A Coach's Confident Connection

On Tuesday, 22 February, I had the honor of hearing Coach Herman Boone speak as a part of the SPA Distinguished Speaker Series. Coach Boone is best known for coaching the T. C. Williams High School football team in Virginia while it was being integrated in 1971. Many people recognize his story from the movie Remember the Titans, in which he was portrayed by Denzel Washington. Of course, while listening to his interesting speech, I immediately began to think of his delivery as a rhetorical situation

One of the most striking aspects of his speech was that he displayed incredible confidence while speaking. Of course, Coach Boone has had many years to become comfortable in front of crowds as he was a football coach and is now a public speaker. He did not show any nerves while he was on stage; his voice was calm, strong, and confident. As a member of the audience, I found it very easy to listen to him speak because his manner of delivery only enhanced his intriguing stories and the message that he was delivering.

Likewise, Coach Boone immediately connected to the audience and make his speech relevant to the Penn State community. One way that he did this was by referring to Joe Paterno and integrating Penn State jokes into the speech. Likewise, he recognized Larry Johnson Sr., a current Penn State coach and former player of his, which added to the personal feeling. Larry Johnson was sitting in the row behind me and so, every time that Coach Boone would make a reference to him, I would eagerly listen because I knew that I was sitting only a few feet away. These personal anecdotes made audience members feel like Boone was personally connecting with them and he thus captivated the entire audience and truly enhanced this incredible event.

Closing Arguments

Recently, my friend introduced me to Boston Legal, a show that ran on ABC from 2004 to 2008. I immediately was hooked because the show masterfully mixed two of my favorite things: law and classic television romances. While quickly breezing through the first few season I realized that rhetoric plays a great role in a trial. In these fictional portrayals, it became clear that the attorney Alan Shore predominately uses pathos during his closing argument to forge an emotional response from the judge and jury and to elicit his desired outcome.

Alan’s techniques are well established among the other individuals in the show. In one episode where he did not seem to have a case, he was advised to simply give a long closing argument, as was his custom, to pull on the emotions of the jury. By doing so, the individual told him that he would easily win. However, because his emotional appeals are well established, he has been warned on numerous occasions by judges that he just needs to just stick with the facts and focus on the trial at hand.

Of course, Alan has established his credibility and is often requested for trials because of his abilities. He also reviews a great deal of information brought up within the trial. In his closings, he also effectively leave the judge and jury, his attended audience, with a question to ponder. Of course, this reflects the issue of guilt and innocence. But he breaks their expectations by taking what generally seems to be a straightforward issue and making jury think twice. In a case in which a homeless man was arrested for cremating a friend and, while starving, went to eat the friend, Alan forces the jury to consider the defendant's cannibalistic actions as acceptable. In a case that may not have an explicit emotional appeal, Alan makes one by reminding the jury of the deceased wishes to be burned by his friend and the reminder that the deceased would have wanted the defendant to do all that was possible to survive.The firm went on to win the case not because the jury necessarily accepts the defendant’s actions, but rather because Alan Shore uses rhetorical devices to appeal to logic and emotion.

Boston Legal: Fine Young Cannibal (Episode 304).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1DUTrfF83I

(Alan Shore's closing argument begins at 37 seconds)

"Speech Is My Hammer" - A Response Filled With Rhetoric

         In Michael Eric Dyson’s, “Speech Is My Hammer,” a remembrance of Martin Luther King’s activism, he undoubtably calls upon rhetoric to emphasize his point. Most effectively, Dyson uses pathos to invest the readers in the message that he works to send. Immediately, Dyson states that King’s, “words still live in our memories” and that, “King also processed the gift to translate love into concrete political action.” These statements surely remind the reader of King’s actions and thus his immortality. This emotion is emphasized as Dyson believes that the reader can take these memories and work to emulate King’s activism towards social equality. 

       To further spread his message, Dyson also effectively recognizes his audience. Upon further research, I learned that Dyson is both a professor of sociology and an ordained Baptist Minister. Knowing this and knowing that King was also a Baptist Minister further explains the religious references. Though Dyson analyzes King’s legacy in general, an excerpt of “Letter from Birmingham Jail” precedes Dyson’s piece in the Rhetoric and Civic Life textbook. In this letter, King directly addresses his fellow clergymen. Just as King recognizes his audience as religious in nature, Dyson does so as well. However, his piece still has meaning for a variety of audiences. Dyson recalls that King made basic claims of “justice, love, and power” and how they must coexist for true effectiveness. Without a doubt, the remembrance of basic civil liberties and the good that King did in the social, economic, and political realms surely speaks to numerous audiences. Though King worked within the black church, his message, and thus Dyson’s, can be heard by all people.