Thursday/ Friday May 18 / 19 finishing Clinton's speech / passive vs active voice

coming up: vocabulary quiz on Tuesday, May 22 on rhetorical terms.  (Another copy below)

In class: assessment on rhetorical devices / rhetorical analysis of speech.

              directions: read the handout of Hilliary Clinton's speech and pull out 5 different examples of rhetorical devices. Only two my be Aristotelian.

              You must have textual evidence. You may use your vocabulary handout and the other handout on rhetorical devices as a reference.   (class handout / copy below)

Due at the close of class.

For those of you who will not be here tomorrow, please complete the exercise on passive and active voice. A detailed explanation is on this blog.  I will collect the passive / active voice assignment at the beginning of class on Monday, May 22.

(class handout / copy below)

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This speech was delivered by Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was First Lady of the United States at the time, on September 5th, 1995 in Beijing, China. It was part of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.

* I have abridged this speech for the purposes of our class, but the content and meaning remain intact. For the full version, visit: http://gos.sbc.edu/c/clinton.html

What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish.

Women comprise more than half the world's population. Women are 70% percent of the world's poor, and two-thirds of those who are not taught to read and write.

Women are the primary caretakers for most of the world's children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not valued - not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders.

At this very moment, as we sit here, women around the world are giving birth, raising children, cooking meals, washing clothes, cleaning houses, planting crops, working on assembly lines, running companies, and running countries. Women also are dying from diseases that should have been prevented or treated; they are watching their children succumb to malnutrition caused by poverty and economic deprivation; they are being denied the right to go to school by their own fathers and brothers; they are being forced into prostitution, and they are being barred from the bank lending office and banned from the ballot box.

Those of us who have the opportunity to be here have the responsibility to speak for those who could not.

It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls. It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution. It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes.

If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, it is that human rights are women's rights - and women's rights are human rights. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely - and the right to be heard.

As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world - as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes - the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.

Let this Conference be our - and the world's - call to action.

     

      Name___________________________________ Rhetorical devices part 2, analyzing a speech for rhetorical devices.

1.       Read the accompanying speech given by Hillary Clinton in Beijing, China in 1995

2.       Review the rhetorical devices

3.       Reread the speech, underlining and noting a minimum of 5 textual examples that demonstrate rhetorical techniques.  You must have at least two that are not Aristotelian.

4.       Copy out the example below, identifying the device. Use ellipsis as needed; you do not have to copy out the complete sentence, but you must include a complete supporting example.

5.       Explain the use of the device.

Example 1.

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Example 2 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Example 3

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Example 4

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Example 5

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Active Voice Versus Passive Voice

What Is Active Voice?

I'll start with active voice because it's simpler. In an active sentence, the subject is doing the action. A straightforward example is the sentence "Steve loves Amy." Steve is the subject, and he is doing the action: he loves Amy, the object of the sentence.

Another example is the title of the Marvin Gaye song “I Heard It through the Grapevine.” "I" is the subject, the one who is doing the action. "I" is hearing "it," the object of the sentence.

What Is Passive Voice?

In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position. Instead of saying, "Steve loves Amy," I would say, "Amy is loved by Steve." The subject of the sentence becomes Amy, but she isn't doing anything. Rather, she is just the recipient of Steve's love. The focus of the sentence has changed from Steve to Amy.

Active vs. passive voice. In a sentence written in the active voice, the subject of sentence performs the action. In a sentence written in the passive voice the subject receives the action.

To know whether you are writing in the active or passive voice, identify the subject of the sentence and decide whether the subject is doing the action or being acted upon. Passive Voice: the subject is the receiver of the action.

Samples: 

Active vs. passive voice

In a sentence written in the active voice, the subject of sentence performs the action. In a sentence written in the passive voice the subject receives the action.

Active: The candidate believes that Congress must place a ceiling on the budget.

Passive: It is believed by the candidate that a ceiling must be placed on the budget by Congress.

Active: Researchers earlier showed that high stress can cause heart attacks.

Passive: It was earlier demonstrated that heart attacks can be caused by high stress.

Active: The dog bit the man.

Passive: The man was bitten by the dog.

When to use passive voice

There are sometimes good reasons to use the passive voice.

To emphasize the action rather than the actor

After long debate, the proposal was endorsed by the long-range planning committee.

To keep the subject and focus consistent throughout a passage

The data processing department recently presented what proved to be a controversial proposal to expand its staff. After long debate, the proposal was endorsed by . . . .

To be tactful by not naming the actor

The procedures were somehow misinterpreted.

To describe a condition in which the actor is unknown or unimportant

Every year, thousands of people are diagnosed as having cancer.

To create an authoritative tone

Visitors are not allowed after 9:00 p.m.

Your turn: class handout / copy below

Name______________________

Passive to active voice    Directions: Change each passive voice sentence into the active voice. Note you may need to adjust the form of the verb.

1.            The rock star was constantly chased by photographers.
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2.              Our vehicle had been stolen from our garage by the same burglary team.
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3.             Melissa was taken to Disney World by the people in the office.

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4.             All of the data on the hard drive was erased by the careless blogger.
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5.             All Siamese cats are held by the SPCA for four days.
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6.            Allison was stunned by the actions of her classmates.

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7.            A good insurance plan can now be gotten by all drivers.

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8.             An election was held by the township to determine the boundaries

of all districts

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9.             A full tuition scholarship is presented to the winner each year by the judges.

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10.        A good deal of money will be made by that investment.

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   11.  The television was purchased by a young man as a Father's Day gift. 

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12.  A colorful blanket for the new baby was knitted by a family friend.

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13.  Three finalists will be given prizes by the film festival judges tonight.

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14.  Peter Rabbit has been told by his mother not to play in Mr. McGregor's garden. 

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15. The mittens were lost by the three little kittens. 

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16.  Sally and I were treated to an old blues tune by the pianist while we ate. 

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17.  The man was rescued by a mysterious woman in a cape.

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18.  Ella complains that she is always given a million excuses by her daughter.

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19.  In this picture, my brother is being given a violin lesson by our cousin, Jessica.

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20.  When the bread arrived, it was gobbled down by the hungry guests. 

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Name _______________________Rhetoric

Rhetoric is a technique of using language effectively and persuasively in spoken or written form. It is an art of discourse, which studies and employs various methods to convince, influence or please an audience.

What are rhetorical devices? Rhetorical devices are strategies used to put forth your argument. Note that figurative language devices (those marked with an asterisk below) are common rhetorical language devices

Device                                   Definition

1.      anaphora             the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses

2.      epistrophe         the repetition of a word at the end of each phrase or clause: “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

3.      analogy                 the comparison of two pairs that have the same relationship. The key is to ascertain the relationship between the first so you can choose the correct second pair. Part to whole, opposites, results of are types of relationships you should find

4.      apostrophe    interruption of thought to directly address a person or a personification: “So, I ask you, dear reader, what would you have me do?”

5.      * imagery                 language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling 

                                   touching

6.        counterpoints   contrasting ideas such as black/white, darkness/light, good/bad

7.       * hyperbole          exaggeration or overstatement

8.       irony   an expression, often humorous or sarcastic, that exposes perversity or absurdity

Aristotelian Appeals

9.   logos  appeals to the head using logic, numbers, explanations, and facts. Through Logos, a writer aims at a person's intellect. The idea is that if you are logical, you will understand

10.    ethos  appeals to the conscience, ethics, morals, standards, values, principles

11. pathos  appeals to the heart, emotions, sympathy, passions, sentimentality.