Speech to the Virginia Convention

1. Speech to the Virginia Convention By Patrick Henry

2. Elements of Persuasion • Emotional Appeal • Logical Appeal • Anecdote • Evidence/Reason • Example

3. Figurative Language • Simile • Metaphor • Personification • Hyperbole • Allusion

4. Emotional Appeal • A technique that uses language to arouse an emotional response in the reader. • EX: “Do you want our children to be forced to play in the streets? Of course not. Therefore, we need a park in our neighborhood.”

5. Logical Appeal • Circular Reasoning • Evading Issues • False Analogy • Overgeneralization • Stereotyping

6. Logical Appeal • Oversimplification • Either/Or • False Cause • Only Reason

7. Anecdote • A brief story, usually about people, that illustrates a typical situation.

8. Evidence/Reason • Reliable • Consistency • Up-to-date • Suitability • Multiple Sources

9. Example • Used to illustrate a point. Examples in the preceeding paragraph illustrate the differences between a fact, a statistic and an opinion.

10. Persuasion • The use of language to convince an audience to think, feel, or believe what the speaker wants them to believe. • The ability to convince an audience through the effective use of language.

11. Techniques of Persuasion • Either/or fallacy- oversimplifying an issue by presenting only two extreme choices. • Ex. P. 102- “…I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery…”

12. Figurative Language • Language that appeals to the senses: simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole. • It supports an emotional appeal.

13. Figurative Language • Ex. P. 102 “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that lamp is experience.” • Henry is saying that his past relations with the British were not good, so experience would lead him in the direction to protect himself from them.

14. Periodic Sentence • When the main clause is postponed until the end of the sentence. The purpose is to build a conclusion to a dramatic climax. • Ex. P. 104 “We must fight!”

15. Appeal • To convince someone by playing on their emotions/sympathy. • Ex: “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” • Without liberty, life and peace are worthless. He will risk his own life.

16. Repetition • The repeating of words or phrases. • This is done to make the information stick in the minds of an audience. • Ex: p. 104 “We must fight!” “We must fight!”

17. Peroration • A memorable conclusion • Ex: p. 104 “…but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

18. Other Literary Devices • Allusion: p. 102 “We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts.” (figurative language) • P. 102 “Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss.”

19. Style • Parallelism • Allusions – Biblical/Greek • Call to Action • Peroration • Emotional Appeals • Logical Appeals • Repetition

20. Allusion • Allusion: p. 102 “We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts.” (figurative language) • P. 102 “Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss.”

21. Repetition • “We must fight! We must fight!” Patrick Henry

22. Parallelism • “We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne…” Patrick Henry pg. 204

23. Emotional Appeal • “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.” pg. 205 • “They tell us sir, that we are weak—unable to cope with so formidable an adversary…” pg. 205

24. Peroration • A memorable conclusion • Ex: p. 104 “…but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

25. Call to Action • We must fight! • Give me liberty or give me death!

26. Logical Appeal • Why this accumulation of armies? • “They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging.” • Patrick Henry