I have chosen the great leaders, brilliant speakers; Martin Luther King Jr.

and Abraham
Lincoln for the purpose of this assignment, I’ve examined their speaking styles based on the
following famous speeches:

Martin Luther King Jr.

* “I have a dream”
* “I’ve been to the mountaintop”
* “Our God is marching on”
Abraham Lincoln
* “The Gettyburg Address”
* “House Divided”
* “Lyceum Address”

1. King successfully used Empathy and Non Verbal/ Verbal Communication to hold the
attention of his audience in his speech. Martin used colloquial language and repetition and
appropriate motivation, a strong sense of empathy to captivate his audience. King’s gazing
plays a major part throughout his speeches. It reduces his non- verbal leakage and
minimises the ambiguity in this speech. King on a pulpit, gave him more space and showed
his power and authority as a dominant figure. His paralanguage varied throughout his
speech ; on some occasions his paralanguage was serious with rising intonation to signify
his determination. At other occasion he used an aggressive tone with appropriate use of
volume and emphasis to increase the impact of his point. King equally was sensitive in his
use of language. He understood that the majority of black Americans in the sixties weren’t
well educated. He used rhetorical devises ranging from repetition , contrasting pairs,
Catchphrases to colloquial language. King’s language was simple, but included a wide-
reaching elaborated code that expressed his views on the world. It had a complete syntax
and was much harder to predict, which itself often functioned as a barrier to communication.
The audience were engaged by King rather than put off. The most effective skill King used
was his empathy, the ability to see and feel as others do to put oneself in to another’s shoes.
His stable extroverted personality showed his carefree, social, leadership qualities,
suggesting a positive self- concept and this is directed to his audience who provided positive
feedback. King honed his experience as a preacher in order bring a rich tone and steadiness
to speaking. He spoke slow and exerted confidence and intelligence on the issues he
addressed. The reason King’s speech was so vivid is because he included colorful language
and used his words to paint a picture in the minds of listeners. King used metaphors
throughout the entire speech, bringing simple sentences to life. He inserted well-time pauses
in order to emphasise and create suspense. He often used a deeper, heavier voice to
display that he knows what he’s talking about. When he stumbled, he took an appropriate
pause and recovered. He uses repetition such as anaphora and epistrophe to build onto the
point. Even though violence was common around the country back then, he advicated
positive outcomes of an equal society, gained through dignity and discipline.

2. Lincoln’s mind was logical, and he longed for the day when “reason, cold, calculating,
unimpassioned reason,” would rule the world. On rising to address the jury or the crowd he
quite generally placed his hands behind him, the back part of his left hand resting in the palm
of his right hand. As he proceeded and grew warmer, he moved his hands to the front.
Sometimes his hands, for a short while, would hang by his side. In still growing warmer, as
he proceeded in his address, he used his hands — especially and generally his right hand —
in his gestures; he used his head a great deal in speaking, throwing or jerking or moving it
now here and now there, now in this position and now in that, in order to be more emphatic,
to drive the idea home. He was was cool, careful, earnest, sincere, truthful, fair,
self-possessed, not insulting, not dictatorial; was pleasing, good-natured; had great strong
naturalness of look, pose, and act; was clear in his ideas, simple in his words, strong, terse,
and demonstrative; he spoke and acted to convince individuals and masses. Lincoln’s body
language at the start was cautious and deferential, and only became more assertive and
expressive when the audience got to know him, and he became more comfortable with
them. He used his head to punctuate his speech, and drive home the message. Lincoln
understood the power of the “sound bite,” the limitation of attention spans , and the need to
be succinct and intentional in his words. His wit and humour shined out throughout his
speeches. he saw ludicrous elements in everything, and could either narrate some story
from his storehouse of jokes, or else he could improvise one. He utilizes rhetorical strategies
of repetition and antithesis to display his dedication to the fallen soldiers and convince the
listeners to preserve the nation. Lincoln repeats the words ‘our’ and ‘we’ several times in his
speech to display a sense of belongingness to the listeners, whereas antithesis helped him
effectively contrast one idea from another. He loved to narrate stories and had a fantastic
ability to find just the right story to illustrate his point.