: “them”, or Germany.

3. Winston Churchill We shall fight on the beaches 1940

Churchill is an icon of great speech making. All his life Churchill struggled with a stutter that caused him difficulty pronouncing the letter “s”. Nevertheless, with pronunciation and rehearsal he became one of the most famous orators in history.

…we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

What makes it a powerful speech?

– Structural repetition of the simple phrase “we shall…”

– Active verbs like “defend” and “fight” are extremely motivational, rousing Churchill’s audience’s spirits.

– Very long sentences build the tension of the speech up to its climax “the rescue and the liberation of the old”, sweeping listeners along. A similar thing happens in musical pieces: the composition weaves a crescendo, which often induces emotion in its audience.

4. Elizabeth I Speech to the Troops 1588

The “Virgin Queen”, Elizabeth I, made this speech at a pivotal moment in English history. It is a remarkable speech in extraordinary circumstances: made by a woman, it deals with issues of gender, sovereignty and nationality.

I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.

– Elizabeth puts aside differences in social status and says she will “live and die amongst (her troops)”. This gives her speech a very inclusive message .

– She uses antithesis , or contrasting ideas. To offset the problem of her femininity – of being a “weak and feeble woman” – she swiftly emphasises her masculine qualities: that she has the “heart and stomach of a king”.

– Elizabeth takes on the role of a protector : there is much repetition of the pronoun “I”, and “I myself” to show how active she will be during the battle.

5. Chief Joseph Surrender Speech 1877

We’ve included this speech because there is something extremely raw and humbling about Chief Joseph’s surrender. Combining vulnerability with pride, this is an unusual speech and deserves attention.

Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are – perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.

What makes this a good speech?

– This speech is a perfect example of a how a non-native speaker can make the English language their own. Chief Joesph’s rhetoric retains the feels and culture of a Native American Indian speaker, and is all the more moving for this.

– Simple, short sentences.

– Declarative sentences such as “I know his heart” and “It is cold” present a listener with hard facts that are difficult to argue against.

6.  Emmeline Pankhurst Freedom or Death 1913

Traditionally silent, women tend to have been left out of rhetoric. All that changed, however, with the advent of feminism. In her struggle for the vote, Pankhurst and her fellow protesters were compelled to find a voice.

You have left it to women in your land, the men of all civilised countries have left it to women, to work out their own salvation. That is the way in which we women of England are doing. Human life for us is sacred, but we say if any life is to be sacrificed it shall be ours; we won’t do it ourselves, but we will put the enemy in the position where they will have to choose between giving us freedom or giving us death.

– Direct acknowledgement of her audience through use of the pronoun you .

– Pankhurst uses stark, irreconcilable contrasts to emphasise the suffragettes’ seriousness. Binary concepts like men/women, salvation/damnation, freedom/imprisonment and life/death play an important role in her speech.

7. John F. Kennedy The Decision to go the Moon 19 61

Great moments require great speeches. The simplicity of Kennedy’s rhetoric preserves a sense of wonder at going beyond human capabilities, at this great event for science and technology.

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

– Simple sentence structures: “We choose to go to the moon” = Subject + Verb + Complement. The grammatical simplicity of the sentence allows an audience to reflect on important concepts, i.e. choice. Repetition emphasises this.

– Kennedy uses demonstrative (or pointing) pronouns e.g. “ this decade”, “ that goal” to create a sense of urgency; to convey how close to success the US is.

8. Shakespeare The Tempest  Act 3 Scene 2 c.1610

Of course, any list of great speeches would be incomplete without a mention of the master of rhetoric, the Bard himself.  If you caught the London Olympic Opening Ceremony you would have noticed that Kenneth Branagh delivered Caliban’s speech, from The Tempest .

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked, I cried to dream again.

– It expresses a wonder and uncertainty of the world, and an inability to comprehend its mystery.

– It is highly alliterative , a rhetorical trick that makes speech memorable and powerful.

– Shakespeare uses onomatopoeia (e.g. “twangling”, “hum”: words whose sound is like they are describing) to make Caliban’s speech evocative.

9.  Shakespeare  Henry V  Act 3 Scene 1, 1598

One of rhetoric’s most primal functions is to transform terrified men into bloodthirsty soldiers. “Once more unto the breach” is a speech that does just that. It is a perfect example of how poetry is an inextricable element of rhetoric.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage

What makes this such a great rousing battle speech?

-Shakespeare uses some fantastic imagery in King Henry’s speech. His “dear friends”, or soldiers, are tigers, commanded to block their enemies’ way with their dead comrades. This appeals to ideals of masculinity that men should be fierce and strong.

– Orders and imperative verbs give the speaker authority.

– Repetition of key phrases and units of sound: the vowel sounds in the repeated phrase “once more” are echoed by the words “or” and “our”. This makes it an extraordinarily powerful piece of rhetoric to hear spoken.

10. William Lyon Phelps The Pleasure of Books 1933

This speech was read a year before Nazis began their systematic destruction of books that didn’t match Nazi ideals. As major advocates of books at English Trackers, we’re naturally inclined to love speeches about their importance.

A borrowed book is like a guest in the house; it must be treated with punctiliousness, with a certain considerate formality. You must see that it sustains no damage; it must not suffer while under your roof. You cannot leave it carelessly, you cannot mark it, you cannot turn down the pages, you cannot use it familiarly. And then, some day, although this is seldom done, you really ought to return it.

– Phelps personifies books in this speech; that is, he gives books human characteristics – like the capacity to “suffer”. Comparing a book to a guest creates novelty , which engages and holds the interest of a listener.

– This speech uses both modal verbs (“must”, “ought”) and prohibitions (“you cannot”) to demonstrate both proper and improper behaviour.

Some tips to bear in mind when writing a speech

– KISS : the golden rule of Keep It Short and Simple really does apply. Keep your sentences short, your grammar simple. Not only is this more powerful than long rambling prose, but you’re more likely hold your audience’s attention – and be able to actually remember what you’re trying to say!

– Rule of 3 : another golden rule. The human brain responds magically to things that come in threes. Whether it’s a list of adjectives, a joke, or your main points, it’s most effective if you keep it to this structure.

– Imagery : Metaphors, similes and description will help an audience to understand you, and keep them entertained.

– Pronouns : Use “we” to create a sense of unity, “them” for a common enemy, “you” if you’re reaching out to your audience, and “I” / “me” if you want to take control.

– Poetry : Repetition, rhyme and alliteration are sound effects, used by poets and orators alike. They make a speech much more memorable. Remember to also structure pauses and parentheses into a speech. This will vary the flow of sound, helping you to hold your audience’s attention.

– Jokes : Humour is powerful. Use it to perk up a sleepy audience, as well as a rhetorical tool. Laughter is based on people having common, shared assumptions – and can therefore be used to persuade.

– Key words : “Every”, “improved”, “natural”, “pure”, “tested’ and “recommended” will, according to some surveys, press the right buttons and get a positive response from your listeners.

About the Author: This post comes to you from guest blogger, Natalie. Currently blogging, editing and based in London, Natalie previously worked with the English Trackers team.

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7 Powerful Speeches for Teaching Rhetorical Analysis in ELA

• Reading Instruction

Our state assessment always features a famous speech, so it’s essential to prepare students for rhetorical analysis. Beyond the state assessment, rhetorical analysis helps students understand the constant barrage of persuasive media they encounter each day. With the right skills, students can assess sponsored content, commercials, and advertisements with a critical and wary eye.

For this reason, I’ve put together a list of favorite speeches for teaching rhetorical analysis!

This post this post may contain affiliate links .  Please read the  Terms of Use .

Getting Started with Rhetorical Analysis

Before I take students too far into rhetorical analysis, I like to brush up on rhetorical appeals with this quick card sort .

Then, before we dig into a complex text, we practice identify rhetoric in a less stressful piece. To take some of the stress out of rhetorical analysis, I will often start with a video.

• First, “ The Danger of a Single Story ” is my favorite TedTalk ever! I even wrote an entire blog post about it, so there is no better place to start with rhetorical analysis!
• “ Why city flags may be the worst thing you’ve never noticed ” is a less obvious choice. However, this is a fun TedTalk that appeals to a variety of learners. Plus, I’ve designed some creative extension activities so students can practice a variety of skills.
• I also love Antony’s funeral speech from Julius Caesar . Reading this text and listening to an actor’s performance is a great way to consider tone in conjunction with rhetoric. Grab my free resource for Antony’s funeral speech !
• Finally, “ Credo ” by Neil Gaiman is such a powerful essay! Written in response to a terrorist attack, this text is shorter than the others but packs an incredible punch. Watch Gaiman perform the piece here .

Leveling Up with Rhetorical Analysis

As students become more comfortable with rhetorical analysis, we move into more complex texts. However, by this point, students are comfortable with these 4 steps to pre-read any nonfiction text . With these strategies, students have the tools to tackle any text.

• First, JFK’s Inaugural Address is a classic speech. Oftentimes students are familiar with his challenge to listeners, so this is a good opening. Plus, this speech is short enough that students can work through it in one or two class periods. Students can listen to it here .
• Similarly, students are usually familiar with Patrick Henry’s call to “give me liberty or give me death,” so his Speech to the Virginia Convention is a fitting text for rhetorical analysis. In particular, this is a great text for teaching restatement.
• Finally, students have often heard of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense , so The Crisis is a good complement to Henry’s work. As a bonus, this is a good piece for analyzing aphorism as a rhetorical tool.

More Complex Texts for Rhetorical Analysis

As our study of rhetorical analysis progresses, students become ready for more challenging texts. To help students attack these texts, we may use these rhetoric task cards or this editable SOAPSTone graphic organizer .

• To my mind, “ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Go d” is a classic speech for rhetorical analysis. No two students ever have the same reaction to this text, so it’s always a memorable lesson!
• Additionally, FDR’s Four Freedoms Speech is a complex piece for rhetorical analysis. One of the challenges of this speech is its historical context. Its length is also another factor. Nevertheless, it’s a speech that continues to resonate with students.

Bonus Recommendations

While these two recommendations are not technically speeches, they still make for great rhetorical analysis.

• First, “ Privileged ” by Kyle Korver engages students because they love basketball. They don’t expect the speech to lend itself to such powerful rhetorical analysis!
• Second, “ Words and Behavior ” by Aldous Huxley is an incredibly dense essay. However, Huxley manages to criticize the use of rhetoric while also using rhetoric. By this token, this text pairs nicely with every other text on this list.

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ELA  /  12th Grade  /  Unit 4: Famous Speeches

Famous Speeches

Students analyze and interpret speeches, honing their rhetorical analysis skills and deepening their understanding of how authors use particular strategies to effectively communicate their ideas to a given audience.

• Text and Materials

Key Knowledge

Unit summary.

 In Unit 4, students will refine the skills required for rhetorical analysis. Students will analyze and interpret samples of purposeful writing, in this case speeches, then identify and explain the author’s use of rhetorical strategies. This process includes understanding what an author is saying, how an author is saying it, and why an author is saying it. When we read written texts rhetorically, we are always asking, “What are these words on the page doing ?” along with, “What do these words say ?” Reading instruction will increase students’ appreciation of audience as a complex and varied concept. Students should develop the capacity to anticipate and consider interpretive responses different from their own.  This unit focuses on four goals:

• Describing the rhetorical situation: Intersection between speaker, audience, and purpose
• Identifying an author’s complex and specific purpose for an intended audience with specific needs and values
• Identifying rhetorical appeals (within—but more specifically than—logos, ethos, and pathos)
• Analyzing common rhetorical strategies, including diction, figurative language, syntax, exemplification, tone through patterns (repetition, contrast, juxtaposition), and shifts in patterns.

While we have provided links to text versions of these speeches, it is highly recommended that teachers also employ audio versions of the speeches at various times throughout the unit. Hearing, in addition to reading, the speeches can aid in rhetorical analysis.

Texts and Materials

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Core Materials

Speech:  “The Whiskey Speech” by Judge Noah Sweat

Speech:  “Purple is the Noblest Shroud” by Empress Theodora

Speech:  “A More Perfect Union” by Barack Obama

Speech:  “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” by Patrick Henry

Speech:  “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” by Winston Churchill

Speech:  “Pearl Harbor Speech” by Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Speech:  “Ain't I a Woman?” by Sojourner Truth

Speech:  “Why Sit Ye Here and Die?” by Maria Stewart

This assessment accompanies Unit 4 and should be given on the suggested assessment day or after completing the unit.

Download Content Assessment

Intellectual Prep

Suggestions for how to prepare to teach this unit

Intellectual Prep for English Lessons

• Read and annotate each of the speeches for this unit.
• Identify video or audio versions of speeches if necessary. (There are many options available online, so we are not listing them here and will leave it to the teacher’s discretion.)
• Review the basics of rhetorical analysis by reading What Do Students Need to Know About Rhetoric? by Hepzibah Roskelly.
• Depending upon your level of familiarity with the CollegeBoard AP English Language and Composition exam, you may wish to spend more time exploring other resources on the College Board AP English Language and Composition Course website.
• Read FRQ 2 in the CollegeBoard 2018 AP English Language and Composition Free-Response Questions .
• Read the CollegeBoard 2018 AP English Language and Composition Sample Student Responses and Scoring Commentary for FRQ 2.
• Read the Chief Reader Report on Student Responses: 2018 AP English Language and Composition Free-Response Questions .

Essential Questions

The central thematic questions addressed in the unit or across units

• Rhetorical Analysis: What is the author saying? How is the author saying it? Why is the author saying it this way?

Writing Focus Areas

Specific skills to focus on when giving feedback on writing assignments

Students will be focused on the reading skill of rhetorical analysis and the corresponding writing skill of staying focused on the task of sharing these analyses as they craft their essays. Thus, the primary areas of focus will be (1) students’ idea development, specifically the ability to effectively convey comprehensive reasoning through writing, and (2) students’ crafting of an essay that contains all of the necessary parts of a rhetorical analysis.

Spiraling Literary Analysis Writing Focus Area

• Analysis: Demonstrates effective and comprehensive reasoning
• Analysis: Effectively and smoothly incorporates evidence
• Focus on Task: Comprehensive and consistently appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience

Related Teacher Tools:

Grades 9-12 Composition Writing Rubric

Literary terms, text-based vocabulary, idioms and word parts to be taught with the text

Literary Terms

rhetorical situation, devices, appeals, Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle, logos, ethos, pathos, tone, organization, compare/contrast, diction, parallelism, antithesis

Content Knowledge and Connections

Fishtank ELA units related to the content in this unit.

Students will read speeches on a wide variety of topics, such as World War II, women’s rights, abolitionism, racial relations in America, the Eastern Roman Empire, and temperance. Some background knowledge on these topics will be helpful for students’ comprehension.

Previous Fishtank ELA Connections

• Students have experienced some basic rhetorical analysis in both 9th and 10th grade composition courses.

Identify the rhetorical situation and explain its significance.

Identify the appeals present within the text and the devices/strategies used to generate that appeal.  

Identify the appeals present within a text and the devices/strategies used to generate that appeal.

• “The Whiskey Speech”
• “Purple is the Noblest Shroud”

Analyze how an author uses devices to generate an appeal and ultimately achieve his or her purpose. 

Analyze the rhetorical choices Obama makes to develop his argument. 

Analyze the rhetorical choices Henry makes to develop his argument. 

Draft an analysis that demonstrates effective and comprehensive reasoning.

Analyze the rhetorical choices Churchill makes to develop his argument.

Analyze the rhetorical choices Roosevelt makes to develop his argument.

• “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat”
• “Pearl Harbor Speech”

Compare and contrast rhetorical strategies in speeches by Churchill and Roosevelt.

Evaluate how both authors use specific devices to develop the central idea or purpose of the speech.

Analyze the rhetorical choices Churchill or Roosevelt makes to develop his argument.

Draft an effective introduction that establishes the rhetorical situation and provides a comprehensive thesis describing the rhetorical techniques the author uses to achieve his purpose.

Analyze the rhetorical choices Truth makes to develop her argument.

Analyze the rhetorical choices Stewart makes to develop her argument.

• “Ain't I a Woman?”
• “Why Sit Ye Here and Die?”

Compare and contrast the rhetorical strategies employed by Sojourner Truth and Maria Stewart in their speeches.

Assessment  – 2 days

Complete an optional extension project by writing a speech on a topic of his or her choosing.

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Common Core Standards

Core standards.

The content standards covered in this unit

Language Standards

L.11-12.1 — Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

L.11-12.2 — Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

L.11-12.3 — Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

L.11-12.6 — Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Reading Standards for Informational Text

RI.11-12.1 — Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

RI.11-12.2 — Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

RI.11-12.3 — Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

RI.11-12.5 — Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

RI.11-12.6 — Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

RI.11-12.7 — Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

Speaking and Listening Standards

SL.11-12.1 — Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11—12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

SL.11-12.2 — Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.

SL.11-12.3 — Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.

SL.11-12.6 — Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Writing Standards

W.11-12.1 — Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

W.11-12.4 — Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

W.11-12.5 — Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

W.11-12.6 — Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.

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6 Famous Historic Speeches Students Should Read Before Graduating

Nov 24, 2022

You know the saying that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it?” This quote is often paraphrased and attributed to different philosophers including Edmund Burke; however, the line is originally from Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana. The fact that the attribution is often misremembered is ironic considering the statement’s message! Clearly, r emembering and knowing the past is important, particularly when it comes to Famous Historic Speeches!

So much of our lives and those of our students were decided by people who lived long before us. In order to understand those decisions and find ways to support or subvert them, it’s important to have familiarity with US history and the famous historic speeches that mark those moments. 

Additionally, public speeches are great mentor texts for studying rhetoric and the use of pathos, ethos, and logos . In examining these important historical speeches, students can analyze how speakers used emotions to convince their listeners to take action or what facts were used to support opinions that, for some, seemed rebellious in their moment. Through that analysis, students can apply their learning to their own persuasive writing. Who knows? One day our students may produce Famous Historic Speeches!

To that end, here are six famous historic speeches that every student should study before they graduate from high school!

Need help with Test Prep? Check out this FREE Pack of 3 Test Prep Activities to help students achieve success on standardized tests!

Table of Contents

6 Famous Historic Speeches

1. patrick henry’s “give me liberty” speech –.

This 1775 speech features the famous line “Give me liberty or give me death!”  During a time of British oppression, Patrick Henry calls for war. The above iconic line is delivered after a discussion of whether or not peace was possible, and it demonstrates a passionate plea from Henry to leaders in colonial America. That line alone makes the speech one of the most Famous Historic Speeches. It is monumental and worthy of study, particularly for an examination of pathos, logos, and ethos .

Use this bundle of activities to complete a summary, ensure reading comprehension, and explore the use of rhetoric in the speech. 

2. FDR’s “Infamy” Speech –

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech on December 8, 1941–the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces–drew the United States into the Second World War. His reasoning and call to war were necessary for a tumultuous time! Reading and writing activities for this speech might focus on parsing fact from emotion, particularly when the day before is considered through a historical lens.

This bundle of activities with a focus on emotions versus facts also encourages students to examine the author’s purpose. It will save you time and effort when teaching this speech in your History, English, or Social Studies classes.  

Need help with teaching rhetorical analysis beyond Famous Historic Speeches? Click to read “ 5 Simple Steps for How to Do Rhetorical Analysis”  for help!

3. Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” –

Delivered in Pennsylvania at Gettysburg National Cemetery during the Civil War, this speech by US President Abraham Lincoln is a key part of American history. From its opening line in reference to the signing of the Declaration of Independence–“Four score and seven years ago”–to its conclusion a short 10-lines later, the speech is impactful despite its brevity.  As a result, studying the use of connotation to establish tone is an ideal way to analyze it.

Check out this bundle of activities with no-prep activities to guide your students in understanding Lincoln’s famous historic speech. 

4.  Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments” – One of the most defining famous historic speeches for women’s rights!

This 1848 speech was given during the first women’s rights convention in Seneca, New York. The Declaration itself is so named for its similarity to the US Declaration of Independence . One idea for a lesson featuring this speech is to compare it to the wording of the historic document. You could begin such a lesson with these summary activities that focus on rhetorical analysis . In small groups, students could then break down the language that is shared between the two documents to discuss the speech’s effectiveness.

5. Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman? –

Delivered in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention in Ohio, Sojourner Truth’s speech focused on equality based on both race and gender. As an abolitionist and women’s rights activist, Truth’s speech is now well-known, but it took more than a decade after it was first delivered to gain widespread popularity. It is noteworthy though that there are discrepancies between the original text from 1851 and the reproduced version in 1863. This fact would make for a great lesson for any high school class.

Begin your study of the speech with these comprehensive resources for content, comprehension, and analysis . 

6. Florence Kelley Child Labor Speech –

An activist for women’s rights and child labor reforms, Florence Kelley’s 1905 speech is a formidable addition to a list of famous historic speeches. Speaking to the National American Women Suffrage Association, Kelley advocated for an end to child labor in the United States. The speech provides ample opportunity to examine pathos, particularly with Kelley’s repetition of the line “While we sleep” to draw the listener into the experience of those little children who were not sleeping but rather at work in textile mills.

Use this activity to closely read Kelley’s speech . It includes a version of the speech in chunks to differentiate for the students in your class to write effective one-sentence summaries. Then with this step-by-step lesson, reading activities, templates (leading to an essay), and teacher examples , teaching rhetorical appeals is quick, easy, and stress-free!

Why Teach These Famous Historic Speeches?

The value of studying any or all of these famous historical speeches cannot be understated. Reading and examining speeches from history provides a window into the speeches of today. The use of the same rhetorical devices, appeals, language and more are drawn from history. Recognizing and acknowledging history is vital to personal growth, the development of critical thinking, and having an impact on our society. The issues raised in each of these speeches may feel distant in terms of timing but in a lot of ways, the content remains as relevant today as it did when the words were first spoken!

WANT AN EVERYTHING DONE FOR YOU BUNDLE, WHICH INCLUDES 6 FAMOUS HISTORIC SPEECHES? CLICK BELOW!

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Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments

Lisa Fink 01.20.19 Speaking

This date in history marks the inauguration of a number of U.S. Presidents. This is a good date to look at famous speeches and what they include and why.

Traditionally, teachers have encouraged students to engage with and interpret literature—novels, poems, short stories, and plays. Too often, however, the spoken word is left unanalyzed, even though the spoken word has the potential to alter our space just as much than the written.

After gaining skill through analyzing a historic and contemporary speech as a class, students will select a famous speech from a list compiled from several resources and write a piece that identifies and explains the rhetorical strategies that the author deliberately chose while crafting the text to make an effective argument. Their analysis will consider questions such as

• What makes the speech an argument?
• How did the author’s rhetoric evoke a response from the audience?
• Why are the words still venerated today?

Nearly everything we read and hear is an argument. Speeches are special kinds of arguments and should be analyzed as such. Listeners should keep in mind the context of the situation involving the delivery and the audience-but a keen observer should also pay close attention to the elements of argument within the text. This assignment requires students to look for those elements.

Interested in digging deeper? Check out this lesson plan from ReadWriteThink.org .

Secondary Classrooms 6 Famous Acceptance Speeches to Celebrate Nobel Prize Day with Your Secondary Students

Eryn Reighard

Each year on December 10th, The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Nobel Peace Prize to a person or organization for their significant contributions to improving society. At the award ceremony, the winner gives a speech that is connected to their work..

Boost your ELA curriculum by introducing these famous acceptance speeches by Nobel Peace Prize laureates. These speeches will challenge your students to analyze figurative language, examine tactics of persuasive communication, and reflect on major historical events. Our guiding questions will have your students discussing important themes such as social change and revolution, war and peace, and freedom and equality.

“ Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture ” by Malala Yousafzai (8th grade)

In Pakistan,14-year-old Malala Youzafzai was attacked by the Taliban for fighting for girls’ education rights. After surviving the attack, Malala continued to advocate for the right to education. As the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Malala speaks about her dedication to ensuring world leaders provide equal access to education for women and girls.

After reading this speech, encourage students to reflect on the importance of equal access to education with Discussion Question 3, “In the context of the speech, what is the goal of education? Why does Yousafzai believe access to education is so important for all children? What can they accomplish with it?”

Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Acceptance Speech by Elie Wiesel (8th grade)

After surviving the Holocaust, author, professor, and human rights activist, Elie Wiesel, became known as the “messenger of mankind.” In Weisel’s 1986 Nobel Peace Prize speech, he highlights the importance of speaking up when facing oppression and his continued advocacy for human rights for all people.

Pair this speech with the informational text Elie Wiesel by the United States Holocuast Museum to provide additional information about Wiesel’s life and accomplishments. Have students discuss the impact that Wiesel had on the world by sharing his experiences from the Holocaust and why it is important to remember these tragic moments in history.

Nelson Mandela’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture by Nelson Mandela (9th grade)

After 51 years of segregation and oppression, Nelson Mandela worked with fellow state leader F. W. Klerk to successfully end Aparteid in South Africa. Together in 1993, Mandela and Klerk won the Nobel Peace prize for their significant efforts in the Anti-Aparteid Movement. In his famous speech, Mandala speaks from the collective “we” to discuss major human rights issues such as racism, poverty, and war.

After reading Madala’s speech, have students complete Discussion Question 1, “In the context of the text, how do people create change? How might Mandela's speech contribute to future change? Cite evidence from this text, your own experience, and other literature, art, or history in your answer.” If you want students to work on their writing skills, have students write down their answers before starting the class discussion.

Barack Obama’s Nobel Lecture by Barack Obama (10th grade)

Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in strengthening international relations. In his acceptance speech, Obama speaks on appropriate actions in times of war and outlines his goals for achieving justice and global peace.

As students read, have them take note of how Obama believes the world can achieve peace. Have students complete Discussion Question 1, “Do you agree with Obama's views on war and peace? Why or why not? Which of Obama's points do you find most compelling in achieving peace? Do you think we can have peace without war?”

Martin Luther King, Jr Nobel Acceptance Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. (11th grade)

Baptist minister and activist, Martin Luther King, Jr., became the most prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement. King was known for encouraging nonviolent protests against racial injustices. In King’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize speech, King speaks about the public’s response to the movement as well as his dedication to reaching racial equality through nonviolent measures.

Pair this text with King’s “I Have A Dream” speech to compare the style of the two speeches. How does King use figurative language in these two texts? How does his use of language contribute to the development of ideas in each text? How would this language appeal to an audience?

Jimmy Carter’s Nobel Lecture by Jimmy Carter (11th grade)

The 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, advocated heavily for human rights and global peace. In 2002, Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his significant contributions to ending human suffering. In his acceptance speech, Carter speaks about world powers working together to close the poverty gap and fighting for human rights for all.

After reading, have students complete Discussion Question 3, “How does Carter suggest the United States contribute to securing international peace? In the time that has passed since Carter gave this speech, do you think the United States has come closer to achieving what Carter wanted? Why or why not?” Encourage students to cite real world examples to create text-to-world connections.

Looking for more famous speeches and texts to support reading comprehension for your secondary students? Check out the CommonLit library !

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10 Great American Speeches for the 7-12 Classroom

Readability and Rhetoric Ratings of Literary and Informational Texts

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Speeches can inspire students. Teachers in every subject area can use the texts of inspirational speeches to increase their students' background knowledge about a variety of topics. Speeches also address the  Common Core Literacy Standards for Science, History, Social Studies, and Technical Subject Areas as well as the  Standards for English Language Arts . They also guide teachers to ensure that their students understand word meanings, appreciate the nuances of words, and steadily expand their range of vocabulary and phrases.

Here are 10 great American speeches that helped define America during its first two centuries with a link to word count, readability level, and an example of a prominent rhetorical device that is contained within each text. 

The Gettysburg Address

traveler1116  / Getty Images

Abraham Lincoln gave this speech , which began with the famous line, "Fourscore and seven years ago . . .," at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery near the battlefield in Gettysburg. The address occurred four and a half months after the  Battle of Gettysburg .

Delivered by : Abraham Lincoln Date : November 19, 1863 Location: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Word Count: 269 words Readability score :  Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease  64.4 Grade Level : 10.9 Rhetorical device used : Anaphora : Repetition of words at the start of clauses or verses.

"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground."

Abraham Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address

Alexander Gardner / Stringer / Getty Images

The dome of the United States Capitol was unfinished when Lincoln delivered this Inaugural Address beginning his second term. It is notable for its theological argument. The following month, Lincoln was assassinated.

Delivered by : Abraham Lincoln Date : March 4, 1865 Location: Washington, D.C. Word Count: 706 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 58.1 Grade Level : 12.1 Rhetorical device used :   Allusion : A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance. 

"It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged." 

Keynote Address at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention

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The  Seneca Falls Convention  was the first women's rights convention organized to "discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman."

Delivered by :  Elizabeth Cady Stanton Date : July 19, 1848 Location: Seneca Falls, New York Word Count:  1427 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 64.4 Grade Level : 12.3 Rhetorical device used :  Asyndeton (" unconnected" in Greek): A stylistic device used in literature to intentionally eliminate conjunctions between the phrases and in the sentence, yet maintain grammatical accuracy. 

"The right is ours. Have it we must. Use it we will."

George Washington's Response to the Newburgh Conspiracy

Print Collector / Contributor / Getty Images

When the officers of the Continental Army threatened to march on the Capitol to demand back pay, George Washington stopped them with this short speech. At the conclusion, he took out his glasses and said, “Gentlemen, you must pardon me. I have grown old in the service of my country and now find that I am growing blind.” Within minutes, the officers-eyes filled with tears-voted unanimously to express confidence in Congress and their country.

Delivered by : General George Washington Date : March 15, 1783 Location: Newburgh, New York Word Count:  1,134 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 32.6 Grade Level : 13.5 Rhetorical device used :   Rhetorical Questions : Asked for effect or to lay emphasis on some point discussed when no real answer is expected. 

"My God! what can this writer have in view, by recommending such measures? Can he be a friend to the Army? Can he be a friend to this Country? Rather, is he not an insidious Foe?"

Patrick Henry 'Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death'

 benoitb / Getty Images

Patrick Henry's speech was an attempt to persuade the Virginia House of Burgesses, meeting at St. John's Church in Richmond, to pass resolutions favoring Virginia joining the American Revolutionary War.

Delivered by : Patrick Henry Date : March 23, 1775 Location: Richmond, Virginia Word Count:  1215 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 74 Grade Level : 8.1 Rhetorical device used : Hypophora:  Asking a question and immediately answering it.

"Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other."

Sojourner Truth 'Ain't I A Woman?'

National Archives / Getty Images

This speech was delivered extemporaneously by Sojourner Truth , who was enslaved from the time of her birth in New York State. She spoke at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, 1851.  Frances Gage , the president of the convention, recorded the speech 12 years later.

Delivered by : Sojourner Truth Date : May 1851 Location: Akron, Ohio Word Count: 383   words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 89.4 Grade Level : 4.7 Rhetorical device used : Metaphor:  To make an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things or objects that are poles apart from each other but have some characteristics common between them. Metaphor of pints and quarts to discuss the rights held by Black women in comparison to others.

"If my cup won't hold but a pint, and  yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?"

Fredrick Douglass 'The Church and Prejudice'

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Douglass was enslaved from the time of his birth on a Maryland plantation, but in 1838, at age 20, he self-liberated in New York. This lecture was one of his first major anti-enslavement oratories.

Delivered by : Fredrick Douglass Date : November 4, 1841 Location: Plymouth County Anti-Slavery Society in Massachusetts. Word Count:  1086 Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 74.1 Grade Level : 8.7 Rhetorical device used : Anecdote : A short and interesting story or an amusing event often proposed to support or demonstrate some point and make readers and listeners laugh. Douglass tells the story of a young lady recovered from a trance: 

"...she declared she had been to heaven. Her friends were all anxious to know what and whom she had seen there; so she told the whole story. But there was one good old lady whose curiosity went beyond that of all the others—and she inquired of the girl that had the vision, if she saw any Black folks in heaven? After some hesitation, the reply was, 'Oh! I didn't go into the kitchen!'"

Chief Joseph 'I Will Fight No More Forever'

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Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, pursued 1500 miles through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana by the U.S. Army, spoke these words when he finally surrendered. This speech followed the final engagement of the Nez Perce War. The transcript of the speech was taken by Lieutenant C.E.S. Wood. 

Delivered by : Chief Joseph Date : October 5th, 1877 Location:   Bears Paw (Battle of the Bears Paw Mountains), Montana Word Count:  156 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 104.1 Grade Level : 2.9 Rhetorical device used : Direct Address : The use of a term or name for the person spoken to, as in securing the attention of that person; use of a vocative form.

"Hear me, my Chiefs!"

Susan B. Anthony and Women's Right to Vote

Underwood Archives / Getty Images

Susan B. Anthony gave this speech on multiple occasions after her arrest for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election of 1872. She was tried and then fined $100 but refused to pay.

Delivered by : Susan B. Anthony Date : 1872 - 1873 Location:  Stump Speech delivered in all 29 postal districts of Monroe County, New York Word Count: 451 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 45.1 Grade Level : 12.9 Rhetorical device used : Parallelism : The use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter.

"It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the right govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every household..."

'Cross of Gold' Speech

This "Cross of Gold" speech thrust William Jennings Bryan into the national spotlight where his dramatic speaking style and rhetoric roused the crowd to a frenzy. Reports from those in the audience noted that at the conclusion of the speech, he thrust his arms wide, a visual representation of the speech's last line. The next day the convention nominated Bryan for President on the fifth ballot.

Delivered by : William Jennings Bryan Date : July 9, 1896 Location:  Democratic National Convention in Chicago Word Count:  3242 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 63 Grade Level : 10.4 Rhetorical device used : Analogy : A comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it.  Gold standard to a "crown of thorns" to "crucify mankind." 

"....we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold ."

National Archives for Education

The National Archives for Education offers thousands of primary source documents—including speeches—which can be used as teaching tools to bring history to life.

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• Definition and Examples of "Exophora" in English Grammar
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Analyzing famous speeches as arguments.

Traditionally, teachers have encouraged students to engage with and interpret literature—novels, poems, short stories, and plays. Too often, however, the spoken word is left unanalyzed, even though the spoken word has the potential to alter our space just as much than the written. After gaining skill through analyzing a historic and contemporary speech as a class, students will select a famous speech from a list compiled from several resources and write an essay that identifies and explains the rhetorical strategies that the author deliberately chose while crafting the text to make an effective argument. Their analysis will consider questions such as What makes the speech an argument?, How did the author's rhetoric evoke a response from the audience?, and Why are the words still venerated today?

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Great Talks Most People Have Never Heard

Not long ago, I came across a little-known speech titled, “You and Your Research”.

The speech had been delivered in 1986 by Richard Hamming, an accomplished mathematician and computer engineer, as part of an internal series of talks given at Bell Labs. I had never heard of Hamming, the internal lecture series at Bell Labs, or this particular speech. And yet, as I read the transcript, I came across one useful insight after another.

After reading that talk, I got to thinking… what other great talks and speeches are out there that I’ve never heard?

I’ve been slowly searching for answers to that question and the result is this list of my favorite interesting and insightful talks that are not widely known. You may see a few famous speeches on this list, but my guess is that most people are not aware of many of them—just as I wasn’t when I first started looking around.

As far as I know this is the only place where you can read transcripts of these speeches in one place.

Famous Speeches and Great Talks

This list is organized by presenter name and then speech topic. Click the links below to jump to a specific speech. On each page, you’ll find a full transcript of the speech as well as some additional background information.

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story”
• Jeff Bezos, “Statement by Jeff Bezos to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary”
• Jeff Bezos, “What Matters More Than Your Talents”
• John C. Bogle, “Enough”
• Brené Brown, “ The Anatomy of Trust “
• John Cleese, “Creativity in Management”
• William Deresiewicz, “Solitude and Leadership”
• Richard Feynman, “Seeking New Laws”
• Neil Gaiman, “Make Good Art”
• John W. Gardner, “Personal Renewal”
• Elizabeth Gilbert, “Your Elusive Creative Genius”
• Albert E. N. Gray,  “The Common Denominator of Success”
• Bill Gurley, “Runnin Down a Dream”
• Richard Hamming, “Learning to Learn”
• Richard Hamming, “You and Your Research”
• Steve Jobs, “2005 Stanford Commencement Address”
• Peter Kaufman,  “The Multidisciplinary Approach to Thinking”
• C.S. Lewis, “The Inner Ring”
• Admiral William H. McRaven, “Make Your Bed”
• Arno Rafael Minkkinen, “Finding Your Own Vision”
• Charlie Munger, “2007 USC Law School Commencement Address”
• Charlie Munger, “A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom”
• Charlie Munger, “How to Guarantee a Life of Misery”
• Charlie Munger, “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment”
• Nathan Myhrvold, “ Roadkill on the Information Highway “
• Randy Pausch, “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”
• Randy Pausch, “Time Management”
• Anna Quindlen,  “1999 Mount Holyoke Commencement Speech”
• John Roberts, “I Wish You Bad Luck”
• Sir Ken Robinson, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”
• J.K. Rowling, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure”
• George Saunders, “Failures of Kindness”
• Claude Shannon, “Creative Thinking”
• BF Skinner, “How to Discover What You Have to Say”
• Jim Valvano, “Don’t Give Up”
• Bret Victor, “Inventing on Principle”
• David Foster Wallace, “This is Water”
• Art Williams, “Just Do It”
• Evan Williams,  “A Journey on the Information Highway”

This is an on-going project. If you know of another great talk, please contact me .

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Teaching Rhetorical Analysis: 15 Rhetorical Analysis Questions to Ask Your Students

I love teaching rhetorical analysis. It is one of my favorite units to teach because I love incorporating robust, relevant, and timely texts into my classroom, especially when timely speeches perfectly coincide with the classical literature we are reading. I use this rhetorical analysis unit in my classroom every year, and it helps me provide a solid foundation to my students.

When teaching rhetorical analysis, one of the most important things to keep in mind is not what the author or speaker says, but how the author or speaker says it and why it is so effective. Once you get beyond the main ideas and supporting details and really ask your students to look at, consider, analyze, and evaluate the effectiveness of what the author or speaker does, then you are genuinely analyzing a text for its rhetorical merit.

Teaching Rhetorical Analysis in the Secondary ELA Classroom

When I first teach rhetorical analysis to my students, I use direct instruction strategies. I provide my students with rhetorical analysis terms and examples. Then we begin analyzing and annotating text together. Usually, we will analyze a couple of texts together as a class, and then I release them to work in a small group or with partners. Before I have my students work entirely on their own, I first have them analyze and annotate a text individually for about ten minutes, and then share their findings with a partner. This helps students build their confidence.

If you are teaching rhetorical analysis, here are 15 questions you should ask your students about the text they are reading. These 15 questions are some of the questions included in my Rhetorical Analysis Task Cards.

15 Rhetorical Analysis Questions to Ask Your Students

• What is the main idea or assertion of the text?
• Explain two different ways in which the author/speaker supports the main idea.
• How does the author/speaker establish ethos in the text?
• How does the author/speaker appeal to reason (logos)?
• How does the author/speaker appeal to emotion (pathos)?
• Is the evidence used to support the argument reliable? Explain.
• How does the tone affect the author/speaker’s credibility?
• What is the tone at the beginning, middle, and end of the text?
• What is one rhetorical device used in the text? Explain it’s effectiveness.
• Identify one example of figurative language used in the text. Explain it’s effectiveness.
• Does the author/speaker reveal any prejudices against people who might disagree? Explain.
• Was the author/speaker effective in achieving the purpose? Explain.
• In your opinion, what is the strongest element/part of the text/argument? Explain and provide evidence and reasoning.
• In your opinion, what is the weakest element/part of the text/argument? Explain and provide evidence and reasoning.
• Do you believe the author/speaker achieved the purpose? Explain your answer and provide evidence and reasoning in your response.

Be sure to also read my blog post about my favorite speeches for rhetorical analysis.

Teaching Rhetorical Analysis with Sticky Notes

This hands-on sticky note rhetorical analysis includes an editable PowerPoint presentation with an entire week of direct instruction for rhetorical analysis, a sample speech to analyze with your students, and materials and writing assignments to use with any speech!

Your students will love these interactive and hands-on close reading organizers and scaffolded writing responses. Students will enjoy using sticky notes in class as they analyze complex speeches and nonfiction texts, and the materials are accessible enough for them to do rhetorical analysis.

This unit includes everything you need to be successful in teaching rhetorical analysis.

Here is what fellow teachers say:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ extremely satisfied.

“ I used this resource to supplement my AP Lang. and Comp. class Rhetorical Analysis Unit. It had a lot of resources that were very easy to implement and provided different approaches to the rhetorical analysis essay.”

“ This was so helpful in teaching my students to write a rhetorical analysis– I’ve written plenty in my life, but I don’t know that I was ever formally taught how, and have never had to teach this skill prior to this year. This was great not only for my students to learn, but to help give me a better understanding of process as well!”

“ Kids are always excited whenever they get to use sticky notes, so this resource was a hit with my 11th graders – yes, 11th graders! I highly recommend as it helps students thoroughly dissect and understand the text.”

Here are some rhetorical analysis teaching resources you may like:

• Rhetorical Analysis Mini Flip Book
• Rhetorical Analysis Task Cards
• FREE SOAPStone Organizer

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Speech Analysis #1: How to Study and Critique a Speech

The Speech Analysis Series is a series of articles examining different aspects of presentation analysis. You will learn how to study a speech and how to deliver an effective speech evaluation. Later articles will examine Toastmasters evaluation contests and speech evaluation forms and resources.

• How to Study and Critique a Speech
• The Art of Delivering Evaluations
• Modified Sandwich Technique for Evaluations
• Evaluation Forms, Tools, and Resources
• Toastmasters Evaluation Contests

The first in the series, this article outlines questions to ask yourself when assessing a presentation . Ask these questions whether you attend the presentation, or whether you view a video or read the speech text. These questions also apply when you conduct a self evaluation of your own speeches .

The Most Important Thing to Analyze: The Speech Objectives

Knowing the speaker’s objective is critical to analyzing the speech, and should certainly influence how you study it.

• What is the speaker’s goal? Is it to educate , to motivate , to persuade , or to entertain ?
• What is the primary message being delivered?
• Why is this person delivering this speech ? Are they the right person?
• Was the objective achieved ?

The Audience and Context for the Speech

A speaker will need to use different techniques to connect with an audience of 1500 than they would with an audience of 15. Similarly, different techniques will be applied when communicating with teenagers as opposed to communicating with corporate leaders.

• Where and when is the speech being delivered?
• What are the key demographic features of the audience ? Technical? Students? Elderly? Athletes? Business leaders?
• How large is the audience?
• In addition to the live audience, is there an external target audience ? (e.g. on the Internet or mass media)

Speech Content and Structure

The content of the speech should be selected and organized to achieve the primary speech objective. Focus is important — extraneous information can weaken an otherwise effective argument.

Before the Speech

• Were there other speakers before this one ? Were their messages similar, opposed, or unrelated?
• How was the speaker introduced ? Was it appropriate?
• Did the introduction establish why the audience should listen to this speaker with this topic at this time ?
• What body language was demonstrated by the speaker as they approached the speaking area? Body language at this moment will often indicate their level of confidence .

The Speech Opening

Due to the primacy effect , words, body language, and visuals in the speech opening are all critical to speaking success.

• Was a hook used effectively to draw the audience into the speech? Or did the speaker open with a dry “ It’s great to be here today. “
• Did the speech open with a story ? A joke ? A startling statistic ? A controversial statement ? A powerful visual ?
• Did the speech opening clearly establish the intent of the presentation?
• Was the opening memorable ?

The Speech Body

• Was the presentation focused ? i.e. Did all arguments, stories, anecdotes relate back to the primary objective?
• Were examples or statistics provided to support the arguments ?
• Were metaphors and symbolism use to improve understanding?
• Was the speech organized logically ? Was it easy to follow?
• Did the speaker transition smoothly from one part of the presentation to the next?

The Speech Conclusion

Like the opening, the words, body language, and visuals in the speech conclusion are all critical to speaking success. This is due to the recency effect .

• Was the conclusion concise ?
• Was the conclusion memorable ?
• If appropriate, was there a call-to-action ?

Delivery Skills and Techniques

Delivery skills are like a gigantic toolbox — the best speakers know precisely when to use every tool and for what purpose.

Enthusiasm and Connection to the Audience

• Was the speaker enthusiastic ? How can you tell?
• Was there audience interaction ? Was it effective?
• Was the message you – and we-focused , or was it I- and me-focused ?
• Was humor used?
• Was it safe and appropriate given the audience?
• Were appropriate pauses used before and after the punch lines, phrases, or words?
• Was it relevant to the speech ?

Visual Aids

• Were they designed effectively?
• Did they complement speech arguments ?
• Was the use of visual aids timed well with the speaker’s words?
• Did they add energy to the presentation or remove it?
• Were they simple and easy to understand ?
• Were they easy to see ? e.g. large enough
• Would an additional visual aid help to convey the message?

Use of Stage Area

• Did the speaker make appropriate use of the speaking area?

Physical – Gestures and Eye Contact

• Did the speaker’s posture display confidence and poise?
• Were gestures natural, timely, and complementary ?
• Were gestures   easy to see ?
• Does the speaker have any distracting mannerisms ?
• Was eye contact effective in connecting the speaker to the whole audience?

Vocal Variety

• Was the speaker easy to hear ?
• Were loud and soft variations used appropriately?
• Was the speaking pace  varied? Was it slow enough overall to be understandable?
• Were pauses used to aid understanding, heighten excitement, or provide drama?
• Was the language appropriate for the audience?
• Did the speaker articulate clearly?
• Were sentences short and easy to understand?
• Was technical jargon or unnecessarily complex language used?
• What rhetorical devices were used? e.g. repetition, alliteration, the rule of three , etc.

Intangibles

Sometimes, a technically sound speech can still miss the mark. Likewise, technical deficiencies can sometimes be overcome to produce a must-see presentation. The intangibles are impossible to list, but here are a few questions to consider:

• How did the speech make you feel ?
• Were you convinced ?
• Would you want to listen to this speaker again?
• Were there any original ideas or techniques?

Next in the Speech Analysis Series

The next article in this series – The Art of Delivering Evaluations – examines how best to utilize speech evaluation skills as a teaching tool.

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• Speech Analysis #4: Evaluation Forms, Tools, and Resources
• Speech Analysis #3: Modified Sandwich Technique for Evaluations
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40 comments.

I absolutely loved this article. It gave me a major idea of what to write on my speech critique. Great information, organized, and detailed!

Great post. I have to say, it was when I started to do exactly what you say that my skills took off.

If anyone wants to go farther, just teach a class on public speaking. You do not need a degree to teach continuing ed. It will help you, as some of my students who went on to teach to improve even more. This is because not only are you observing your students for these points. You are actually teaching them how to attain some of these skills.

oh my god….thank you!! i had no idea where to even start my speech analysis!

Excellent article. Will refer members of my club to it.

Dear Eugenia You refer to “members of your club” and I wanted to know an online public speaking club. Does this exist. Regards Berty

Your article is very informative. Hope you post more tips on writing a speech and how to analyse it!! 😎

Thanks for providing this information. I am writing an essay critiquing my own speech in third person. A tough task, but these pointers made it easier. Thank you.

i loved this information very much.now i am preparing for my examination and i think this article will help me to get good mark. thanks

Great summary/overview on basic things to evaluate while listening to a speech. Will be very much helpful when i have to do evaluations for speech class!

Thank you sooooo much for this article!! This is helping me soooo much for my speech analysis!

Thank you so so much! You are awesome and very helpful plus amazing too!

Great job once again! I liked the clarity with which these concepts were explained. Self explanatory and useful for both novice and advanced speakers. Keep it up!

Such a great article, thank you! It truly helped

I have to look at this for a class project and really learned some new tips from this.

This helped immensely; thank you so much!

thank you, you helped me a lot

Best article I found for speech critique and analysis. Definitely a place to come back for speech resource.

Thank you Andrew, great articles and valuable information. I recently joined a Toastmaster’s group and this will really help. Once I figure out how to “tweet” I will be “tweeting” this site to Kwantlen University Students and Alumni.

I absolutely loved this article it gave me a major idea of what to write on my speech critique great information, organized, and detailed!

Fantastic article. For someone that is new to Taostmasters this gives me at least an idea of how I should approach giving an evaluation…frigthening me more than giving a speech!! Thanks!

hi Andrew, this is a great article for someone who is a beginner to evaluate a speech. thanks a lot. -Venkat

very informative article will certainly help me to develop my speech technique.

Thus really helpful…we always read text resurfacely I gained alot from this article. now I know where to start when I want to present information through speech to the public

thank you this helped me vey much.

thanks a lot this just help me with my paper. you explain it better than my teacher

I am a toastmaster who loves to compete. I believe these articles will help me help other to deliver their speeches and both of us can grow.

Hi Andrew Dlugan, i am really happy to come across your site as new trainee in the public speaking and writing profession. i am programmer but i have passion for writing especially poems.Do you have any advice or resources to help me survive in the world of speaking and writing.

Thank You, Best Regards, Lawal Abdulateef Olawle

I came here looking for a speech review but reading this article helped me a lot in my opening speech. I hope many people who are having trouble in analysing there speech they should really open this website. Thank you

This is a helpful source to me. Thanks a lot

Great article. I am preparing to critique a public speaking competition this weekend and I found this article quite helpful Thanks a lot

Hi Andrew, May I use your article in our club newsletter? It is particularly timely as we approach the contest season in Toastmasters. I will source it to your web site and also include a link under the Articles about speaking of our club website.

John Sleigh Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia

Amazing breakdown of how to not only analysis a speech but to also push yourself that inch further to get more scope for marks. I really recommend this webpage. Thank you

Thank you for this amazing information, your 6 minutes guide is great and I am learning so much with it.

Really GREAT JOB! thanks so much! Best! Rasha

I really love this and would want more of this

This information was very informative and knowledgeable.Thank you.

Your articles are very thorough. I really enjoyed reading the first one.

Can you give me some examples of relevant puns used in speeches?

One more treasure trove on the internet. Thanks for sharing DLugan.

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How to Study and Critique a Speech -A quick How to for #College Students: https://t.co/z9z7ODho2n by @6minutes — @cdbond Oct 28th, 2015

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7 Blog Links

Evaluation Contest Resources | World Champion Evaluator — Mar 3rd, 2010

Evaluation Contest Resources | World Champion Evaluator « Brinker Toastmasters — Mar 3rd, 2010

ToastMASTERY » Evaluation Contest Resources | World Champion Evaluator — Mar 3rd, 2010

The 25 Essential Presentation Skills for Public Speaking | David Edgerton Jr — May 6th, 2010

State of the Union 2012 « E-126 — Jan 31st, 2012

Speech Evaluations | Plantation Toastmasters — May 27th, 2012

Fall 2012 Club Contest | — Aug 6th, 2012

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Analyze Famous Speeches for Rhetorical Structures and Devices (English I Reading)

Introduction, speaker, audience, and purpose, aristotle's appeals, rhetorical structures and devices, persuasion – from beginning to end.

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10 Unexpected Texts To Analyze: #NCTEchat’s Top Picks!  

@NCTE was kind of enough to archive the chat for us here , should you be interested in perusing the conversation. Among the topics discussed – most pertaining to engagement, popular culture, and teaching argument – the one that struck me as most practical and actionable was “Q5: What is an unexpected text (an article, essay, song, film, etc.) that you’d recommend we analyze in our classrooms?”

What follows is a list of ten suggestions made by #NCTEchat participants that, I’m certain, will inspire you to engage your students with the stuff of argument and rhetorical analysis in a host of new and creative ways.

I’ll also take this opportunity to plug SecondaryELA.com – a brand new marketplace (like Teachers Pay Teachers) built by secondary ELA teachers, exclusively for secondary ELA teachers.   I encourage you to head over, check out the resources, and post your own rock star lessons for your fellow ELA teachers to peruse!

Now, on to those great ideas:

#1. Students’ Political Perspectives.

@BaritoneBlogger described a project in which his students, who happen to reside in a “blue” state, engaged in a post-election discussion with students who reside in “red” states.   While this kind of activity is meaningful in and of itself – for helping to foster students’ understanding of community, to shed light on the ever-evolving American identity, and so on – the conversations generated by this discussion also make for rich texts that can be analyzed! The same techniques that work for a rhetorical analysis of MLK apply here, too: Are there deliberate repetitions? Specific language that is used or avoided? Loaded terms? Other devices? And talk about authenticity!

#2. Art as Argument.

#3. analyzing social media..

In today’s world, the ability to intelligently navigate social media is an imperative skill for success. Although your students most likely can’t take a class on this (yet), you can certainly help them to understand the use of language and rhetoric across social platforms. (Donald Trump’s proclivity for Twitter has really highlighted this notion for us, hasn’t it?) Kudos to @Joe_OSuch for raising this point during our chat! If you’re looking to get a leg up on this, you can check out TeachArgument’s Twittorical Analysis materials, or sign up to keep up with new social media analysis lessons!

#4. Analyzing Letters.

@ImanHallam suggested analyzing personal letters for tone analysis and argument. What better medium to analyze through a rhetorical lens than a form that, by definition, has a clear sender (speaker), recipient (audience), message, and purpose? Personal letters or emails work well, as do correspondences between famous historical figures. Interdisciplinary analysis, here we come!

#5. Popular Movie Speeches.

@SusanClaireB suggested using popular movie speeches for analysis. Why? Because they’re expertly crafted to engage, to persuade, and to have blockbuster appeal! My mind immediately goes to Independence Day, but the list is endless. Head over to AmericanRhetoric.com to explore a hefty list of popular movie speeches, or better yet, ask your students to select a speech to analyze and present to the class themselves!

#6. Acceptance Speeches.

Acceptance speeches are everywhere. @MrsKlinkReads recommended using NBA or NFL acceptance speeches – something our athletes are sure to love – but any awards ceremony (The Oscars, The Grammy Awards, and so on) will do the trick!

#7. Podcasts!

As podcasts continue to mature as a genre, their production quality continues to improve, as does their infiltration of mainstream culture. It’s very likely that your students listened to, if not at least heard of, Serial . @MardieTeach suggested using podcasts such as “This American Life” to create rich listening experiences for students, as well as to provide students with complex audio-texts that lend themselves quite nicely to rhetorical analysis.

I’m personally a big fan of using podcasts for “independent listening” – sort of like independent reading, but with an emphasis on critical thinking and analysis. If you’re looking for a compelling new summer assignment for your kiddos, a podcast-based assignment may be the way to go! Consider TeachArgument’s Serial materials to help you get the ball rolling!

#8. Comics!

@90SecondNewbery suggested using comics, like Ms. Marvel , to engage students in rhetorical analysis while fostering a love for reading (and learning) through new literacies. I immediately think of Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (a novel you’ll love if you’re interested in comic book culture), and old school comics of Superman or Captain America taking on the Nazi regime. A simple Google Image search will yield dozens of rich comic frames that your students will love to analyze. (If American propaganda in 1940s comics for kids doesn’t make for a great lesson, what does?) Likewise, political cartoons and graphic novels make for equally complex texts, with modern relevance. All worth checking out!

#9. Emails From Students.

Another very authentic source of argument writing that we as in no short supply of — student emails! Particularly those that were written with the intention to create some kind of change (rather than those pesky emails asking clarifying questions the night before an assignment is due … although, I suppose there is an argument to be analyzed in there, too…). @KristinRunyon suggested utilizing grade request emails (with all identifying information removed, of course) and unpacking their effectiveness through a lens of rhetorical analysis. But be forewarned – the quality of your students’ emails requesting grade bumps may be significantly impacted by this kind of activity!

#10. Memes!

I was totally surprised by the widespread discussion of memes – as vehicles for delivering student feedback, as devices for helping students to memorize important content, and as argumentative texts that can be unpacked in an academic and analytical fashion. Kudos to @MrsSearcy112 and @LyricalSwords for raising these points during #NCTEchat!

I know I’ll be sifting through the web, collecting memes for rhetorical analysis purposes with my kiddos, and making use of meme-generators to craft my own memetic arguments.

If you’re interested in receiving FREE materials that put these rockstar ideas to good use, sign up here ! The sooner you sign up, the more #NCTEchat inspired lessons are sure to hit your inbox!

Already put some of these ideas to use? Share you best lessons with your secondary ELA colleagues at SecondaryELA.com !

related posts:

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Famous Speeches (Years 9 and 10)

Subject: English

Age range: 11-14

Resource type: Other

Last updated

22 February 2018

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The 'Big Non-Fiction Reading Bundle' contains four full schemes of work for 20-23 hours of classroom activities! The four units of work contain everything you need: professionally produced PowerPoint presentations, student worksheets, materials for effective differentiation, peer assessment materials, and of course, detailed teachers' notes. Not only this, but each unit also contains a supportive homework presentation for you to place on your school's VLE, or to use as further extension activities in class. The 'Titanic' package develops students' ability to integrate information presented in different media formats, cite evidence to support analysis, and distinguish claims supported by reason from those that are not. They investigate the sinking of the Titanic by studying route charts, casualty figures, the lifeboat launch log, diagrams of the ship and testimonies of passengers, crew and expert witnesses. The 'Deduction and Inference' unit provides material to develop students' ability to draw inferences from a text, to determine figurative and connotative meaning and analyze the impact of specific word choice. In the centrepiece of the unit , students investigate the death of a man by drawing inferences from what they find 'about his person'. In the third unit of the bundle, students explore the world of travel writing, reflecting on and evaluating brochures, rough guides, newspaper reports and television clips. There is much group work and discussion, and an extended activity in which students form groups to make a presentation to either promote their home town, or to give a 'rough guide' presentation - warts and all! The final resource in the bundle offers students the opportunity to study famous speeches to consider figurative and connotative meaning, and analyze the impact of imagery, repetition etc in the texts. Students study a variety of speeches: (Braveheart's 'Freedom' speech; St Crispin's Day speech from Henry V; Churchill's 'Their Finest Hour' and 'Fight on the Beaches' speeches; Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech, and Sojourner Truth's 'Ain't I A Woman?') Video clips of the speeches are accompanied by full texts. Materials for differentiation ensure that students of different abilities will be able to access the work. Separately, the units of work would cost £20, so at £12, the bundle is great value for money as well. I hope it proves to be a really useful addition to your classroom resources. Total Pages / Slides 231

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Creative Ways to Use Graphic Novels in the Classroom! 🎥

40 Strong Persuasive Writing Examples (Essays, Speeches, Ads, and More)

Learn from the experts.

The more we read, the better writers we become. Teaching students to write strong persuasive essays should always start with reading some top-notch models. This round-up of persuasive writing examples includes famous speeches, influential ad campaigns, contemporary reviews of famous books, and more. Use them to inspire your students to write their own essays. (Need persuasive essay topics? Check out our list of interesting persuasive essay ideas here! )

• Persuasive Essays
• Persuasive Speeches
• Advertising Campaigns

Persuasive Essay Writing Examples

From the earliest days of print, authors have used persuasive essays to try to sway others to their own point of view. Check out these top persuasive essay writing examples.

Professions for Women by Virginia Woolf

Sample lines: “Outwardly, what is simpler than to write books? Outwardly, what obstacles are there for a woman rather than for a man? Inwardly, I think, the case is very different; she has still many ghosts to fight, many prejudices to overcome. Indeed it will be a long time still, I think, before a woman can sit down to write a book without finding a phantom to be slain, a rock to be dashed against. And if this is so in literature, the freest of all professions for women, how is it in the new professions which you are now for the first time entering?”

The Crisis by Thomas Paine

Sample lines: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”

Politics and the English Language by George Orwell

Sample lines: “As I have tried to show, modern writing at its worst does not consist in picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images in order to make the meaning clearer. It consists in gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug.”

Letter From a Birmingham Jail by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Sample lines: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was ‘well timed’ in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.'”

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

Sample lines: “Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.”

Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Roger Ebert

Sample lines: “‘Kindness’ covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime.”

The Way to Wealth by Benjamin Franklin

Sample lines: “Methinks I hear some of you say, must a man afford himself no leisure? I will tell thee, my friend, what Poor Richard says, employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure; and, since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour. Leisure is time for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never; so that, as Poor Richard says, a life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things.”

The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sample lines: “Of course all life is a process of breaking down, but the blows that do the dramatic side of the work—the big sudden blows that come, or seem to come, from outside—the ones you remember and blame things on and, in moments of weakness, tell your friends about, don’t show their effect all at once.”

Open Letter to the Kansas School Board by Bobby Henderson

Sample lines: “I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. … Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. … We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him. It is for this reason that I’m writing you today, to formally request that this alternative theory be taught in your schools, along with the other two theories.”

Open Letter to the United Nations by Niels Bohr

Sample lines: “Humanity will, therefore, be confronted with dangers of unprecedented character unless, in due time, measures can be taken to forestall a disastrous competition in such formidable armaments and to establish an international control of the manufacture and use of the powerful materials.”

Persuasive Speech Writing Examples

Many persuasive speeches are political in nature, often addressing subjects like human rights. Here are some of history’s most well-known persuasive writing examples in the form of speeches.

I Have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Sample lines: “And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

Woodrow Wilson’s War Message to Congress, 1917

Sample lines: “There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts—for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.”

Chief Seattle’s 1854 Oration

Sample lines: “I here and now make this condition that we will not be denied the privilege without molestation of visiting at any time the tombs of our ancestors, friends, and children. Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as they swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch.”

Women’s Rights Are Human Rights, Hillary Rodham Clinton

Sample lines: “What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well. … If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all.”

I Am Prepared to Die, Nelson Mandela

Sample lines: “Above all, My Lord, we want equal political rights, because without them our disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds revolutionary to the whites in this country, because the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the white man fear democracy. But this fear cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the only solution which will guarantee racial harmony and freedom for all. It is not true that the enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination. Political division, based on color, is entirely artificial and, when it disappears, so will the domination of one color group by another. … This then is what the ANC is fighting. Our struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by our own suffering and our own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live.”

The Struggle for Human Rights by Eleanor Roosevelt

Sample lines: “It is my belief, and I am sure it is also yours, that the struggle for democracy and freedom is a critical struggle, for their preservation is essential to the great objective of the United Nations to maintain international peace and security. Among free men the end cannot justify the means. We know the patterns of totalitarianism—the single political party, the control of schools, press, radio, the arts, the sciences, and the church to support autocratic authority; these are the age-old patterns against which men have struggled for 3,000 years. These are the signs of reaction, retreat, and retrogression. The United Nations must hold fast to the heritage of freedom won by the struggle of its people; it must help us to pass it on to generations to come.”

Freedom From Fear by Aung San Suu Kyi

Sample lines: “Saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying. So free men are the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make themselves fit to bear the responsibilities and to uphold the disciplines which will maintain a free society. Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.”

Harvey Milk’s “The Hope” Speech

Sample lines: “Some people are satisfied. And some people are not. You see there is a major difference—and it remains a vital difference—between a friend and a gay person, a friend in office and a gay person in office. Gay people have been slandered nationwide. We’ve been tarred and we’ve been brushed with the picture of pornography. In Dade County, we were accused of child molestation. It is not enough anymore just to have friends represent us, no matter how good that friend may be.”

The Union and the Strike, Cesar Chavez

Sample lines: “We are showing our unity in our strike. Our strike is stopping the work in the fields; our strike is stopping ships that would carry grapes; our strike is stopping the trucks that would carry the grapes. Our strike will stop every way the grower makes money until we have a union contract that guarantees us a fair share of the money he makes from our work! We are a union and we are strong and we are striking to force the growers to respect our strength!”

Nobel Lecture by Malala Yousafzai

Sample lines: “The world can no longer accept that basic education is enough. Why do leaders accept that for children in developing countries, only basic literacy is sufficient, when their own children do homework in algebra, mathematics, science, and physics? Leaders must seize this opportunity to guarantee a free, quality, primary and secondary education for every child. Some will say this is impractical, or too expensive, or too hard. Or maybe even impossible. But it is time the world thinks bigger.”   

Persuasive Writing Examples in Advertising Campaigns

Ads are prime persuasive writing examples. You can flip open any magazine or watch TV for an hour or two to see sample after sample of persuasive language. Here are some of the most popular ad campaigns of all time, with links to articles explaining why they were so successful.

Nike: Just Do It

The iconic swoosh with the simple tagline has persuaded millions to buy their kicks from Nike and Nike alone. Teamed with pro sports-star endorsements, this campaign is one for the ages. Blinkist offers an opinion on what made it work.

Dove: Real Beauty

Beauty brand Dove changed the game by choosing “real” women to tell their stories instead of models. They used relatable images and language to make connections, and inspired other brands to try the same concept. Learn why Global Brands considers this one a true success story.

Wendy’s: Where’s the Beef?

Today’s kids are too young to remember the cranky old woman demanding to know where the beef was on her fast-food hamburger. But in the 1980s, it was a catchphrase that sold millions of Wendy’s burgers. Learn from Better Marketing how this ad campaign even found its way into the 1984 presidential debate.

De Beers: A Diamond Is Forever

A diamond engagement ring has become a standard these days, but the tradition isn’t as old as you might think. In fact, it was De Beers jewelry company’s 1948 campaign that created the modern engagement ring trend. The Drum has the whole story of this sparkling campaign.

Volkswagen: Think Small

Americans have always loved big cars. So in the 1960s, when Volkswagen wanted to introduce their small cars to a bigger market, they had a problem. The clever “Think Small” campaign gave buyers clever reasons to consider these models, like “If you run out of gas, it’s easy to push.” Learn how advertisers interested American buyers in little cars at Visual Rhetoric.

American Express: Don’t Leave Home Without It

AmEx was once better known for traveler’s checks than credit cards, and the original slogan was “Don’t leave home without them.” A simple word change convinced travelers that American Express was the credit card they needed when they headed out on adventures. Discover more about this persuasive campaign from Medium.

Skittles: Taste the Rainbow

These candy ads are weird and intriguing and probably not for everyone. But they definitely get you thinking, and that often leads to buying. Learn more about why these wacky ads are successful from The Drum.

Maybelline: Maybe She’s Born With It

Smart wordplay made this ad campaign slogan an instant hit. The ads teased, “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.” (So many literary devices all in one phrase!) Fashionista has more on this beauty campaign.

Coca-Cola: Share a Coke

Seeing their own name on a bottle made teens more likely to want to buy a Coke. What can that teach us about persuasive writing in general? It’s an interesting question to consider. Learn more about the “Share a Coke” campaign from Digital Vidya.

Always: #LikeaGirl

Talk about the power of words! This Always campaign turned the derogatory phrase “like a girl” on its head, and the world embraced it. Storytelling is an important part of persuasive writing, and these ads really do it well. Medium has more on this stereotype-bashing campaign.   

Editorial Persuasive Writing Examples

Newspaper editors or publishers use editorials to share their personal opinions. Noted politicians, experts, or pundits may also offer their opinions on behalf of the editors or publishers. Here are a couple of older well-known editorials, along with a selection from current newspapers.

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus (1897)

Sample lines: “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.”

What’s the Matter With Kansas? (1896)

Sample lines: “Oh, this IS a state to be proud of! We are a people who can hold up our heads! What we need is not more money, but less capital, fewer white shirts and brains, fewer men with business judgment, and more of those fellows who boast that they are ‘just ordinary clodhoppers, but they know more in a minute about finance than John Sherman,’ we need more men … who hate prosperity, and who think, because a man believes in national honor, he is a tool of Wall Street.”

America Can Have Democracy or Political Violence. Not Both. (The New York Times)

Sample lines: “The nation is not powerless to stop a slide toward deadly chaos. If institutions and individuals do more to make it unacceptable in American public life, organized violence in the service of political objectives can still be pushed to the fringes. When a faction of one of the country’s two main political parties embraces extremism, that makes thwarting it both more difficult and more necessary. A well-functioning democracy demands it.”

The Booster Isn’t Perfect, But Still Can Help Against COVID (The Washington Post)

Sample lines: “The booster shots are still free, readily available and work better than the previous boosters even as the virus evolves. Much still needs to be done to build better vaccines that protect longer and against more variants, including those that might emerge in the future. But it is worth grabbing the booster that exists today, the jab being a small price for any measure that can help keep COVID at bay.”

If We Want Wildlife To Thrive in L.A., We Have To Share Our Neighborhoods With Them (Los Angeles Times)

Sample lines: “If there are no corridors for wildlife movement and if excessive excavation of dirt to build bigger, taller houses erodes the slope of a hillside, then we are slowly destroying wildlife habitat. For those people fretting about what this will do to their property values—isn’t open space, trees, and wildlife an amenity in these communities?”   

Persuasive Review Writing Examples

Book or movie reviews are more great persuasive writing examples. Look for those written by professionals for the strongest arguments and writing styles. Here are reviews of some popular books and movies by well-known critics to use as samples.

The Great Gatsby (The Chicago Tribune, 1925)

Sample lines: “What ails it, fundamentally, is the plain fact that it is simply a story—that Fitzgerald seems to be far more interested in maintaining its suspense than in getting under the skins of its people. It is not that they are false: It is that they are taken too much for granted. Only Gatsby himself genuinely lives and breathes. The rest are mere marionettes—often astonishingly lifelike, but nevertheless not quite alive.”

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (The Washington Post, 1999)

Sample lines: “Obviously, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone should make any modern 11-year-old a very happy reader. The novel moves quickly, packs in everything from a boa constrictor that winks to a melancholy Zen-spouting centaur to an owl postal system, and ends with a scary surprise. Yet it is, essentially, a light-hearted thriller, interrupted by occasional seriousness (the implications of Harry’s miserable childhood, a moral about the power of love).”

Twilight (The Telegraph, 2009)

Sample lines: “No secret, of course, at whom this book is aimed, and no doubt, either, that it has hit its mark. The four Twilight novels are not so much enjoyed, as devoured, by legions of young female fans worldwide. That’s not to say boys can’t enjoy these books; it’s just that the pages of heart-searching dialogue between Edward and Bella may prove too long on chat and too short on action for the average male reader.”

To Kill a Mockingbird (Time, 1960)

Sample lines: “Author Lee, 34, an Alabaman, has written her first novel with all of the tactile brilliance and none of the preciosity generally supposed to be standard swamp-warfare issue for Southern writers. The novel is an account of an awakening to good and evil, and a faint catechistic flavor may have been inevitable. But it is faint indeed; novelist Lee’s prose has an edge that cuts through cant, and she teaches the reader an astonishing number of useful truths about little girls and about Southern life.”

The Diary of Anne Frank (The New York Times, 1952)

Sample lines: “And this quality brings it home to any family in the world today. Just as the Franks lived in momentary fear of the Gestapo’s knock on their hidden door, so every family today lives in fear of the knock of war. Anne’s diary is a great affirmative answer to the life-question of today, for she shows how ordinary people, within this ordeal, consistently hold to the greater human values.”   

What are your favorite persuasive writing examples to use with students? Come share your ideas in the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, the big list of essay topics for high school (120+ ideas) ..

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101 Interesting Persuasive Essay Topics for Kids and Teens

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21 Uplifting and Powerful Famous Speeches That You Can’t Miss

Life is not always rainbows and sunshine – we have all had days when nothing seems to be going as planned and when we find ourselves demotivated, bogged down and engulfed in sadness. On such days, when you are unable to motivate yourself, do you know what helps? Listening to great speeches — empowering ones.

Great communicators have this innate power of moving you with their brilliant command over words. Their words echo in your head for days, while filling you with hope and inspiration.

Isn’t it wonderful how just hearing a set of people who you’ve never met or known personally can leave you with such a lasting impression?

Here is a list of 21 famous speeches (and likely the best speeches) that are sure to give you goosebumps :

1. Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address at Stanford University, 2005

The Chairman and Co-Founder of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs delivered an inspiring commencement address at the graduation ceremony of the 114th batch of Stanford University. 13 years later, his speech still holds relevance.

In a span of 15 minutes, Jobs imparted crucial life lessons through 3 stories that were inspired from his personal experiences. From love and loss to the inevitability of death – his words resonated with people of all ages.

Ending on a high note, he advised the audience to “stay hungry, stay foolish” – a phrase that became synonymous with Steve Jobs and till today, drives people to push themselves to become better versions of themselves.

2. J.K. Rowling’s Commencement Address at Harvard University, 2008

Author J.K Rowling who is best known for the Harry Potter book series delivered an empowering speech to the graduating class at Harvard University in 2008. Her speech was centered around two key points.

First being the benefits of failure and how there can be no success without it. Second, was the power of imagination and how we carry all the power in ourselves to change the world.

Even though J.K Rowling might have touched upon topics that we have been listening to or reading about for years, her knack of putting it together so perfectly strikes a chord like nothing else.

3. Jim Carrey’s Commencement Address at Maharishi University, 2014

Jim Carrey, who is known for his splendid comic timing and exceptional performances, took everyone by surprise at the graduation ceremony of the class of 2014 at Maharishi University wherein he delivered an inspiring speech with such aplomb.

In his life-changing advice wrapped in wit and humor, he speaks of fear, failure and the importance of doing what we love.

4. Barack Obama’s Election Victory Speech, 2008

Who doesn’t remember Obama chant “Yes we can!” as the entire world looked on and watched him inspire and instill national pride in the people of the United States of America.

One of the most powerful speeches of recent times, Barack Obama’s election victory speech in 2008 marked a historic moment that brought hope, promised change and responsibility, in the anticipation of a better future.

5. Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech, 1963

On 28th August 1963, Martin Luther King delivered one of the most iconic speeches in history during the March on Washington in front of over 250,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial.

An American activist, Martin spoke with utmost clarity and purpose as he made a plea for racial equality and justice through this speech. The words “I have a dream” reiterated his vision of what America could be – a country that breaks away from the shackles of discrimination.

6. Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Do or Die Speech, 1942

Talking about orators, one cannot leave Mahatma Gandhi out from the list. Gandhi, the pioneer of non-violence launched the Quit India movement to demand India’s freedom from the 200-year British colonial rule wherein he announced the slogan – Do or Die, with determination.

His speech oozed infectious passion which went on to inspire India to fight for freedom or die in the process.

7. Nelson Mandela’s ‘I Am Prepared to Die’ Speech, 1964

The torchbearer of Africa’s freedom, Nelson Mandela fought all his life against apartheid. During his 3-hour long speech as a defendant at the Rivonia trial, he uttered the powerful words “I am prepared to die” which showed how he was willing to go to any length to grant equality to the people of Africa.

Even though he got imprisoned for 27 years shortly after, his speech did leave a tremendous impact.

8. Ellen DeGeneres’ Commencement Address at Tulane University, 2009

The multi-talented Ellen DeGeneres never fails to disappoint with whatever she does and the same can be said about her commencement address at Tulane University, where she shared her experiences and learning with the graduating class.

From quoting Lady Gaga to speaking about the major turning points in her life – Ellen kept the audience hooked with her uplifting speech.

9. Michelle Obama’s Commencement Address at Eastern Kentucky University, 2013

Michelle Obama addressed the 2013 graduating class of Eastern Kentucky University. She challenged the graduates to seek and learn from different perspectives and turn their weaknesses into strengths, just the way she did.

She also highlighted the importance of volunteering in community services and the impact it has on our lives.

10. Sheryl Sandberg’s Commencement Address at Harvard Business School, 2012

Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg imparted wisdom to the graduating class of 2012 of Harvard Business School.

While drawing parallels to her own experiences, Sheryl shared observations and precious advice with the students. She ended the speech on a humorous note as she said,

“Tomorrow, you get something that Mark Zuckerberg does not have. A Harvard degree.”

11. Oprah Winfrey’s Commencement Address at Harvard University, 2013

Oprah Winfrey is known to stir people’s emotions and motivate them with her powerful words. During her commencement address at Harvard, she emphasized on learning from mistakes and embracing failure, while reflecting on the setbacks she faced. Her encouraging words serve as a reminder to never let failure bog you down.

12. Bill Gates’ Commencement Address at Harvard Business School, 2007

Microsoft founder, Bill Gates addressed Harvard Business School’s class of 2007, urging them to change the world, eradicate poverty and tackle inequality. He emphasized on the role of technology in putting an end to global issues and encouraged students to take risks and not get intimidated by ‘complexities’.

13. Malala Yousafzai’s Address at the UN Youth Takeover, 2013

Activist Malala Yousafzai is an inspiration to many and her speech at the first ever UN Youth Takeover further reinforces that.

Malala, who was just 16 years old then, stunned the audience with her powerful and moving take on the right to quality education. Having seen difficult times during her childhood, she was determined to fight for what she believed in and inspire a change.

14. Winston Churchill’s ‘We Shall Fight on the Beaches’ Speech, 1940

Another famous speech is that delivered by Winston Churchill, on 4th June 1940 to the House of Commons. The speech was meant to instill courage in the people during World War II, while the threat of Nazi invasion loomed over England.

He kept his speech concise, realistic and to the point as he reminded everyone about the strength and perseverance England has always exhibited.

15. Hillary Clinton’s Address at the Women in The World Summit, 2015

Calling women the ‘agents of change’, Hillary Clinton delivered a passionate speech at the Women in the World summit, speaking about the struggles women face in all walks of life due to unequal rights.

While remaining optimistic about seeing a positive change in future, she spoke about issues that often go overlooked such as equal pay, reproductive rights, paid maternity leave, living wage, LGBTQ rights, affordable child care among others.

16. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 1863

The Gettysburg Address, delivered by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, is known as one of the greatest speeches in the world and makes a fundamental part of American history.

In just 272 words, Lincoln made valid arguments surrounding equality and concluded with the famous line,

“government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

17. Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Your Elusive Creative Genius’ TED Talk, 2009

Known for the international bestseller, ‘Eat, Pray, love’, Elizabeth Gilbert gave an inspiring TED Talk wherein she shared her wisdom on creativity.

She spoke about the pressures it comes with and how one can go beyond what society says and connect with the ‘genius’ that resides in each one of us.

18. Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Tryst with Destiny’ Speech, 1947

The first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru addressed India on the eve of independence with the speech, Tryst with Destiny. This historic speech celebrated the non-violent victory, acknowledging the struggle that had gone behind it and the belief he has in India, as a powerful, independent nation.

19. Mark Zuckerberg’s Commencement Address at Harvard University, 2017

The Founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg addressed the 2017 graduating class of Harvard University.

Being a Harvard dropout, Mark commenced the speech by recalling his times spent at Harvard and how they shaped him. His thought-provoking talk highlighted the importance of purpose – finding our own and creating one for others. He left the audience with practical advice that ranged from tackling global issues to building communities.

20. Gloria’s Steinem’s Women’s March Speech, 2017

Feminist icon, Gloria Steinem, addressed over 500,000 women who gathered at the Women’s March in Washington DC, with fearlessness and conviction.

She took on topics plaguing the society such as the role of women in the world and equal rights, while sending a bold message to the government to not undermine the power of women.

21. Denzel Washington’s Commencement Address at University of Pennsylvania, 2011

“Fall forward,” – the two words that encompassed Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington’s commencement address at University of Pennsylvania in 2011. He encouraged students to take failure in the right spirit and never let it discourage them. He beautifully summarized why we must embrace failure, while recalling experiences during his growing up days.

Final Thoughts

Even though these best speeches stem from different premises, what binds them together is the wonderful feeling they leave you with.

Each of these famous short speeches contains the power to strike an emotional chord and help you find your feet amidst all the chaos. So, take a page from their books and let their words inspire you to keep going and never lose hope.

More Inspiring Thoughts

• 20 Most Inspiring TED Talks Of All Time You Should Not Miss
• 15 Inspiring Ideas to Boost Your Motivation for Success
• 50 Positive Quotes for Work That Will Put Your Motivation on Overdrive
• You Are What You Listen To: 11 Podcasts To Inspire Yourself

Featured photo credit: Matthias Wagner via unsplash.com

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Prioritization — Using Your Time & Energy Effectively

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Explore the time flow system.

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FactChecking the Biden-Trump Debate

In the first debate clash of the 2024 campaign, the two candidates unleashed a flurry of false and misleading statements.

By Robert Farley , Eugene Kiely , D'Angelo Gore , Jessica McDonald , Lori Robertson , Catalina Jaramillo , Saranac Hale Spencer and Alan Jaffe

Posted on June 28, 2024

The much-anticipated first debate of 2024 between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump featured a relentless barrage of false and misleading statements from the two candidates on immigration, the economy, abortion, taxes and more.

• Both candidates erred on Social Security, with Biden incorrectly saying that Trump “wants to get rid” of the program, and Trump falsely alleging that Biden will “wipe out” Social Security due to the influx of people at the border.
• Trump misleadingly claimed that he was “the one that got the insulin down for the seniors,” not Biden. Costs were lowered for some under a limited project by the Trump administration. Biden signed a law capping costs for all seniors with Medicare drug coverage.
• Trump warned that Biden “wants to raise your taxes by four times,” but Biden has not proposed anything like that. Trump was also mostly wrong when he said Biden “wants the Trump tax cuts to expire.” Biden said he would extend them for anyone making under $400,000 a year.
• Biden repeated his misleading claim that billionaires pay an average federal tax rate of 8%. That White House calculation factors in earnings on unsold stock as income.
• Trump repeated his false claim that “everybody,” including all legal scholars, wanted to end Roe v. Wade’s constitutional right to abortion.
• Trump falsely claimed that “the only jobs” Biden “created are for illegal immigrants and bounced back jobs that bounced back from the COVID.” Total nonfarm employment is higher than it was before the pandemic, as is the employment level of native-born workers.
• Biden claimed that Trump oversaw the “largest deficit of any president,” while Trump countered that “we now have the largest deficit” under Biden. The largest budget deficit was under Trump in fiscal year 2020, but that was largely because of emergency spending due to COVID-19.
• Biden misleadingly said that “Black unemployment is the lowest level it has been in a long, long time.” The rate reached a record low in April 2023, and it was low under Trump, too, until the pandemic.
• Biden said Trump called U.S. veterans killed in World War I “suckers and losers,” which Trump called a “made up quote.” The Atlantic reported that, based on anonymous sources. A former Trump chief of staff later seemed to confirm Trump said it.
• Trump claimed that Biden “caused the inflation,” but economists say rising inflation was mostly due to disruptions to the economy caused by the pandemic.
• Trump grossly inflated the number of immigrants who have entered the country during the Biden administration — putting the number at 18 million to 20 million — and he said, without evidence, that many of them are from prisons and mental institutions.
• Trump claimed that “we had the safest border in history” in the “final months” of his presidency. But apprehensions of those trying to cross illegally in the last three full months of his presidency were about 50% higher than in the three months before he took office.
• Biden criticized Trump for presiding over a loss of jobs when he was president, but that loss occurred because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Trump falsely claimed that “some states” run by Democrats allow abortions “after birth.” If it happened, it would be homicide, and that’s illegal.
• Trump made the unsupported claim that the U.S. border with Mexico is “the most dangerous place in the world,” and suggested that it has opened the country to a violent crime wave. The data show a reduction in violent crime in the U.S.
• Trump overstated how much food prices have risen due to inflation. Prices are up by about 20%, not double or quadruple. 
• Trump boasted his administration “had the best environmental numbers ever.” Trump reversed nearly 100 environmental rules limiting pollution. Although greenhouse gas emissions did decline from 2019 to 2020, the EPA said that was due to the impacts of the pandemic on travel and the economy.   
• Biden said he joined the Paris Agreement because “if we reach the 1.5 degrees Celsius, and then … there’s no way back.” Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees would reduce the damages and losses of global warming, but scientists agree that climate action is still possible after passing the threshold.
• Trump said immigrants crossing the border illegally were living in “luxury hotels.” New York City has provided hotel and motel rooms to migrant families, but there is no evidence that they are being placed in “luxury” hotels. 
• Trump falsely claimed that there was “no terrorism, at all” in the U.S. during his administration. There were several terrorist acts carried out by foreign-born individuals when he was president.
• While talking about international trade, Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. currently has “the largest deficit with China.” In 2023, the trade deficit in goods and services with China was the lowest it has been since 2009.
• Trump wrongly claimed that prior to the pandemic, he had created “the greatest economy in the history of our country.” That’s far from true using economists’ preferred measure — growth in gross domestic product.
• As he has many times before, Trump wrongly claimed, “I gave you the largest tax cut in history.” That’s not true either as a percentage of gross domestic product or in inflation-adjusted dollars.
• Trump contrasted his administration with Biden’s by misleadingly noting that when he left office, the U.S. was “energy independent.” The U.S. continues to export more energy than it imports.

The debate was hosted by CNN in Atlanta on June 27.

Social Security

Biden claimed that Trump “wants to get rid” of Social Security, even though the former president has consistently said he will not cut the program and has advised Republicans against doing so.

Earlier this year, Biden and his campaign based the claim on Trump saying in a  March 11 CNBC interview  that “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements.” As  we’ve said , in context, instead of reducing benefits, Trump was talking about cutting waste and fraud in those programs — although there’s not enough of that to make the program solvent over the long term.

“I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare,” Trump later said in a  March 13 Breitbart interview . “We’ll have to do it elsewhere. But we’re not going to do anything to hurt them.”

During the GOP presidential primary, Trump also  criticized  some of his Republican opponents for proposing to raise the retirement age for Social Security, which budget experts  have said  would reduce scheduled benefits for those affected.

Some critics of Trump have  argued  that he cannot be expected to keep his promise because of his past budget proposals. But,  as we’ve written , Trump did not propose cuts to Social Security retirement benefits.

Meanwhile, Trump claimed during the debate that Biden “is going to single handedly destroy Social Security” because of illegal immigration. “These millions and millions of people coming in, they’re trying to put them on Social Security. He will wipe out Social Security,” Trump said of Biden.

As  we  and  others  have explained before, immigrants who are not authorized to be in the U.S. aren’t eligible for Social Security. In fact, because many such individuals pay into Social Security via payroll taxes but cannot receive benefits, illegal immigrants bolster rather than drain the finances of the program.

In referring to what seniors pay for insulin, Trump misleadingly claimed, “I heard him say before ‘insulin.’ I’m the one that got the insulin down for the seniors. I took care of the seniors.” Insulin costs went down for some beneficiaries under a limited project under Trump; Biden signed a more expansive law affecting all seniors with Medicare drug coverage.

Under Trump, out-of-pocket costs were lowered to $35 for some Medicare Part D beneficiaries under a two-year pilot project in which some insurers could voluntarily reduce the cost for some insulin products. KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research organization,  explained  earlier this month that under this model, in effect from 2021 to 2023, “participating Medicare Part D prescription drug plans covered at least one of each dosage form and type of insulin product at no more than $35 per month,” and “less than half of all Part D plans chose to participate in each year.”

But in 2022, Biden  signed a law  that required all Medicare prescription drug plans to cap all insulin products at $35. The law also capped the out-of-pocket price for insulin that’s covered under Medicare Part B, which covers drugs administered in a health care provider’s office. The caps went into effect last year.

STAT, a news site that covers health care issues,  reported  that the idea for a $35 cap for seniors initially came from Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical company, which proposed it in 2019.

Trump on Biden Tax Plan

“He’s the only one I know he wants to raise your taxes by four times,” Trump said of Biden. “He wants to raise everybody’s taxes by four times. He wants the Trump tax cuts to expire. So everybody … [is] going to pay four to five times –  nobody ever heard of this before.”

Trump regularly warns of massive tax hikes for “everybody,” should Biden be reelected. That doesn’t jibe with anything Biden has proposed.

In his more than three years as president, Biden’s  major tax changes  have included setting a  minimum corporate tax rate  of 15% and lowering taxes for some families by  expanding the child tax credit  and, for a time, making it fully refundable, meaning families could still receive a refund even if they no longer owe additional taxes.

As  we wrote  in 2020, when Trump made a similar claim, Biden proposed during that campaign to raise an additional $4 trillion in taxes over the next decade, although the increases would have fallen mainly on very high-income earners and corporations. The plan would not have doubled or tripled people’s taxes at any income level (on average), according to analyses of Biden’s plan by the  Penn Wharton Budget Model ,  the Tax Policy Center  and  the Tax Foundation .

In March 2023, the TPC’s Howard Gleckman  wrote  that Biden proposed a 2024 budget that would, on average, increase after-tax incomes for low-income households and “leave them effectively unchanged for middle-income households.” The Tax Policy Center noted, “The top 1 percent, with at least roughly $1 million in income, would pay an average of $300,000 more than under current law, dropping their after-tax incomes by 14 percent.”

This March, Biden released his  fiscal year 2025 budget , which contains many of the same proposals and adds a few new wrinkles. But it still  does not contain  any “colossal tax hikes” on typical American families, as Trump has said.

Biden’s latest plan proposes — as he has in the past — to increase the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 28%, and to  restore  the top individual tax rate of 39.6% from the current rate of 37%. It would also increase the corporate minimum tax rate from 15% to 21% for companies that report average profits in excess of $1 billion over a three-year period. And the plan would impose a 25% minimum tax on very wealthy individuals. The plan also proposes to extend the expanded child tax credit enacted in the American Rescue Plan through 2025, and to make the child tax credit fully refundable on a permanent basis.

Trump is also mostly wrong that Biden “wants the Trump tax cuts to expire.”

As he has said since the 2020 campaign, Biden’s FY 2025 budget vows not to increase taxes on people earning less than $400,000.

In order to keep that pledge, Biden would have to extend most of the individual income tax provisions enacted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that are set to expire at the end of 2025. And that’s what Biden says he would do — but  only for  individual filers earning less than $400,000 and married couples making less than $450,000. (In order to pass the TCJA with a simple Senate majority, Republicans wrote the law to have most of the individual income tax changes  expire after 2025 .)

The Biden budget plan “would raise marginal income tax rates faced by higher earners and corporations while expanding tax credits for lower-income households,” according to a Tax Foundation  analysis  of the tax provisions in Biden’s budget. “The budget would redistribute income from high earners to low earners. The bottom 60 percent of earners would see increases in after-tax income in 2025, while the top 40 percent of earners would see decreases.”

Biden on Taxes Paid by Billionaires

In arguing that wealthy households should pay a minimum tax, Biden repeated his misleading claim that billionaires pay an average federal tax rate of 8%.

“We have a thousand … billionaires in America, and what’s happening?”  Biden said . “They’re in a situation where they in fact pay 8.2% in taxes.”

That’s not the average rate in the current tax system; it’s a figure  calculated  by the White House and factors in earnings on unsold stock as income. When only considering income, the top-earning taxpayers, on average, pay higher tax rates than those in lower income groups, as  we’ve written  before.

The top 0.1% of earners pay an average rate of 25.1% in federal income and payroll taxes,  according to  an analysis by the Tax Policy Center in October 2022 for the 2023 tax year.

The point that Biden tried to make is that earnings on assets, such as stock, currently are not taxed until that asset is sold, which is when the earnings become subject to capital gains taxes. Until stocks and assets are sold, the earnings are referred to as “unrealized” gains. Unrealized gains, the White House  has argued , could go untaxed forever if wealthy people hold on to them and transfer them on to heirs when they die.

Roe v. Wade

As he has  before , Trump wildly exaggerated the popularity of ending Roe v. Wade — even going so far as to claim that it was “something that everybody wanted.”

“51 years ago, you had Roe v. Wade and everybody wanted to get it back to the states,”  he said , referring to the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion, which was  overturned  in 2022.

Trump:  Everybody, without exception: Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives. Everybody wanted it back — religious leaders. And what I did is I put three great Supreme Court justices on the court and they happened to vote in favor of killing Roe v. Wade, and moving it back to the states. This is something that everybody wanted. Now 10 years ago or so they started talking about how many weeks and how many this and getting into other things. But every legal scholar throughout the world — the most respected — wanted it brought back to the states. I did that.

In fact, a majority of Americans have disagreed with ending Roe v. Wade, including plenty of legal scholars, as we’ve explained  before . While some scholars criticized aspects of the legal reasoning in Roe, it did not necessarily mean they wanted the ruling overturned. Legal experts told us that Trump’s claim was “utter nonsense” and “patently absurd.”

Trump Wrong on Jobs

After Biden talked about job creation during his administration, Trump falsely claimed that “the only jobs [Biden] created are for illegal immigrants and bounced back jobs that bounced back from the COVID.”

In fact, as of May,  total nonfarm employment  in the U.S. had gone up about 6.2 million from the pre-pandemic peak in February 2020, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The increase is about 15.6 million if you count from when Biden took office in January 2021 until now — but that would include some jobs that were temporarily lost during the pandemic and then came back during the economic recovery.

Furthermore, there is no evidence that only “illegal immigrants” have seen employment gains.

Since Biden became president in January 2021, employment of U.S.-born workers has increased more than employment of foreign-born workers, a category that includes anyone who wasn’t a U.S. citizen at birth, as we’ve written before . BLS says the  foreign-born  population includes “legally-admitted immigrants, refugees, temporary residents such as students and temporary workers, and undocumented immigrants.” There is no employment breakdown for just people in the U.S. illegally.

In looking at employment since the pre-pandemic peak, the employment level of  foreign-born workers  was up by about 3.2 million, from roughly 27.7 million in February 2020 to nearly 30.9 million in May. Employment for the  U.S.-born population  increased by about 125,000 — from nearly 130.3 million in February 2020 to 130.4 million, as of May.

Conflicting Budget Deficit Claims

Biden and Trump accused each other of presiding over the largest budget deficit in the U.S.

After talking about Trump’s plans for additional tax cuts, Biden said Trump already had the “largest deficit of any president in American history.” When he got a chance to respond, Trump said, “We now have the largest deficit in the history of our country under this guy,” referring to Biden.

Biden is correct: The  largest budget deficit  on record was about $3.1 trillion in fiscal year 2020 under Trump. However, that was  primarily  because of trillions of dollars in emergency funding that both congressional Republicans and Democrats approved to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, the largest budget deficit under Trump was about $1 trillion in fiscal 2019.

Meanwhile, the most recent budget deficit under Biden was about $1.7 trillion in fiscal 2023. As of June, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office  projected  that the deficit for fiscal 2024, which ends on Sept. 30, would be about $2 trillion.

Black Unemployment

Biden boasted that on his watch, “Black unemployment is the lowest level it has been in a long, long time.”

It’s true that the unemployment rate for Black or African American people reached a record low of 4.8% in April 2023, but it is currently 6.1%,  according to  the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has data going back to 1972.

Also, the unemployment rate was low under Trump, too, until the pandemic.

Under Trump, the  unemployment rate for Black Americans  went down to 5.3% in August 2019 – the lowest on record at that time. It shot up to 16.9% in April 2020, when the economic effects of the pandemic took hold. When Trump left office in January 2021, amid the pandemic, the rate was 9.3%.

The rate has been 6% or less in only 29 months since 1972, and it happened only under two presidents: 21 times under Biden and eight times under Trump.

‘Suckers and Losers’

Biden  said  Trump called U.S. veterans killed in World War I “suckers and losers,” which Trump called a “made up quote … that was in a third-rate magazine.”

It was first reported by a magazine — the Atlantic — but Trump’s former chief of staff,  John F. Kelly , a retired four-star Marine general, later seemed to confirm it.

Biden was referring to a trip Trump made to France in November 2018, where he reportedly declined to visit the  Aisne-Marne American Cemetery  near the location of the Battle of Belleau Wood. “He was standing with his four-star general and he told him, ‘I don’t want to go in there because they’re a bunch of losers and suckers.’”

The Atlantic  wrote  about this alleged incident in 2020, citing unnamed sources. The magazine wrote that Trump made his remark about “losers” when he declined to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, and his remark about “suckers” during that same trip.

The Atlantic, Sept. 3, 2020:  In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.

In October 2023, Kelly – who was on that trip and visited the Aisne-Marne Cemetery — gave a  statement to CNN  that seemed to confirm those remarks. CNN published Kelly’s statement.

CNN, Oct. 3, 2023:  “What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.”

Trump said, “We had 19 people who said I didn’t say it.” One of those who said that he didn’t hear Trump make those remarks is John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser who was also on the trip and said he was there when the decision was made not to visit the cemetery.

“I didn’t hear that,” Bolton  told the New York Times  in 2020 after the magazine story first appeared. “I’m not saying he didn’t say them later in the day or another time, but I was there for that discussion.”

Biden Misleads on Jobs

Biden ignored the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic when he criticized Trump for employment going down over Trump’s time in office.

“He’s the only president other than Herbert Hoover that lost more jobs than he had when he began,” Biden said.

Job growth during Trump’s term was positive until the economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April 2020, as efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus led to business closures and layoffs. By the time Trump left office in January 2021, employment had partly rebounded, but was still 9.4 million jobs below the February 2020 peak,  according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics .

Trump repeatedly claimed that Biden “caused the inflation” and that “I gave him a country with no essentially no inflation. It was perfect. It was so good.”

It’s true that inflation was relatively modest when Trump was president. The  Consumer Price Index rose 7.6%  under Trump’s four years — continuing a long period of low inflation. And inflation has been high over the entirety of Biden’s time in office. The  Consumer Price Index  for all items rose 19.3% between January 2021 and May.

For a time, it was the worst inflation in decades. The 12 months ending in June 2022 saw a 9% increase in the CPI (before seasonal adjustment), which the  Bureau of Labor Statistics said  was the biggest such increase since the 12 months ending in November 1981.

Inflation has moderated more recently. The CPI  rose  3.3% in the 12 months ending in May, the most recent figure available.

Although Trump claims that Biden is entirely responsible for massive inflation, economists  we have spoken to  say Biden’s policies are only partly to blame. The economists placed the lion’s share of the blame for inflation on disruptions to the economy caused by the pandemic, including supply shortages, labor issues and increased consumer spending on goods. Inflation was then worsened by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which drove up oil and gas prices, experts told us.

Indeed, inflation has been a  worldwide problem  post-pandemic.

However, many economists say Biden’s policies — particularly aggressive stimulus spending early in his presidency to offset some of the economic damage caused by the pandemic — played a modest role.

Jason Furman , a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama and now a Harvard University professor, told us in June 2022 that he estimated about 1 to 4 percentage points worth of the inflation was due to Biden’s stimulus spending in the  American Rescue Plan  — a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief measure that included $1,400 checks to most Americans; expanded unemployment benefits; and money for schools, small businesses and states.  Mark Zandi , chief economist of Moody’s — whose work is often cited by the White House — said the impact of the stimulus measure now “has largely faded.”

Economists note that the American Rescue Plan came after two other pandemic stimulus laws enacted under Trump that were  worth  a  total  of $3.1 trillion. That spending, too, could have contributed to inflation.

Immigrants Entering U.S. Under Biden

Trump grossly inflated the number of immigrants who have entered the country during the Biden administration — putting the number at 18 million to 20 million. The number, by our calculation, is about a third of that. Trump also claimed, without evidence, that many of those immigrants are from prisons and mental institutions.

“It could be 18, it could be 19, and even 20 million people,” Trump said of the immigrants who have entered the U.S. during the Biden administration. Later in the debate, Trump asked Biden why there had been no accountability “for allowing 18 million people many from prisons, many from mental institutions” into the country.

That’s a greatly exaggerated number. We took a deep dive into the immigration numbers  in February , and again in  mid-June , and we came up with an estimate of at most a third of Trump’s number.

Here’s the breakdown:

Department of Homeland Security data show nearly 8 million encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border between February 2021, the month after Biden took office, and May, the last month of available  statistics . That’s a figure that includes both the 6.9 million apprehensions of migrants caught between legal ports of entry – the number typically used for illegal immigration – and nearly 1.1 million encounters of migrants who arrived at ports of entry without authorization to enter the U.S.

DHS also has comprehensive data, through February, of the initial processing of these encounters. That information shows 2.9 million were removed by Customs and Border Protection and 3.2 million were released with notices to appear in immigration court or report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the future, or other classifications, such as parole. (Encounters do not represent the total number of people, because some people attempt multiple crossings. For example, the recidivism rate was 27% in fiscal year 2021,  according to the most recent figures  from CBP.) 

As  we’ve explained before , there are also estimates for “gotaways,” or migrants who crossed the border illegally and evaded the authorities. Based on an average annual apprehension rate of 78%, which DHS provided to us, that would mean there were an estimated 1.8 million gotaways from February 2021 to February 2024. The gotaways plus those released with court notices or other designations would total about 5 million.

There were also 407,500 transfers of unaccompanied children to the Department of Health and Human Services and 883,000 transfers to ICE. The ICE transfers include those who are then booked into ICE custody, enrolled in “ alternatives to detention ” (which include technological monitoring) or released by ICE. We don’t know how many of those were released into the country with a court notice. But even if we include those figures, it still doesn’t get us to anywhere near 18 to 20 million.

And we should note that these figures do not reflect whether a migrant may ultimately be allowed to stay or will be deported, particularly since there is a yearslong backlog of immigration court cases.

Also, as we have  written   repeatedly , Trump has provided no credible support for his incendiary claim that countries are emptying their prisons and mental institutions and sending those people to the U.S. Experts tell us they have seen no evidence to substantiate it.

Earlier this month, we looked into  Trump’s claim as it relates to Venezuela, because Trump has repeatedly cited a drop in crime there to support his claim about countries emptying their prisons and sending inmates to the U.S. Reported crime is trending down in Venezuela, but crime experts in the country say there are numerous reasons for that — including an enormous out-migration of citizens and a consolidation of gang activity — and they have nothing to do with sending criminals to the U.S.

“We have no evidence that the Venezuelan government is emptying the prisons or mental hospitals to send them out of the country, whether to the USA or any other country,” Roberto Briceño-León, founder and director of the independent Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, told us.

Border Under Trump

Trump claimed that “we had the safest border in history” in the “final months” of his presidency, according to Border Patrol. But according to  data  provided by Customs and Border Protection, apprehensions of those trying to cross illegally into the U.S. in the last three full months of Trump’s presidency were about 50% higher than in the  three months  before he took office.

In fact, as we wrote in our piece, “ Trump’s Final Numbers ,” illegal border crossings, as measured by  apprehensions at the southwest border , were 14.7% higher in Trump’s final year in office compared with the last full year before he was sworn in.

But these statistics tell only part of the story. The number of apprehensions fluctuated wildly during Trump’s presidency, from a  monthly  low of 11,127 in April 2017 to a high of 132,856 in May 2019.

Back in April,  we wrote  about a misleading chart that Trump showed to the crowd during a speech in Green Bay, Wisconsin. “See the arrow on the bottom? That was my last week in office,” Trump said. “That was the lowest number in history.” But Trump was wrong on both points.

The arrow was pointing to apprehensions in April 2020, when apprehensions plummeted during the height of the pandemic.

“The pandemic was responsible for a near-complete halt to all forms of global mobility in 2020, due to a combination of border restrictions imposed by countries around the world,”  Michelle Mittelstadt , director of communications for the Migration Policy Institute, told us.

After apprehensions reached a pandemic low in April 2020, they rose every month after that. In his last months in office, apprehensions had more than quadrupled from that pandemic low and were higher than the month he took office.

Trump falsely claimed that “some states” run by Democrats allow abortions “after birth.” As  we have written , that’s simply false. If it happened, it would be  homicide , and that’s  illegal .

“No such procedure exists,” the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists  says  on its website.

The former president  has wrongly said  that abortions after birth were permitted under Roe v. Wade — the Supreme Court ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion until it was  reversed  in 2022. It was not.

Under Roe, states could outlaw abortion after fetal viability, but with exceptions for risks to the life or health of the mother. Many Republicans  have objected  to the health stipulation, saying it would allow abortion for any reason. Democrats say exceptions are needed to protect the mother from medical risks. We should note, late-term abortions  are rare . According to the  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , less than 1% of abortions in the U.S. in 2020 were performed after 21 weeks gestational time.

In June 2022, after Trump had appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, the court  overturned  Roe in a 5-4 ruling. Biden  supports  restoring Roe as “the law of the land,” as he said in his State of the Union address in March.

Trump Calls Border ‘The Most Dangerous Place’

In his focus on the U.S. border with Mexico, Trump  made  the unsupported claim that it is “the most dangerous place in the world.”

It’s true that unauthorized border crossings  can be dangerous  — 895 people died while doing so in fiscal year 2022, which is the most recent year for which the Customs and Border Protection has  data . Most of those deaths were heat related.

And the International Organization for Migration called calendar year 2022 “the deadliest year on record” for migration in the Americas, with a total of 1,457 fatalities throughout South America, Central America, North America and the Caribbean. The organization began tracking deaths and disappearances related to migration in 2014.

“Most of these fatalities are related to the lack of options for safe and regular mobility, which increases the likelihood that people see no other choice but to opt for irregular migration routes that put their lives at risk,” the organization said in its  2022 report .

Trump suggested that the border crossings imperil Americans when he went on to say, “these killers are coming into our country, and they are raping and killing women.”

But, as  we’ve written before , FBI data show a downward trend in violent crime in the U.S., and there’s no evidence to support the claim that there’s been a crime wave driven by immigrants.

Crime analyst Jeff Asher, co-founder of the New Orleans firm  AH Datalytics , told us in May that there’s no evidence in the data to indicate a migrant crime wave.

Similarly, Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice,  told the New York Times  in February there was no evidence of a migrant crime wave in New York City after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing migrants there in April 2022.

“I would interpret a ‘wave’ to mean something significant, meaningful and a departure from the norm,” Butts said at the time. “So far, what we have are individual incidents of crime.”

Also, it’s worth noting that the Institute for Economics and Peace’s  Global Peace Index  — which measures the safety of 163 countries based on 23 indicators, including violent crime, deaths from internal conflict and terrorism — said the “least peaceful country” is Afghanistan, followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In discussing inflation, the former president embellished the degree to which food prices have increased.

“It’s killing people. They can’t buy groceries anymore,” Trump said. “You look at the cost of food, where it’s doubled, tripled and quadrupled. They can’t live.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index for food has  gone up 17.5%  — not 100% to 300% — since January 2021. The Consumer Price Index specifically for groceries, or “food at home,” has  risen 20.8% .

Climate Change

During a short exchange about climate change, Trump boasted that during his tenure “we had the best environmental numbers ever.” It is not clear what he was referring to exactly, but he said if elected president he wanted to have “absolutely immaculate clean water and I want absolutely clean air — and we had it.” He might have been referring to a talking point that Andrew Wheeler, Trump’s former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, had recommended Trump mention during the debate: “CO2 emissions went down” during his administration, as  the Hill reported . 

Greenhouse gas emissions, which are responsible for global warming,  did decline  from 2019 to 2020. But that was “largely due to the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on travel and economic activity,” according to the EPA. Emissions increased by 5.7% from 2020 to 2022, once the economy started getting reactivated again, the agency said. 

According to an  analysis by the New York Times , Trump’s administration reversed nearly 100 environmental rules, including 28 regulations on air pollution and emissions, and eight rules that limited water pollution. Reportedly, Trump  recently asked  oil executives and lobbyists to donate to his campaign, promising he would roll back other environmental rules that hurt fossil fuel interests. 

“He’s not done a damn thing for the environment,” Biden said in response, pointing out that Trump had  pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement . “I immediately joined it because if we reach the 1.5 degrees Celsius … there’s no way back,” Biden said. 

As  we’ve reported , although reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, of warming comes with a number of very serious impacts, it is not a point of no return. Scientists agree that every increment of global warming increases these negative impacts, but 1.5 degrees is not a magic number after which everything is doomed, they say. 

Immigrants Living in Hotels

During the debate, Trump  mentioned   twice  that while immigrants crossing the border illegally were “living in luxury hotels,” in New York City and other cities “our veterans are living in the street.”

While it is true that New York City has  provided   hotel   rooms  to migrant families as a temporary shelter solution, there is no evidence that immigrants are being placed in “luxury” hotels. 

In 2023, Mayor Eric Adams  signed  a $275 million contract with the Hotel Association of New York City to house 5,000 migrants. The deal was intended to help  struggling hotels  impacted by the pandemic and did not expect to include luxury hotels. “There are no gold-plated rooms that are being given away contrary to any reports that you may have seen,” the association president  told NY1  at the time. In January, the city  signed  another $77 million contract to shelter migrant families in hotels. 

In April, social media posts falsely claimed immigrants had stormed New York City Hall to demand luxury hotel accommodations. But as the  Associated Press reported , the immigrants were there for a hearing about racial inequities in shelter and immigrant services. 

In 2023, the number of veterans experiencing homelessness increased 7.4% from 2022, according to  data  from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But homelessness among veterans has been declining in recent years, with a 4% overall reduction within the last three years alone. 

Terrorist Attacks Under Trump

While talking about Iran and terrorism, Trump falsely claimed that “you had no terror, at all, during my administration.” As  we’ve written , there were several acts of terrorism carried out by foreign-born individuals when Trump was in office.

For example, in October 2017, Sayfullo Saipov  used  a truck to run down people in New York City. He killed eight people,  including  Americans and tourists, in an attack carried out on behalf of the Islamic State.

Then in December 2017, Akayed Ullah  detonated  a homemade pipe bomb he was wearing inside a New York City subway station. Ullah  told  authorities he did it in response to U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria and other places.

Then in  December 2019 , Second Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a member of the Royal Saudi Air Force, shot 11 people at Florida’s Naval Air Station Pensacola, killing three U.S. sailors. Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr,  called  it an act of terrorism in January 2020. “The evidence shows that the shooter was motivated by jihadist ideology,” Barr said in a statement.

China Trade Deficit

When discussing U.S. trade relations with China, Trump said “we have the largest deficit with China.” That’s false, as  we’ve written .

In 2023, the U.S. had a trade deficit with China in goods and services of roughly $252 billion,  according to  revised figures the Bureau of Economic Analysis  released  in early June. The deficit in goods trading was about $279 billion which was partially offset by a roughly $27 billion surplus in the trading of  services  — which can include travel, transportation, finance and intellectual property.

The trade gap with China last year was the lowest it had been since 2009, when it was $220 billion.

In fact, according to BEA data going back to 1999, the highest total U.S.-China trade deficit in goods and services was about $378 billion in 2018 — when Trump was president. Under Biden, the highest trade deficit with China was $366 billion in 2022.

Not ‘Greatest Economy’ Under Trump

Trump falsely said that prior to the pandemic, the U.S. had “the greatest economy in the history of our country. … Everything was locked in good.”

Trump’s boast about creating the “greatest economy in history” is ubiquitous in his campaign speeches. And it’s not true, at least not by the objective measure typically used to gauge the health of the economy.

As  we have written , economists generally measure a nation’s health by the growth of its  inflation-adjusted gross domestic product . Under Trump, growth was modest. Real GDP in Trump’s four years grew annually by 2.5% in 2017, 3% in 2018 and 2.5% in 2019 — before the economy went into a tailspin during the pandemic in 2020, when real GDP declined by 2.2%,  according to  the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

So, in the best year under Trump, U.S. real GDP grew annually by 3%. By contrast, the nation’s economy grew at a faster annual rate  48 times  and under every president before and after Trump dating to 1930, except Barack Obama and Herbert Hoover. The economy grew at more than 3% six of Ronald Reagan’s eight years, including 7.2% in 1984, and it grew 5% or more 10 times under Franklin D. Roosevelt, including 18.9% in 1942.  Under Biden , the GDP grew by 5.8% in 2021 — a post COVID-19 bounce-back — by 1.9% in 2022 and 2.5% in 2023.

Trump’s Was Not Largest Tax Cut in History

As he has many times before, Trump wrongly claimed, “I gave you the largest tax cut in history.” But saying this over and over, as Trump has for years, doesn’t make it any more true.

As  we have been writing  even before the 2017  Tax Cuts and Jobs Act  was enacted into law, while the law provided tax relief to nearly all Americans, it was not the largest tax cut in U.S. history either as a percentage of gross domestic product (the measure preferred by economists) or in inflation-adjusted dollars.

According to a Tax Policy Center  analysis , the law reduced the individual income taxes owed by Americans by about $1,260 on average in 2018. It also reduced the top corporate tax rate from  35% to 21% , beginning in January 2018.

The law signed by Trump was initially projected to cost $1.49 trillion over 10 years,  according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation . It could end up costing substantially more if individual tax provisions are extended past 2025. Over the first four years, the average annual cost was estimated to be $185 billion. That was about 0.9% of  gross domestic product  in 2018.

That’s nowhere close to President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cut, which was 2.89% of GDP over a four-year average. That’s according to a  2013 Treasury Department analysis  on the revenue effects of major tax legislation. Five more tax measures since 1940 had an impact larger than 1% of GDP, and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget  includes  a 1921 measure as also being larger than the 2017 plan. That’s eighth place for Trump’s “biggest tax cut in our history.”

In inflation-adjusted dollars, the Trump-era tax cut is also less than the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which comes in at No. 1 with a $320.6 billion cost over a four-year average. And it’s less than tax reductions in 2010 ($210 billion) and 1981 ($208 billion).

Energy Independence

Trump boasted, as he  often does , that “on Jan. 6 [2021], we were energy independent,” implying that’s no longer the case under Biden. But by Trump’s definition, the country remains energy independent.

To be clear, under Trump, the U.S. never stopped  importing  sources of energy,  including crude oil , from other countries. What he likely means is that the country either  produced  more energy than it consumed, or  exported  more energy than it imported. During Trump’s presidency, after years trending in that direction, the U.S. did hit a tipping point where exports of primary energy exceeded energy imports from foreign sources in 2019 and 2020 — the first times that had happened since 1952,  according to  the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

But contrary to Trump’s suggestion, that has continued in the Biden presidency. The U.S., during Biden’s presidency, has  exported  more energy,  including petroleum , than it imported, and it has  produced  more energy than it consumed. Also, the U.S. is producing record amounts of  oil  and  natural gas  under Biden.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through  our “Donate” page . If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, 202 S. 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104. 

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Robertson, Lori. “ Biden’s Tax Rate Comparison for Billionaires and Schoolteachers .” FactCheck.org. 16 Feb 2023.

“ Average Effective Federal Tax Rates – All Tax Units, By Expanded Cash Income Percentile, 2023 .” Tax Policy Center. 14 Oct 2022.

Goldberg, Jeffrey. “ Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’. ” 3 Sep 2020.

Baker, Peter and Maggie Haberman. “ Trump Faces Uproar Over Reported Remarks Disparaging Fallen Soldiers .” 4 Sep 2020.

Tapper, Jake. “ Exclusive: John Kelly goes on the record to confirm several disturbing stories about Trump .” CNN. 3 Oct 2023.

Leiserson, Greg and Danny Yagan. “ What Is the Average Federal Individual Income Tax Rate on the Wealthiest Americans? ” White House. 23 Sep 2021.

Budryk, Zack. “ Trump posts climate talking points online before debate with Biden ”. The Hill. 27 Jun 2024. 

“ Climate Change Indicators: U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions .” EPA. Updated 27 Jun 2024. 

Popovich, Nadja, et al. “ The Trump Administration Rolled Back More Than 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List. ” The New York Times. 20 Jan 2021. 

Friedman,Lisa, et al. “ At a Dinner, Trump Assailed Climate Rules and Asked $1 Billion From Big Oil. ” The New York Times. 9 May 2024. 

McGrath, Matt. “ Climate change: US formally withdraws from Paris agreement .” BBC. 4 Nov 2020.

Jaramillo, Catalina. “ Warming Beyond 1.5 C Harmful, But Not a Point of No Return, as Biden Claims .” FactCheck.org. 27 Apr 2023. 

Zraick, Karen. “ How Manhattan Hotels Became Refuges for Thousands of Migrants .” New York Times. 23 Mar 2023.

Izaguirre, Anthony. “ New York City limiting migrant families with children to 60-day shelter stays to ease strain on city. ” AP. 16 Oct 2023.

Goldin, Melissa. “ No, immigrants did not storm New York City Hall in pursuit of luxury hotel rooms. ” 17 Apr 2024.

Lazar, David. “ Mayor signs $275 million deal with hotels to house migrants .” Spectrum News NY1. 15 Jan 2023. 

Nahmias, Laura and Fola Akinnibi. “ NYC Pays Over $300 a Night for Budget Hotel Rooms for Migrants .” Bloomberg. 9 Jun 2023. 

Adcroft, Patrick and Spectrum News Staff. “ New York City signs $77M contract with hotels to house migrant families .” Spectrum News. 24 Jan 2024. 

Diaz, Monica. “ Veteran homelessness increased by 7.4% in 2023. ” VA News. 15 Dec 2023.

Robertson, Lori. “ Trump’s False Claim About Roe .” FactCheck.org. 9 Apr 2024.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Food at Home in U.S. City Average . Retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Accessed 27 Jun 2024.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Food in U.S. City Average . Retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Accessed 27 Jun 2024.

Farley, Robert. “ Trump’s Comments About ‘Cutting’ Entitlements in Context .” FactCheck.org. 15 Mar 2024.

Jaffe, Alan. “ Posts Misrepresent Immigrants’ Eligibility for Social Security Numbers, Benefits .” FactCheck.org. 26 Apr 2024.

Kessler, Glenn. “ No, Donald Trump, migrants aren’t ‘killing’ Social Security and Medicare .” Washington Post. 26 Mar 2024.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.  All Employees, Total Nonfarm . Accessed 27 Jun 2024.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.  Employment Level – Foreign Born . Accessed 27 Jun 2024.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.  Employment Level – Native Born . Accessed 27 Jun 2024.

Robertson, Lori and D’Angelo Gore. “ FactChecking Trump’s Immigration-Related Claims in Phoenix and Las Vegas .” 17 June 2024.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.  Federal Surplus or Deficit . Accessed 27 Jun 2024.

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Universities accused of ‘spying’ on student protesters for police

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British universities have been accused of ‘collaborating’ with police to monitor students amid a wave of pro-Palestine protests.

From telling one university the flying of a Palestinian flag on campus does not ‘look well’ on their establishment to expressing worries over the ‘number of foreign students’ admitted at another, police forces have had a ‘cosy’ relationship with university administrators in recent months.

An investigation by Liberty Investigates and Metro.co.uk , the editorially independent journalism wing of the human rights advocacy group Liberty, found universities shared protesters’ data with police despite not being asked to do so.

One University of York student said officers visited her home on November 19 to refer her to the counter-terror programme Prevent because she posted, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ on X at a campus rally.

The phrase dates to the dawn of the Palestinian nationalist movement in the early 1960s. It’s often used by Palestinian activists as a call for freedom between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which is historically Palestine.

Some Jewish groups, however, see the slogan as anti-Semitic. They say it suggests a future without a Jewish state and isn’t clear what role Jews will have in this future.

Only days before she posted, campus security offered to share footage of the protest with police after investigators requested the address of a female picketer who posted the same phrase.

The student and former Turkish journalist, Tugba Iyigun, 43, said: ‘The university claims that they [support] human rights… yet they didn’t take any steps to protect my rights. I am their student and this is a solid attack on my freedom of speech.’

The cases have come to light after Metro.co.uk and Liberty Investigates submitted FOI requests to more than 140 universities for copies of email exchanges with police discussing pro-Palestinian protest activity from October 1 until May 16.

In one email forwarded by North Yorkshire Police to the head of campus safety at York University, a former police officer, said of an unnamed female protester Iyigun believes to be herself: ‘She came to our attention during the anti-monarchy protests during the King’s Visit in York.

‘Is it possible to find out whether she is a current student at the uni please and any address details they hold?’

The force also highlighted that campus protesters had chanted ‘five, six, seven, eight, Israel is a terrorist state’.

On May 21, campus security said it was keeping a log monitoring the ‘general mood/behaviour’ of the York encampment, lamenting senior management’s decision against installing CCTV, the disclosures show.

Earlier that month, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC) neighbourhood policing lead contacted all police forces asking for intelligence on any students ‘replicating American campus protest’, an email sent from Gloucestershire Constabulary to the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester suggests.

Administrators promised to update the police on planned protests after officers pointed out ‘the number of foreign students [it has] enrolled’.

Two Palestinian University of East Anglia (UEA) students also said they were ‘silenced’ when police advised staff that allowing their country’s flag to be raised on campus did not ‘look well on the establishment’.

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By late May, thousands of students across Britain joined the global student-led encampment against Israel’s deadliest war in the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 38,000 people .

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a meeting of vice-chancellors at 17 universities earlier that month, urging them to take a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to anti-Semitism and tackle ‘disruption to students’ learning’.

But protests have rumbled for months since Hamas, which governs the enclave, attacked southern Israel on October 7 in an assault that saw 1,139 people killed and hundreds kidnapped.

‘It’s like I don’t have the freedom to represent myself and my state,’ one of the students said.

Another added: ‘I feel like an outsider now.’

Police also told UEA that a pro-Palestine talk scheduled by student Marxists was ‘one to monitor’.

UEA security requested an officer join their control room to monitor CCTV during a protest held on the university’s open day, emails showed.

A spokesperson for the University of York, which told police it could have footage of the rally if it submitted a Data Protection Act (DPA) request, said: ‘The University did not receive a DPA request regarding personal data of a student, nor did it receive a DPA request for footage of a protest, and therefore no personal data or footage was released to police.

‘The University would only consider the release of this type of information if a DPA request was submitted.’

More than half of the universities that responded to FOI requests said no emails had been exchanged with police. Others failed to respond by the deadline or declined to answer, including several whose handling of encampments has faced criticism from protesters, such as The University of Oxford and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Of the universities that did disclose staff correspondence with police officials, the cache revealed varying degrees of cooperation and intelligence sharing.

Aston University, a research institution in Birmingham, had invited police to discuss how staff could respond to an encampment before threatening a student encampment with legal action.

In June, the students ‘voluntarily’ left their encampment, according to a spokesperson.

A manager at Queen Mary University of London speculated to police that ‘radical elements’ would ‘hijack the momentum’ of campus demonstrations.

‘We are monitoring closely the plans of the students in the encampment and will provide you with the details when they are known,’ they said.

On a separate occasion, the manager informed officers they expected around 200 people would attend an unauthorised protest, saying it ‘posed a public order threat’.

The University of London’s School of Advanced Study and the University of Cambridge’s leadership teams also held meetings with police on how to respond to protests.

Warwick similarly sought advice on ‘Prevent-related issues’ about a Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) diaspora network representative being invited to speak by students. Administrators had also shared Instagram posts promoting pro-Palestine protests with officers.

Prevent is a multi-agency effort to ‘stop individuals becoming terrorists’, according to Counter Terrorism Policing. Yet Amnesty International says the programme ‘disproportionately violates’ the human rights of young minority ethnic people and lacks transparency.

A second FOI request revealed at least 15 universities have taken disciplinary action against staff and students in connection with pro-Palestine protests since October.

A University of Essex student who allegedly shouted ‘Free Palestine’ at a cafe has been accused of ‘exhibiting threatening behaviour and harassment’. Five months on, they are still waiting on a decision for their case.

UEA, City University London and Cranfield University all admitted to sharing student personal data with police forces. Cranfield also referred up to four students to Prevent, according to the findings.

A UEA spokesperson said: ‘The data relates to one incident of criminal damage committed by a student, which the university reported to the police.’

The Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) said the emails lay bare a ‘cosy relationship’ between officers and campus security acting as ‘gatherers of political intelligence’.

Campaigns coordinator Kevin Blowe said: ‘Universities [are] appearing to accept without question the police’s paranoid belief that political activism is a dangerous “outside” influence on the student body, even one “imported” by overseas students.

‘These are profoundly racist assumptions and failing to challenge them is a failure to protect young people from harm.’

A University College Union (UCU) spokesperson described the findings as ‘disturbing’.

‘Evidence of university managers collaborating with the police to target, surveil, and potentially criminalise their own students for peacefully protesting against genocide should ring alarm bells,’ they said.

Most universities named in the investigation said they are committing to protecting and encouraging free speech, often stressing it is a ‘legal obligation’.

The RAU said the university ‘works closely with the local police and, if requested to do so, would provide them with details of any events taking place on our campus’.

Warwick said it ‘regularly works with our local police and our dedicated community safety team to ensure the wellbeing, safety and security of all members of our community’.

A City spokesperson could not comment on the cases but stressed the university has a ‘legal obligation to protect freedom of expression and we take it very seriously’.

Cranfield did not immediately respond to comment but said in a general statement: ‘The safety and wellbeing of students, staff and the wider community is our top priority. Cranfield University takes its responsibilities under the Prevent Duty seriously, while also protecting free speech and academic freedom.’

Aston University said it is ‘committed to providing an inclusive, caring and empowering environment for every member of our community, seeking to ensure that diversity of beliefs and opinions can be expressed freely and openly within the law’

Queen Mary and the Royal Agricultural University did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

North Yorkshire Police said: ‘Anyone has the right to peaceful and lawful protest and the police service’s role is to ensure that they pass peacefully and lawfully while balancing it with the rights of others, minimise disruption and keep people safe.’

An NPCC spokesperson said: ‘UK police have a long history of facilitating peaceful protest and upholding the right to protest, while balancing it with the rights of others keep the public safe, prevent crime and disorder.

‘The guiding principles of policing protests are the safety of protestors, the public and police officers involved, preventing criminal behaviour or disorder and deescalating tensions. 

‘Police officers also seek to find the right balance between the rights of protestors and those of local residents and businesses. Where possible, we will work with event organisers and any other affected groups such as universities to minimise serious disruption to communities and protect critical infrastructure.

‘Officers are accountable in law for the decisions they make and the tactics they use and must be able to justify that their actions are lawful, proportionate and necessary in the circumstances presented”’

The Metropolitan Police declined to comment.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

For more stories like this, check our news page .

MORE : Could a controversial order for ultra-Orthodox men topple Israel’s government?

MORE : Glastonbury headliner proud to support Gaza and is willing to ‘take the backlash’

MORE : Jerry Seinfeld mocks ‘genius’ pro-Palestine heckler for interrupting his comedy show

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Election latest: Rishi Sunak votes as polls open across the UK

Polling stations are open until 10pm. Scroll down to read how to follow Sky's election night coverage.

Thursday 4 July 2024 08:30, UK

• General Election 2024

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• Polling stations open from 7am until 10pm as Britain votes in General Election
• What counts as voter ID?
• Key election day timings
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• How to watch election night coverage on Sky News

There are strict rules broadcasters have to adhere to on polling day, which is why you won't see any political news on the Sky News website or TV.

The rules are there to prevent any influence over how people choose to vote.

Ofcom rules state that any discussion and analysis of election issues must finish when the polls open, which was at 7am today.

Broadcasters are also not allowed to publish the results of any opinion poll on election day, until the polls close at 10pm.

Over the past decade, this has meant that #dogsatpollingstations has become a big deal - in lieu of political news - and because it brings a smile to (most) people's faces.

We are hoping this year voters will bring more unusual animals to polling stations, possibly horses, cats and hamsters - as well as their dogs, of course.

As longstanding followers of election day news output will be aware, photos of dogs at polling stations have become staple feature of coverage as Briton's cast their votes.

Luna the cockapoo is our first dog through the polling station door.

However, she wasn't allowed in at this venue in St Margarets, southwest London, but she waited patiently for her owners outside.

Some polling stations will allow dogs inside, but you should check first.

Guide dogs are always allowed in.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, have been spotted voting at their local polling station in Richmond, Yorkshire.

The couple looked happy as the sun shone down while they voted.

Let's hope they remembered their ID.

It's 7am - polls are officially open in the general election.

Voters will head to polling stations across the United Kingdom to cast their ballots until they close at 10pm.

You will see almost no political coverage from Sky News today - strict rules prevent us from any reporting that could impact the way people vote.

But we will have coverage here in the Politics Hub of the party leaders casting their ballots - and of dogs at polling stations, of course!

At 9pm , chief presenter Kay Burley will anchor Election Night Live , the overnight results programme, from a 360-degree immersive studio normally used by Sky Sports shows like Monday Night Football, alongside our expert team.

And as soon as the polls close  at 10pm , Sky News will bring you the  exit poll  - your first insight into how the general election results could play out, and live coverage of the results throughout the night.

So do join us tonight for the full results of this general election - and don't forget to vote (and bring ID!).

After weeks of campaigning, polls are due to open very soon and voters across the nation will have their say.

Here are the key timings of the day:

7am Thursday : Polls will open across the United Kingdom.

9pm : Sky News’ Election Night Live programme starts ( click here for details on how to watch ).

10pm : Polls will close and counting will begin.

10pm : Broadcasters’ exit poll will be published, giving the first indication of the election.

Around 11.30pm : First seats will be declared.

Around 4.30am Friday : We will likely know for certain who will form the next government.

7am : Sophy Ridge and Sam Coates broadcast the fallout from the election live on Sky News.

The fastest results, the sharpest analysis and an award-winning line up - as the general election unfolds, Sky News will bring you the full story, first.

Whether you want to settle down in front of the TV, stay in the know on the move, or keep updated from work, we'll have live coverage across our platforms to bring you everything as soon as it happens.

We'll have expert commentary and analysis to help you digest key developments, kicking off with the exit poll and running through the weekend.

What's happening - and when?

Polls are open from 7am until 10pm - and during that time, you won't see any coverage of politics or policy due to strict reporting restrictions.

But Sky News will still be bringing you colourful snapshots of polling day, from leaders casting their ballots to the important business of dogs at polling stations, on TV and right here in the Politics Hub .

9pm Thursday into Friday

Chief presenter Kay Burley will anchor Election Night Live, the overnight results programme, from a 360-degree immersive studio normally used by Sky Sports shows like Monday Night Football, alongside our expert team.

As soon as the polls close at 10pm, Sky News will bring you the exit poll - your first insight into how the general election results could play out.

From 7am on the morning after the nationwide voting, lead politics presenter Sophy Ridge, host of Sky's Politics Hub programme, will be live from Westminster bringing viewers every development as the election result is absorbed and plans for the next government are made.

Ridge will be joined by deputy political editor Sam Coates and Sky News contributor Adam Boulton across what will be a historic day, as the nation awaits the next prime minister.

How to watch

The Politics Hub

This live blog will feature the latest results, swift and in-depth analysis, as well as reactions to the results across the country and much more - so bookmark this page !

Shortly after the polls close we'll have a seat-by-seat lookup to let you see the forecast result in your constituency and through the night we'll have a live, interactive results service to give you the big picture as well as the result where you live.

Watch on TV for FREE : Freeview 233, Sky 501, Sky Showcase, Virgin 603, and BT 313.

Streams and social : Watch Sky News live here , and on YouTube .

We will also be posting the latest videos and stories on TikTok , X , Instagram , Facebook and WhatsApp .

Listen: Listen to Sky News on TuneIn , and here .

This is the first general election in which all voters will need to provide ID in order to cast a ballot.

There are 22 different types of ID you can use. For people without photo ID, Voter Authority Certificates are available - but you must have applied by 26 June.

Here's everything you need to know.

What ID can eligible voters use to vote in elections?

• Most forms of existing photo ID will be accepted, including:
• UK or Northern Ireland photocard driving licence (full or provisional)
• driving licence issued by the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the Isle of Man or any of the Channel Islands
• UK passport
• passport issued by the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, or a Commonwealth country
• PASS card (National Proof of Age Standards Scheme)
• biometric residence permit (BRP)
• Defence Identity Card (MOD form 90)
• national identity card issued by the EU, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein
• Northern Ireland Electoral Identity Card
• Voter Authority Certificate
• Anonymous Elector's Document

The following travel passes will also be accepted:

• older person's bus pass
• disabled person's bus pass
• Oyster 60+ card
• Freedom Pass
• Scottish National Entitlement Card (NEC)
• 60 and Over Welsh Concessionary Travel Card
• Disabled Person's Welsh Concessionary Travel Card
• Northern Ireland concessionary travel pass

Voters can still use photo ID that is out of date, as long as it still looks like them and the name is the same one used to register to vote.

What ID do you need if you're voting as someone's proxy?

You'll need to take your own ID if you're voting on someone else's behalf. You do not need to take theirs.

The exit poll is the first big moment of the night - the moment millions tune in for a first indication of the eventual result of the general election.

Commissioned by the broadcasters - Sky News, the BBC and ITV News - the fieldwork is carried out by Ipsos UK who will have interviewers at 133 polling stations around the country this year.

People who have just voted will be asked to privately fill in a replica ballot paper and place it into a ballot box as they leave their local community centre, church hall or station.

Researchers can only deploy to a fraction of the total constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales, so locations are chosen to best reflect the demographics of the country with an urban and rural spread.

However, many of the locations will be in marginal seats, where the swing between the main parties will be tracked.

The same polling stations are targeted year after year so the swing from the last election's exit poll, along with other data at constituency level, can be analysed by those crunching the numbers.

The data collected at the polling stations is sent back by interviewers to Ipsos UK at several stages throughout the day.

It's processed there and sent via a secure data pipeline to the broadcasters' statisticians and political scientists who are locked down in a secret location in the capital.

Electoral rules mean that no polling can be reported while people are voting - Sky News and the other broadcasters will cover it in full from 10pm.

Election coverage begins on Sky News from 9pm, and it is free, wherever you get your news. Here is how to watch and follow live .

Over the next few days, both here in the Politics Hub and on TV, you will hear plenty of different terms - some of which you may have heard before, some not.

So here is some of the jargon you might read and hear in our coverage of the next couple of days…

Battleground

This refers to a seat which one - or more - political parties have earmarked as a potential loss or gain. Typically, these areas will see a significant amount of campaigning in the run-up to polling day. They tend to be marginal seats, or those where MPs have resigned.

This is a term used to describe constituencies largely in southern England which have historically supported the Conservative Party.

When two or more parties form a government together because no one political party has the majority of seats in parliament.

Confidence and supply

This is not quite the same as a coalition, but still requires a party to strike a deal with another to form a government. Confidence deals, according to the Institute of Government, "typically make clear that the support party or parties must back the government on explicit confidence votes, and votes on budgets and supply (government spending). In return, the support parties are given government support for specific policy priorities."

Constituency

This is a geographical area where voters elect a single MP to represent them in the House of Commons. At present, there are 650 parliamentary constituencies in the UK.

Put simply, this is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have left polling stations. It asks which way they voted, and can give a good indication of the result in certain areas. It is published at 10pm on voting day when the polls close, and gives an indication of how the results could go.

First past the post

This is the electoral system used for the selection of MPs in the House of Commons. Voters select a single candidate for their constituency, and the person with the most votes wins.

Hung parliament

This is when a general election ends without a single political party having the majority of seats in the House of Commons. This situation can lead to a coalition or confidence and supply agreement - as explained above.

The easiest way for a political party to form a government is to win the majority of seats in parliament. There are 650 MPs in the Commons. Therefore, to have an overall majority, a party must win over half of these seats - at least 326.

This is a public declaration of policy published by a political party ahead of a general election.

This is a constituency seat which is won by only a small margin, usually 10% or under. This means that only a small change in voter habit could see a party lose the seat - and this could be critical. Marginal seats are viewed as the "battleground" of an election.

Minority government

In a minority government, the governing party has the most seats - but still less than half the total. In the UK, this would mean the party has less than 326 seats in the House of Commons.

This is a term used to describe constituencies largely in the north of England and in the Midlands which have historically supported the Labour Party.

The swing is the percentage change in the vote share from one party to the other. It indicates the scale of the change between two parties.

Swing voter

A swing voter is a person who does not have a strong political affiliation, and could give their vote to any number of parties on polling day. These voters can be critical to the outcome of an election, particularly in marginal seats.

Tactical voting

This is when a voter chooses a candidate they would not normally support, in a bid to prevent another candidate from winning.

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