Strategies
to Succeed in Public Speaking
Abraham
Lincoln's
Gettysburg Address
by Lanie Smith
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln
gave the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, at the site of the
bloody July 1-3, 1863 Civil War battle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
It was a heart-rendering speech that stated President Lincoln's feelings
about the war and the Country.
Questions you may have include:
- How can I use this address
to improve my writing skills?
- How can I use this address
to improve my speaking skills?
- What is the historical
significance of this address?
This lesson will try to answer
those questions.
Learning
from speech
Read this address to gain
insight on improving your speech writing, public speaking, and historical
knowledge. Perform the exercises below, in your area of interest.
Speech writing
Things to note when studying
the speech are:
- The length of the sentences
and the number of commas. Short phrases make for effective delivery.
- The logical flow of the
speech.
- The use of imagery and
emotional appeal
Outline the the speech to
show where new ideas are presented and grouped. Point out where effective
imagery, examples, and/or emotional appeal is used.
Public speaking
Read the speech aloud--perhaps
to a small audience or to yourself in a mirror. Pause at the commas
and periods to allow for better understanding by the audience. Vary
your pitch, rate and emotional level as you see fit.
Historical
significance
Outline the Gettysburg Address
to select the major points stated by the President.
Did he try to achieve these
goals? Did he achieve them? If not, why not?
Text of
address
President Abraham Lincoln:
Introduction
Four score and seven years
ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived
in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
equal.
Body of
speech
Now we are engaged in a great
civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and
so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of
that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final
resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we
cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.
The brave men--living and dead--who struggled here, have consecrated
it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
Closing
remarks
The world will little note,
nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they
did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us: that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under
God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people,
by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
In conclusion
Use this Gettysburg Address
by President Abraham Lincoln to improve your skills in speech writing,
public speaking, and/or history.
Be patient,
but persevere
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