Running head: PUBLIC SPEAKING ANALYSIS

Public Speaking Analysis

Addison Galloway
University of Kentucky

PUBLIC SPEAKING ANALYSIS

Abstract
This speech analysis explores the effectiveness of Gayle Tzemach Lemmons TED Talk, Meet
the Fighting Women on the Front Lines of an American War. First, the paper discusses audience
and its influence on the speech as it informs word choice and affects connection with the
audience. Secondly, it addresses the non-verbal and verbal communication Lemmon used in
delivering her speech. Furthermore, areas of improvement are examined to help in offering
advice for others; this paper addresses three specific areas.
Keywords: audience, delivery, content

PUBLIC SPEAKING ANALYSIS

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon preformed a speech on meeting the women fighting on the front
lines in Afghanistan. In her speech she introduced some of the women that were part of the
Special Operations team who served on the front lines of combat. Lemmon, a female reporter
writes about women with an interest in economics and advancement. She has written a book on
this topic and another on a female entrepreneur that became a best seller. In May 2015, Gayle
delivers this speech at the TEDWomen 2015, which is a conference for those around the world
that are interested in change. Lemmon talks about the change of womens rule in combat.
Based on the subject, I presume Lemmons audience was adults. Another reason
Lemmons audience consisted of adults was the setting; her speech was given at a conference,
which was held on a weekday. Even though the name of the conference was TEDWomen, the
audience was women and men who are interested in global change. Because these speeches were
livestreamed to 68 different countries, women and men around the world viewed them.
Therefore, one group of people, Lemmon would have to consider are people from cultures where
women do not have the same rights as women here in the United States. The audience may affect
the content and delivery of the speech in a few ways. For those who were present, she able to see
and hear the responses of crowd. On the other hand, the audience that was watching from the
livestream may have affected her speech differently in the regards to the content; Lemmon had to
be careful of her word choices and any judgement associated with them so that she would not
offend people from other cultures. Her goal was to inform and praise about this group of US
Military women, not degrade others.
The first effective approach Lemmon did in her speech was to connect with the audience.
She did this by varying her tone depending on the topic she was telling about. For example, in
the beginning of the speech, Lemmons voice was very positive and upbeat because she was

PUBLIC SPEAKING ANALYSIS

telling stories about women and how they talked to each other. Her tone helped express the
emotions Lemmon was trying to deliver. When she gave descriptions and details of girl's
personalities and lives, she smiled with great joy; this humanized them so that people could
relate to the women. Another tactic Lemmon used in her speech was showing pictures of the
women she was talking about; this helped the visual learners to see the bigger image of the
stories. Also she was effective by using jokes to lighten up the mood; an example is she relayed
the story of one of the women who when she found out that there were other women just like her
said there was more than one giraffe at the zoo (3:05). She used inclusive language when
talking about how if people want to know information about a community, they talk to the
women; she said this is true for all women from Southern Afghanistan to Southern California
(1:25). Lemmons content was appropriate for this specific audience because they are interested
in advancement and forward movement; her speech was about how important these womens
roles were in the war. Furthermore, her content was appropriate for the situation in which the
speech took place since she delivered it at TEDWomen 2015.
After watching Lemmons speech, it was difficult to critique her delivery and content for
improvement. Her approach, dress, pace and rate of speaking, tone, eye contact and authority
created an effective presentation. Because her speech was outstanding, the only area of
improvement I could detect was her hand gestures, which may be consider distracting.
Lemmons experience with public speaking/ live reporting may explain why she did such an
amazing job. Therefore, her presentation is a great example of how to deliver a successful speech
with interesting content. Based off the areas that Lemmon excelled at, there are numerous pieces
of advice that could be helpful to individuals preparing to speak publicly. One piece of advice is
the importance of using tone and varying inflection since this will engage and keep the

PUBLIC SPEAKING ANALYSIS

audiences attention. The second piece of advice to offer is use visuals, which humanizes the
subjects; also, visuals benefit the audience since not all people are auditory.
In analyzing a speech, there are factors that have an influential role in effectiveness.
Delivery and content are critiqued by non-verbal and verbal communication behaviors
demonstrated by the speaker; eye contact, word choice, tone and pace of speech are a few
examples. As a result, these are reasons why Lemmons speech was so good. Furthermore, she
presented an engaging topic.