Good source of public speeches to deconstruct for rhetorical devices and evaluating effectiveness.
Community Review for Voices of Democracy
My Take
Quality historical texts. Useful in not only the English Language Arts classroom for the rhetorical analysis but also useful in the History/Social Science classroom for analyzing the historical significance of the speech.
How I Use It
Often I am looking for good sources of public speeches to use in my rhetorical effectiveness lessons. This website has a variety of speeches, authors, and time periods from which to choose. Students can access the text and locate examples of rhetorical devices used by the speaker and then can analyze the purpose of the device and evaluate its effect on the reader/listener. I can also find examples of rhetorical devices to use as illustrations when I am presenting a lesson on a particular device.