Tag Archives: Speech

Article vs Speech

NOTE: This article was originally published in the Irish Independent Written Word Supplement, March 2014.

It can be difficult to wrap your head around the difference between writing an article for publication and writing a speech to be delivered to a live audience. In order to help you to grasp the difference, I’ve taken the same topic, used the same structure and made the same points, but one is an opinion piece for publication in a newspaper and the other is a speech. Read them both and then play a game of SPOT THE DIFFERENCE…

IT’S MY BODY AND OTHER LIES

Mia Murphy

[*Mia Murphy is a lawyer, a journalist & a human rights activist. She blogs at www.freedomfightersireland.ie or you can find her on facebook/freedomfightersireland or twitter @miamurphy]

We live in an era of unprecedented individual freedom. Unhappy with your parents? Divorce them. With your gender? Change it. With your life? End it.

The question begs to be asked however: is unlimited personal freedom a good thing for society? The answer, resolutely, is no. We are too eager to glorify people’s right to choose, too willing to ignore the reality that many people’s choices are often limited or foolish or self-destructive. In the very worst cases they are sometimes all three. So despite my fond notion that I am free to do what I want, in reality I know that my freedom is in many ways a construct of a good education and a well paid job. Without these two pillars of security in my life, my ‘choices’ might look very different indeed.

Let’s consider, for example, the idea “it’s my body and I should be allowed to do what I want with it”. At the simpler end of the spectrum, I can decide to shave my hair off for charity. I won’t really be hurting anyone – or myself – because the hair will grow back. Slightly more complex might be my decision to donate a kidney to a family member or friend. I get the warm fuzzy glow of saving a life, and hey, it turns out most people can survive perfectly fine with just one kidney! So even though it won’t grow back the way my hair did, who cares? Perhaps I could use my body as an incubator, could carry a baby for my fertility-challenged sister, or for my gay brother and his partner? There is no greater gift on earth than to give someone who would otherwise be childless the opportunity to experience the joys of parenthood.

So the freedom to do what I want with my body is a good thing, right?

Well only if I remain resolutely blind to the selfless utopian bubble I’ve created above, where motives are always pure and bodies and minds remain unharmed by the choices we make. This is simply not true. Many people sacrifice parts of themselves they would much rather keep sacred, through economic necessity. To really understand a person’s level of individual freedom, what matters is not so much what we do but rather why we do it.

Hair these days is big business. If I’ve got long locks, I can sell my ponytail for about €100. If my hair is blond, the rarest shade, I’ll get closer to €1000 for it. The hair extensions industry in Ireland alone is estimated by Hallinan Beauty Group to be worth about €2.5 million and significantly the vast majority of it is imported from abroad. But where does this hair come from? In most cases, it’s shave or die of the worst kind, where women in India, China and Eastern Europe sell their hair to stave off hunger and poverty or to pay for a better education for their children. In a world where long hair is still the benchmark of female beauty, this isn’t about personal freedom, this is about lack of options, lack of money, lack of choice. Or to be more precise, so that women in the developed world can feel beautiful, can have the ‘free choice’ to wear someone else’s hair and pass it off as their own, women in the developing world are making the not-so-free decision to privilege food, shelter and education over their own ‘beauty’. They are every bit as selfless as the wealthy westerner who shaves their hair off for charity but they are entitled to feel bitter that extreme poverty makes this not a choice but a necessity.

The freedom to do what I want with my internal organs is even more fraught with difficulties. Of course I can – and should – carry an organ donation card with me. If I die before my time, I might as well give my body parts to someone who can use them. But what about auctioning off my organs to the highest bidder whilst I’m still alive? Again, the issue of poverty, necessity and sometimes just plain old stupidity and greed raises its head, as a recent case in China illustrates, where a 17 yr old teen secretly sold a kidney for €3,500 before admitting to what he had done when his mother questioned how he could suddenly afford to buy a laptop, iPad and iPhone. His actions were not just a case of consumerism gone mad but were also unwittingly self-destructive, as his remaining kidney was subsequently revealed to have limited function. Ironically, he now finds himself on the organ donor waiting list alongside 1.5 million others, the organ shortage in China fuelling the very black market trade this boy fell victim to. Yes he made a free choice, but one he will undoubtedly regret for the rest of his life. What all of this reveals is that sometimes limiting people’s freedom is necessary in order to protect them from their own profound stupidity.

Nonetheless, there remain many miraculous things we can do with our bodies. Using them to create life is perhaps the greatest ability we have as human beings. We view the right to procreate as so fundamental that we are overwhelmed with sympathy for couples who are unable to conceive. Hence, many of us have no problem with the concept of surrogacy if the aim is to offer a childless couple the miracle of parenthood. However, once money enters the frame we become decidedly more squeamish. Is my body a commodity to be bought and sold? When I list my assets on my tax return, should I include my fully functioning womb? I can rent it out for maybe €15,000 per pregnancy. Heck, that’s more money than I’d get on the dole! Yet the emotional, psychological and ethical fallout from surrogacy can be horrendous.

What if, as happened recently in the U.S., the baby has foetal abnormalities? Can the surrogate be forced to abort the baby if the genetic parents decide they only want a ‘healthy’ child? If the surrogate falls ill, can she be forced to continue with the pregnancy against her will? Even if we put these relatively rare scenarios aside for a moment, the inconvenient truth is that most commercial surrogacy arrangements take place in poor countries where there is little regulation, countries like Thailand, Uganda and the Ukraine. Baby factories have sprung up all over India where the industry is worth $2bn and where estimates suggest 25,000 babies a year are born to surrogates. Many women are ashamed of their decision, hiding it from their existing children and in-laws but are lured in by the monetary reward which will give them a roof over their head or pay for an existing child’s education. It also carries less of a stigma than prostitution. However, despite the illusion that it is safer, many surrogates are risking their lives. Maternal mortality remains high in India, with 56,000 women dying during pregnancy or childbirth. Yet these women are being exploited, receiving only 10% of the amount being paid by commissioning couples and signing contracts waiving their right to health care in the case of miscarriage or complications after the birth.

We still live in a world where “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” so the next time you hear the defence “it’s my body and I’ll do what I want with it” spare a thought for those who use their bodies for profit because they are the only item of value they possess.

*NOTE: Thanks to a colleague for pointing out that it’s important to be aware of  and discuss with students the way that the opening series of rhetorical questions  “We live in an era of unprecedented individual freedom. Unhappy with your parents? Divorce them. With your gender? Change it. With your life? End it.” are deliberately facetious and are designed to provoke and shock. Of course none of us actually believe that anyone changes gender or takes their own life lightly but journalists often say something shocking or controversial to grab people’s attention.

*NOTE: some of the statistics I included I simply made up. Real journalists obviously can’t do this, but as a student in an exam without access to google, you’ve got no choice. You’ll have to make things up. You may also decide to exaggerate for dramatic effect. For example, the story about the 17yr old selling his kidney is true but I invented the subsequent kidney failure to add dramatic irony to the situation.I made up the name of the journalist so any resemblance to anyone real is entirely coincidental. 

Now…

To help you to appreciate the stylistic difference between writing an article and writing a speech, I used the same topic, same structure, same ideas but transformed it into a speech.

Your task is to SPOT THE DIFFERENCES between them (we’ve identified 8 in total but there may be more…)

Speech on Personal Freedom

Hi everyone, you’re very welcome to the Docklands Theatre for this lecture series and can I just say, I really appreciate the effort you’ve all made to be here. The bad weather probably had you jumping over muddy puddles outside like a possessed Peppa Pig, but you’re here now, so relax, kick your shoes off if they’re wet, switch off your phone and we’ll begin! For those of you I haven’t met before, my name’s Mia Murphy and if you’re tweeting this event I go by the not very cryptic twitter handle @miamurphy. I’m a journalist with the Irish Independent & a human rights campaigner and I’ve spent the last seven years of my life studying the way our freedom in the Western World limits the freedom of people in the Developing World.

We live in an era of unprecedented individual freedom. If you’re unhappy with your parents, you can divorce them. If you (point to someone in the front row) are unhappy with your gender (pause for laughter) – and I’m not suggesting you are, cause you look pretty good as a guy to me! – but if you were, you could just pop into a hospital and sort that out! Boom! You go from Phillip to Philomena in a heartbeat!

But what bugs me about all of this is the assumption that unlimited personal freedom is a good thing for society. That we’re all better off cause we can do what we want. I don’t buy that personally. I think we’re too eager to glorify people’s right to choose and we’re far far too willing to ignore the reality that people’s choices are often limited & foolish & self-destructive. While I might like the notion that I’m free to do whatever I want, the truth is that my freedom is guaranteed because I’ve got a good education and I live in a rich country.

One idea in particular that fascinates me is the statement you often hear people saying when they’re getting a body piercing or dying their hair purple: “it’s my body and I should be allowed to do what I want with it”. And I know that can sometimes be a good thing! I can shave my hair off for charity. I can donate a kidney to a family member. I can even be a surrogate for my sister if she’s having trouble getting knocked up and I’ll definitely help out my gay brother and his partner if they want kids because no matter how hard they try, they are definitely not gonna get pregnant!

The sad truth is, though, that lots of people shave their hair off and donate kidneys and act as surrogates for one very simple reason, and that reason is money!

How many of you know that hair these days is big business? I’ve got long brown hair (grab ponytail & wave it at audience) so I can sell my ponytail for about €100. But if my hair was blond, like this lovely lady in the front row (point) – would you mind standing up? – would you believe she could sell her hair today for €1000? So if you see her on the street next week and she’s doing an Emma Watson, you know what she’s been up to! And you should ask her to buy you coffee, cause she’s got €1,000 in her back pocket!

Seriously though, let’s talk about the real price of hair. The hair extensions industry in Ireland alone is worth about €2.5 million and the vast majority of this hair is imported from abroad. Women in India, China and Eastern Europe sell their hair to escape hunger and poverty and to pay for a better education for their children. This isn’t about personal freedom, this is about lack of options, lack of money and lack of choice. The sad truth is, so that you and I can feel beautiful with our flowing extensions like Kim Kardashian, women in the developing world are making the decision to privilege food, shelter and education over their own hair. And bear in mind that cutting their hair off means feeling ‘ugly’ for many of these women, because we’re not the only culture that associates long silky hair with sexiness you know!

You see this with organ donation as well! There was a case in China recently where a 17 yr old teenage boy secretly sold one of his kidneys for €3,500. But of course the mammy twigged that something was up when he could suddenly afford to buy a new laptop, iPad and iPhone and she forced him to admit what he’d done! Now this poor eejit didn’t need the money – he wasn’t starving – but I guess he wanted these signifiers of success pretty badly to go to this extreme. What he did was profoundly stupid, no question. But as yet there’s sadly no cure for stupidity in this world! Maybe that’s what my next research project should be! (pause for laughter)

Anyway, this kid then discovers that his remaining kidney has limited function! You won’t actually believe this but he’s now on the organ donor waiting list – I kid you not! – alongside 1.5 million others. And if this doesn’t prove that limiting people’s freedom is sometimes necessary to protect them from their own stupidity, I don’t know what does!!!

The last thing I want to mention, briefly, is surrogacy. Now I don’t have any moral qualms with a person deciding to be an oven for cooking up someone else’s baby, but it’s not as simple as setting the timer and waiting for the ping! I read about a case recently in America where at the twenty week scan, they discovered the baby had foetal abnormalities. The parents wanted the surrogate to have an abortion. But she didn’t agree with abortion, and she could already feel the baby kicking, so she refused. The baby was in her body but genetically the egg and sperm had come from the couple she was carrying it for. So they went to court looking for a court order to force her to have an abortion. And what did she do? She went on the run!

The point I’m making here is that it is never, never as simple as “It’s my body and I can do what I want with it”. Even leaving aside this extreme case, the truth is that most commercial surrogacy arrangements take place in poor countries where there is little regulation, countries like Thailand and Uganda and the Ukraine and India.

In fact, in recent years baby factories have sprung up all over India. The industry is worth $2bn and somewhere in the region of 25,000 babies a year are born to surrogates. But this is a country with poor hospital infrastructure. 56,000 women die during pregnancy or childbirth every year. Not only are they putting their lives at rick, they’re also being exploited. They only get about 10% of the amount being paid and they’re signing these awful contracts which mean that as soon as the baby is delivered, they have no right to any further medical care. So if they get sick or die, the couple who now have their beautiful new baby have no further responsibility towards this woman who has given them the gift of becoming parents. And for me, that it sick and that is wrong. (Pause)

I want to leave you with a quote from George Orwell’s Animal farm where he said that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. So the next time you hear someone say “it’s my body and I’ll do what I want with it” I want you to just spare a thought, please, for those who use their bodies for profit because they are the only item of value they possess.

(Step back and bow. Pause for applause)

Thank you so much for listening (bow, wave, exit stage).

 

 

Rant vs well constructed argument

It’s day three of cleaning out my classroom (I’m starting a new job as an English Advisor with the Junior Cycle for Teachers service in 10 days time!) and I’m really really tempted to stop sorting the good from the bad and the ugly because it’s taking so bloody long!!! 87% of me wants to just fling the lot into boxes and be done with it.

But because we’re also moving into a new house – which we’ve been painstakingly renovating all summer – I don’t want loads of boxes of unnecessary crap cramping our new living quarters.

Anyway, as the clear out progresses, what’s surprised me is how often I’m stumbling upon half crumpled scraps of paper with hastily scribbed scrawls on them that I don’t want to keep necessarily, but which I don’t want to dump either…

Here’s one such example from a public speaking class. I’m pretty sure we just brainstormed this together (co-creation of knowledge how are ya!) rather than it being something I prepared in advance.

RANT vs WELL CONSTRUCTED ARGUMENT

Rant =

  1. Collection of random thoughts with little order or structure
  2. Overwhelmingly negative
  3. Anger = dominant tone
  4. No balance
  5. No facts / statistics
  6. Examples given are all personal
  7. Flawed logic – one or two examples are used to draw big (erroneous) conclusions
  8. Ad hominem attacks – any attempts to refute other viewpoints consist of attacks on the people who hold these beliefs rather than on the beliefs themselves.

Argument =

  1. Structured
  2. Balanced
  3. Supported by facts / statistics
  4. Reasonable anger (if any) or disappointment rather than rage
  5. Personal examples situated in wider context
  6. Sound logic – inductive & deductive reasoning in evidence
  7. Refutation & rebuttal focused on the issues NOT personalities

Anyway, I figure such scraps of wisdom are better stored here rather than buried in the bottom of a box of other such random bits of paper. And it’s better than throwing them out too…

Sample speech

Sometimes a persuasive speech will be so well written that you find yourself agreeing with something completely illogical. Look at the example below – it doesn’t make sense logically but it manipulates your emotions and thus convinces you almost in spite of yourself.

Studying it should make you more aware of why people go along with some really crazy ideas (scientology, suicide bombings…). It’s all because of how the writer/speaker makes you feel:

Blowing Hot Steam

Ladies & gentlemen, the time has come to outlaw that most dangerous of domestic appliances – the kettle! We may well smile as we picture our whistling friend as a hatchet-wielding killer; yet this seemingly innocent chrome contraption causes chaos in our homes every year, whilst the media remains suspiciously silent on the issue.

Well I for one am tired of these lies of silence, and for this reason I have spent the last month touring the A&E departments of our countries hospitals, doing a little market research of my own!

Mayo General revealed a shocking array of third degree burns caused by clumsy kettle carrying. One ashen-faced 25yr old (who does not wish to be named) tripped carrying a fully loaded kettle and ended up with the contents searing his nether regions. Needless to say his crown jewels are tarnished beyond repair! Nearby, a dazed and confused pensioner with a nasty purple lump on his temple described being attacked by his kettle-wielding Missus after he refused (one time too many) to get up off the couch and make them a cuppa! Meanwhile, a nail-chewing mother looked on in horror as her darling daughter howled in pain & clawed at the bandages covering her left arm from shoulder to wrist. Never again would making hungover Mommy an industrial strength cup of coffee for Mother’s Day seem like a good idea!!!

And so I say to you my friends, declare war on kettles. Let this marriage-wrecking, family-destroying, genital-mangler of a device be criminalised for once and for all. Canvas your local politician now and let this serious yet swept-under-the-carpet issue take it’s rightful place alongside the war on terror, the war on drugs and the war on organised crime.  

Look at the techniques used here – connect to audience, alliteration, hyperbole, emphatic words, vivid imagery, eye-witness testimony, sarcasm, list, an order (canvas you local politician), repetition of a key phrase.

Speech/Debate/Radio talk

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZsDliXzyAY]

You have been asked to deliver a speech/talk because you are well-spoken and intelligent.

How formal your language is depends on your audience – if you are delivering a speech to the UN or world leaders your tone will be very formal. If you are addressing your classmates you can be more informal – but if the Principal and parents are there don’t overdo the informality. Never curse.

Techniques =

  • Address the audience – welcome them, address them directly frequently during your speech and again at the end.
  • Present your topic and opinion immediately.
  • Use the pronounswe’ ‘us’ ‘our’ to make the listener feel that you’re all in this together.
  • Rhetorical Q ‘s keep the listener’s attention.
  • Repetition of key persuasive phrases hammer the idea home

e.g. “We must never accept….we must never allow” e.g.“It is foolish to think…it is foolish to presume”

  • Connecting phrases create a flow & help build a series of related ideas for the reader

e.g. ‘however’ ‘therefore’ ‘thus’ ‘nonetheless’ ‘of course’ ‘furthermore’ ‘similarly’ ‘indeed’ ‘if’ ‘on the one hand’ ‘on the other hand’ ‘besides’ ‘by contrast’ ‘this reminds me of…’

  • Concrete examples/evidence are absolutely essential – they prove you know your topic.
  • Facts/Statistics make your opinions seem watertight & beyond discussion. Name the source report, the researcher, their qualifications and the institution they are affiliated to.
  • Refute counter arguments – point out why those who disagree with you are wrong. Prove that their arguments are weak, flawed and incorrect.
  • Clear, logical structure is vital – one main idea per paragraph, develop each idea fully.
  • Contrast is an excellent technique because it allows the audience to see things more clearly. You could contrast past and present; males and females; powerful and powerless individuals; rich and poor; knowledgable and ignorant etc…
  • Identify problems but also offer solutions – nobody likes a whinger, we much prefer visionaries who can offer us a better way forward.
  • End with a call to action – what is it that you want your audience to do? Don’t give out to them, inspire them. Suggest practical steps towards change that they can take.

Some techniques work well in a persuasive speech but less suitable in an argumentative debate. Use the following in moderation in a debate, but extensively in a persuasive speech:

  • Vivid imagery will arouse an emotional response in the reader (the real aim of persuasion)
  • Hyperbole makes the speech more dramatic for the reader (your passion will inspire them).
  • Evoke God, the bible, Einstein or Shakespeare so you come across as morally powerful and intellectual. Evoke big ideas like justice, truth, right, wrong.

Speeches v’s Debates: What’s the difference?

A speech can look at an issue from all sides (balanced view) or can take a one-sided viewpoint (revealing a bias)– it’s up to the writer. Appeal to the audience’s emotions.

A debate differs from a speech in that you are specifically asked to speak for or against the motion/topic. You MUST pick a side. Appeal to the audience’s reason & intelligence

Here the purpose is not to discuss an issue in a balanced way, but to convince the audience through LOGICAL arguments that your point of view is the correct one.

Speeches v’s Radio Talks: What’s the difference?

  • A radio talk tends to be more informal.
  • You address the listeners rather than the audience/fellow students/world leaders.
  • You may be interrupted by the DJ from time to time. You can write these ‘interruptions’ into your answer, but remember, this isn’t an interview so you’ll do almost all of the talking. It should not be written in Q and Ans. format – that’s what you do for an interview.
  • To make your answer more realistic you may wish to name a specific radio show/presenter e.g. “Well Ray” “Talk to Joe” “Hello Marian”.
  • If you imagine that a particular word or phrase should be said loudly or with strong emphasis, write it in block capitals OR underline it OR make a comment in brackets. e.g. Can they be serious? (in disbelief) e.g. I’ll never forget her face (shaking head sadly) e.g. We CANNOT allow this injustice to continue. e.g. This is the only way forward.

Only use 1 of these stylistic choices & don’t overdo it. Use occasionally not every sentence.

Language of Persuasion


The difference between persuasion and argument is that persuasion manipulates your emotions, appeals to your heart, changes how you feel while arguments appeal to your brain, your sense of reason and logic.

Persuasion = Argument =

Examples:
Advertisements, competition entries, sermons, inspirational speeches.

 

Comprehensions – sample question

In your opinion, does the writer succeed in persuading us that…

OR

Identify four features of persuasive writing used in this passage and comment on their effectiveness

 

 

Look for the following features / techniques:

Anecdotes

Vivid imagery (adjectives/similes/metaphors/symbolism)

Emotive dramatic language / sensationalism

Humour / wit

Hyperbole

Expert’ reports / Scientific language

Urgent references to time

Rhetorical questions

Lists

Emphatic words

Use of ‘I’ / ‘we’ / ‘our’ to connect to the reader or audience

Repetition of key phrases

Reference to ‘big ideas’ – God / justice / truth / right / wrong / future generations.

 

Question B – sample questions

2014

The above text is based on a series of public lectures delivered by various writers on the topic of influence. Young people today are subject to many influences. Write the text of a talk you would deliver to your class in which you consider some of the positive and negative influences on young people’s lives today and how they respond to these influences.

2013

Your class had decided to produce a book about “un-heroic” or ordinary people as a fund-raiser for a local charity. Write the text for the introduction of this book, in which you explain the purpose of the book and why your class thinks it is important to celebrate ordinary people.

2012

Your student’s School Council is currently discussing the issue of school outings, educational trips, theatre visits, etc. Write a persuasive article for your school website supporting or opposing such events.

2011

Write a feature article for a travel magazine about a place you have never been but would like to visit. In your article explain what you find fascinating about this place and why you would like to go there.

2009

Write a short speech in which you attempt to persuade a group of parents that older teenagers should be trusted to make their own decisions.

2006

Write a letter to a famous writer or celebrity or sports personality of your choice offering your services as a ghost writer for a future book. In your letter you should outline the reasons why you believe you would make a successful ghost writer for your chosen author.

2005

Write a letter to a photographic magazine in which you propose one of the four images for the award “Best War Photograph of the Year.”

2004

Write a letter to one of the people from the collection of visual images in this text, indicating what appeals and/or does not appeal to you about the work which that person does.

2003

Family Home and Contents for Sale

Drawing on the detail in the above text, and its accompanying illustration, draft the text of an advertisement that offers the home and its contents for sale.

Sample Essay Titles

2012

Write a persuasive speech about the importance of literature in people’s lives.

2011

You have been asked to speak to your class about what you think is indispensable in your life. Write the text of the talk you would give.

2009

Write a persuasive speech in praise of science and technology.

2009

Write a personal essay on the topic of daydreams.

2008

Write the text of a talk you would deliver to your classmates on the topic: Appearances can be Deceptive.

2007

Write a speech in which you attempt to persuade an audience that the past should not be glorified.

2007

Write the text of a talk, serious or humorous, to be given to your peers, entitled: “How I intend to change the world!”

2006

Write a magazine article (serious or light-hearted) in which you outline a get-rich idea of your own.

2006

Write the speech you would deliver to a group of world leaders in which you persuade them to deal with one or more of the world’s problems.

2005

Write a speech in which you attempt to persuade an audience that today’s obsession with the lives of the rich and famous has gone too far.

2005

You are responding to a radio competition to find an ordinary person whose life story will inspire others. Entries should include an account of the person’s life and the reason(s) why it is inspirational. Write your competition entry.

2005

You have been asked to give a talk to your class on the importance of not taking life too seriously. Write the talk you would give.

2003

Write a persuasive article or essay in which you attempt to convince people of the meaning and importance of heroes in life.

2003

You have been asked by the school principal to give a talk to your class group on the importance in life of “understanding the system”. Write out the talk you would give.

2002

“Hope is a sustaining human gift” You have been asked to deliver a speech on this theme to a group of classmates. Write out the speech you would give.

2001

You have been elected President of Ireland. Write the first speech you would make to the Irish people.

2001

Write an article intended for inclusion in the sports pages of a newspaper in which you attempt to persuade your readers of the value of sport in our lives.

2001

Write an article for your school or local magazine in which you explore your feelings about the place of music and/or songs in your life.