While this may not seem like much, remember that his entire speech was only 271 words.īy repetitive use of these words, he drills his central point home: Like the men who died here, we must dedicate ourselves to save our nation. A word-by-word analysis of the Gettysburg Address reveals the following words are repeated: Now, we’ll turn our attention to the importance of repeating individual words. In the second lesson, we’ve seen how words can be strung together to craft rhetorical devices. In the first lesson, we’ve seen how words can be used to anchor arguments by referencing widely held beliefs. Anchor your arguments from that solid foundation. “When trying to persuade your audience, seek out principles on which you agree and beliefs which you share. Lesson #2 – Employ Classic Rhetorical Devices
How can you use this lesson? When trying to persuade your audience, seek out principles on which you agree and beliefs which you share. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.īy referencing both the Bible and the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln is signalling that if his audience trusts the words in those documents (they did!), then they should trust his words as well. That document contains the following famous line:
Therefore, Lincoln’s “Four score and seven years ago” was a Biblically evocative way of tracing backwards eighty-seven years to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. So, the verse is stating that a human life is about 70 years.) The days of our years are threescore years and ten… Lincoln knew this, of course, and included references to both of these documents. Īmong the beliefs which his audience held, perhaps none were stronger than those put forth in the Bible and Declaration of Independence. Lincoln does this twice in his first sentence:įour score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. When trying to persuade your audience, one of the strongest techniques you can use is to anchor your arguments to statements which your audience believes in. Lesson #1 – Anchor Your Arguments Solidly
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