How style and content give a speech its power

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Is It a Crime to Vote? (speech)

   Background: [1] In November 1872 Susan B. Anthony voted in the presidential election in Rochester, New York, when no state allowed women to vote in national elections, and she was arrested and charged with voting illegally. [2] Before her trial in 1873 she gave this speech in dozens of Monroe County towns, where the jury was to be drawn. [3] She argued that the Constitution, as amended in 1868, already protected the right of women citizens to vote.

   From the address: [4] Friends and Fellow-citizens: I stand before you to-night, under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last Presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. [5] It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's right, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any State to deny.…

   [6] …It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed this Union. [7] And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people--women as well as men. [8] And it is downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government--the ballot.…

   [9] …The only question left to be settled, now, is: Are women persons? [10] And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. [11] Being persons, then, women are citizens, and no state has a right to make any new law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities.…

   Word notes: [12] An indictment is a formal charge of a crime, and posterity means the generations still to come. [13] Just before sentence 6, Anthony read aloud the Constitution's opening words, We, the people of the United States. [14] Hardihood is boldness, and to abridge is to cut short.

2. 1.

   Ari is filling the kairos line of the header box. Why does opening with sentence 4 fit this moment so well?

   • In 1872 no state allowed women to vote in national elections, which made her vote unusual.
   • Greeting the crowd as friends and fellow citizens is a polite and warm way to open a speech of any kind.
   • Her listeners may soon sit on her jury, so opening with the charge meets their question head-on.
   • She is speaking to the judge and lawyers in the courtroom on the first day of her trial.
3. 2.

   Luz is filling the style column for sentence 6. How does the wording of sentence 6 serve Anthony's point?

   • It repeats we, the people, to show that the framers meant male citizens alone to vote.
   • It asks a string of questions, each one daring the listener to say who formed the Union.
   • It says that the whole people, and not men alone, formed the Union under the Constitution.
   • It repeats we, the people, trying narrower versions before ending on the whole people.
4. 3.

   Tala is filling the judgment column. For listeners who might become jurors, which choice in sentences 9 to 11 gives the argument the most power?

   • Her cause was just, since women did deserve the vote, so any argument she chose would persuade.
   • A warning that history will blame the jurors if they find her guilty of the charge.
   • A sad picture of women's lives without the vote, which moves the listeners to pity her.
   • A short question no one will answer no, from which citizenship follows one step at a time.
5. 4.

   Jun adds a second kairos note. Why does sentence 5, the promise to prove she committed no crime, suit this audience at this time?

   • She wanted lawmakers in Washington to change the Constitution so that women could vote.
   • Her listeners may soon have to decide that very question, so she offers to settle it for them in advance.
   • The Constitution, as amended in 1868, already protected the right of women citizens to vote by the time of her trial.
   • Saying at the start what a speech will show helps listeners follow any argument they hear.

6. The Only Thing We Have to Fear (inaugural address)

   Background: [1] Franklin D. Roosevelt took the oath of office as president on March 4, 1933, at the Capitol in Washington, before a crowd and millions of radio listeners. [2] About one worker in four had no job, and in the days before, state after state had closed its banks to stop people from pulling out their savings. [3] A new president then took office four months after the election, so the country had waited since November while conditions grew worse.

   From the inaugural address: [4] I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. [5] This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. [6] Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. [7] This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. [8] So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.…

   [9] In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties.… [10] …Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.…

   [11] …Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. [12] This Nation asks for action, and action now. [13] Our greatest primary task is to put people to work.…

   Word notes: [14] An induction is a formal entry into an office, candor is frankness, impels means requires, and preeminently means above all. [15] Curtailment is a cutting back, and the means of exchange are the money and credit that people use to buy and sell. [16] The cuts leave out a line of thanks and four paragraphs blaming bankers, which ethics in sentence 11 looks back to.

7. 5.

   Milo is filling the kairos line. Why does Roosevelt open with the frank promise of sentences 4 and 5 at this moment?

   • He is speaking to the bankers whose failures caused the crisis and warning them to be honest.
   • About one worker in four had no job on the day that Roosevelt took office in 1933.
   • After months of waiting while banks closed and jobs vanished, listeners wanted the plain truth, and he promises it first.
   • New presidents usually promise honesty at the start of an inaugural address, whatever the year.
8. 6.

   Zee is filling the style column for sentence 8. How does the wording of sentence 8 serve Roosevelt's point?

   • It turns the word fear back on itself, then stacks three adjectives against it, so the danger becomes a feeling to refuse.
   • It uses a rhetorical question that asks listeners what they have to fear and lets them answer.
   • It says that fear was the greatest danger facing the nation in the spring of 1933.
   • It repeats the word fear to show that Roosevelt himself was frightened by the bank closings.
9. 7.

   Kira is filling the judgment column for sentence 10. Which choice best explains where the power of sentence 10 comes from?

   • A long list of losses, clause after clause, admits the full size of the crisis the listeners were living through.
   • It quotes the figures of economists, which gives listeners exact numbers that they can trust.
   • It blames the bankers by name for each of the losses that it lists, one by one.
   • It is powerful because the new president's plans were the wisest way out of the crisis.
10. 8.

    Ren adds a kairos note for sentences 12 and 13. Why does the call for action now fit this audience on this day?

    • The new banking laws had already ended the crisis, so Roosevelt could promise quick success.
    • A country that had waited four months for its new president hears that the waiting is over and work comes first.
    • Farmers more than anyone needed action, since sentence 10 says they could find no markets.
    • A call for action makes a strong ending, so it suits almost any speech on almost any day.
11. 9.

    Esme is filling the style column for sentence 7. How does the wording of sentence 7 serve Roosevelt's point?

    • It says that the nation would get through the crisis and grow strong again in time.
    • Its three verbs show that the nation's recovery had already begun by the time he spoke.
    • Its three verbs climb from endure to revive to prosper, from surviving to thriving.
    • It uses understatement, saying less than it means about how bad the times had become.
12. 10.

    Noah compares sentences 5 and 10. Which choice best judges why the pair makes the opening powerful?

    • Sentence 5 promises the whole truth and sentence 10 delivers it, so the frank list of losses earns trust.
    • Both are powerful because honesty is the wisest policy for a leader to follow, in any age, whether times are good or bad.
    • Both sentences stir pity for the president, who had taken office at a very hard time.
    • Together they show that the crisis would be over before the end of the year.