🌸 Writing Assignment 3 - Evaluation of President Ronald Reagan's inaugural address on January 20, 1981

There are six points to an effective opening: establish a common ground between the speaker and the audience, set the tone for the speech, reinforce or establish the speaker’s credibility, arouse interest in the subject, take as much advantage of “the speaker’s grace period” as possible, and segue smoothly into the topic. Of these six points, President Ronald Reagan used five in his inaugural address on January 20, 1981.

Throughout his speech, Former President Ronald Reagan used words like “we,” “us,” and “our” to bring him and the audience together as one group of people with common concerns and problems. However, when he spoke about the heroes that were saving and protecting the country, he used words, such as “you” and “they” to emphasize that the heroes of our country are the everyday people who work to provide food, jobs, and homes for all of us. Language like that successfully gave a sense of unity between the new president and the people.

The tone of the speech was also repeated and reinforced throughout President Reagan’s speech. Several times, he addressed how the government needed to return to it’s origins of being run by the people and not for it. And by doing that, the government would go back to depending on the people for guidance instead of the other way around.

Overall, Former President Ronald Reagan’s speech was very inspirational and captivating, and a good study for all speech writers and speakers.

For my speech, I think I will use a combination of novelty, question, and humorous openings. I could begin by showing some of the projects I’ve worked on and throw in a bit of humor as I explain why I chose that particular project. Or, perhaps I could start with asking the audience what they would do if they needed, or wanted, a new bag, and then explain how I make my own. Another idea would be to start with a humorous story of someone running around town looking for the perfect gift for their friend before realizing that the best gift she could give her friend was something she already owned. I will have to experiment to see which flows better for me.