Your goal in this 3 page essay is to produce a brief rhetorical biography--that is a biography that is focused on the rhetorical and/or speaking career of the subject. Remember that you are to have a minimum of three sources for this paper (only one of which can be a WWW source, [you may use other sources that are available electronically--such as a scholarly essay in a journal that is available on-line.]  Be sure to include a full bibliography. [writing advice to help with this project]  [Library Resources to help with this project also see the list of articles included in paper assignment 1]

The paper is due the day before we talk about your figure in class.

A. In your paper these are some of the questions you should aim to answer:

1. When and where was the speaker born? Is their family history related to their oratory?   You don't want to spend much time on the standard biographical infomration, but it is important for your readers/listeners to know something about where they came from.

2. What do we know about the education or training of this speaker?

3. When and where did the speaker first engage in public address?

4. Why did the person begin to engage in public discourse?

5. What have you or other scholars identified as aspects of the speaker's discourse? [Do they rely on humor? Do they have strong credibility? Do they tell lots of stories? Are they highly emotional? Do they rely on personal testimony, statistics, or arguments from authorities like the Bible or politicians to make their point?]

6. What do we know about their success as a speaker? How did audiences react? Did they make a living by speaking?

7. What do we know about their career? Did they travel extensively? Were they public figures for a long period of time or for only a short period?

8. Did they ever talk or write about the importance of oratory to their lives or to the political life of the nation?

9. What do we know about their mode of delivery?

10. What range of topics did the speaker address in his or her career?

B. You will also be presenting this paper in the form of a 5-7 minute speech to the class. The goal is to take your essay and turn the materials in it (along with other materials that you found, but that didn't fit into the paper) into a speech.  You may NOT simply read your paper to the class. Here are some tips:

1. Work especially carefully on the introduction--be sure that you gain the attention of the audience, identify your topic and then clearly preview the body of your presentation (for example: "In the next few minutes I want to introduce you to the life and speaking career of Frederick Douglass"). Or, if you already gave us the essential biographical information in the introduction you might offer a more detailed preview: "Allow me then to introduce you to the public speaking career of Frederick Douglass. We will focus on his preparation for the platform, what he talked about and in what style, and finally, we will discuss his dramatic success as an orator.")

2. In doing a speech you must narrow your focus to 2-4 main points and make sure that your audience knows when you move from point to point.

3. You may use a visual aid in your presentation (I'm thinking primarily of overheads or posters or handouts.  If you want to show some speech excerpts, they we'll have to sit and talk about equipment and time well in advance--video clips wouldn't be part of your 5-7 minutes.) If you want to share many dates or quotes with the class you may wish to provide a handout.

4. You should practice your speech out loud before class. Aim for an elevated conversational style. To do this you should work from notes (ideally on 4 X 6 note cards) rather than from your paper or a speech manuscript.

5. You will have 5-7 minutes to cover your topic. If you think you will want/need more time, talk to me about it at least 24 hours before the class when your speech is due.

6. Be sure you have prepared a strong conclusion so that your presentation has a clear ending.