The date and time of the speech was 28th January 1996 at 8.04 PM. The speaker was the then president Ronal Reagan, and the speech audience was a joint session of the 99th
US Congress in the house of the chamber of the capital (Reagan, 1986). The speaker addressed the topic of the space shuttle Challenger disaster that resulted in the death of seven astronauts.
The Speaker
Before attending the speech, the only information about the speaker was that he was the US president. However, no introduction took place. The qualification for the speaker was that he had massive experience in addressing various conferences gatherings. However, he had information about a previous experience that had occurred 19 years ago but it happened on the ground and not space (Reagan, 1986). The initial impression was that the speaker was a concerned person with the audience feelings at heart. The speaker’s ethos was high because the audience trusted and listened to him comfortably.
Introduction
The speaker gained attention effectively, and the opening device was the first person narrator point of view. The thesis was “This is truly a national loss,” and it was clearly stated (Reagan, 1986). While making the speech, the speaker adhered the audience towards the topic by addressing them at a personal level. He also reviewed the main points by revisiting previous incidences related to the disaster.
Body
The main points were as follows:
It took courage for the challenger seven to undertake their job.
As a country, we mourn the loss together and are thinking about the families.
The members of the crew were pioneers
We will continue following the crew members to the future that they wanted us to discover.
I will always respect the space program.
The crew honored everyone though the way they lived.
The speaker’s organization pattern was categorical / topical and the supporting materials were examples and statistics. The support was relevant and adequate because it expounded the main ideas. However, the speaker did not utilize transitions. Since the speech was persuasive, I found the arguments appealing.
Conclusion
The conclusion offered an adequate summary of the events and the closing device was just “thank you.”
Delivery
The strongest aspects of the speaker’s delivery included compassion and ability to connect to the audience during the address. Additionally, it was easy to win over the listeners by using words that were easy to identify with (Curtis, Jones " Campbell, 2015). It also had evidence-based support. On the other hand, he did not provide an opportunity for the audience to ask questions or make their contributions. It was also short compared to the magnitude of the event. The first person narrator offered a limited point of view because the only information from the reader was that coming from the speaker.
Overall
The overall impression of the speech was that it was outstanding and delivered well considering the urgency with which the author composed it. Additionally, he offered a redemptive hope for both the audience and the affected families (Curtis, Jones " Campbell, 2015). Reagan’s speech met the emotional requirements carefully addressing all the affected and present parties. I would rate this speech 5 because it accomplished the intended mission.
References
Reagan, R. (1986). American Rhetoric: Ronald Reagan - Address to the Nation on The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster. Retrieved from https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganchallenger.htm on Nov 5th 2018.
Curtis, K., Jones, G. J., " Campbell, N. (2015, November). Effects of good speaking techniques on audience engagement. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM on International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (pp. 35-42). ACM.
