“I Have a Dream” can be summarized in the view below, which associates the size of the word with its frequency. justice (8 times) and injustice (3 times).nation (10 times), america (5 times), american (4 times).we (30 times), our (17 times), you (8 times).

Other key themes? Consider these commonly repeated words: This makes sense, since freedom is one of the primary themes of the speech. The most commonly used noun is freedom, which is used twenty times in the speech. If you count the frequency of words used in King’s “I Have a Dream”, very interesting patterns emerge. One way is to repeat key “theme” words throughout the body of your speech. Repetition in forms like anaphora is quite obvious, but there are more subtle ways to use repetition as well. Lesson #2: Repeat Key “Theme” Words Throughout Your Speech Emphasis through repetition makes these phrases more memorable, and, by extension, make King’s story more memorable. Even in the absence of the remainder of the speech, these key phrases tell much of King’s story. “We can never (cannot) be satisfied…”.By order of introduction, here are the key phrases: But this is just one of eight occurrences of anaphora in this speech. “ I have a dream” is repeated in eight successive sentences, and is one of the most often cited examples of anaphora in modern rhetoric. Repeating the words twice sets the pattern, and further repetitions emphasize the pattern and increase the rhetorical effect. Lesson #1: Emphasize Phrases by Repeating at the Beginning of SentencesĪnaphora (repeating words at the beginning of neighbouring clauses) is a commonly used rhetorical device. Use metaphors to highlight contrasting concepts.Use specific examples to “ground” your arguments.Utilize appropriate quotations or allusions.Repeat key “theme” words throughout your speech.Emphasize phrases by repeating at the beginning of sentences.Instead, I’ll focus on five key lessons in speechwriting that we can extract from Martin Luther King’s most famous speech. Much of the greatness of this speech is tied to its historical context, a topic which goes beyond the scope of this article. Speech Critique – I Have a Dream – Martin Luther King Jr. Share your thoughts on this presentation.

Study the speech text in the complete transcript and.

Read the analysis in this speech critique.

This article is the latest in a series of video speech critiques which help you analyze and learn from excellent speeches. It is worthy of lengthy study as we can all learn speechwriting skills from King’s historic masterpiece. is one of the most memorable speeches of all time. “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr.

I have a dream speech full text