4. Close reading: What makes the speech so powerful? Pick the line that you think is most powerful and explain your choice.

Who are you talking to? Do you know them? Their expectations? Politicians do their research on the audiences they will be speaking to before they even think about getting behind the podium.

OCCASION

Where are you speaking? What type of event is it? Is it a political rally? Is it a technical conference? The Gettysburg Address could never have been the keynote speech at a Harvard graduation. Does the event require that motivate the people? What type of emotion does the event call for (if it calls for it at all)?

TOPIC

If you don’t know your topic, don’t volunteer to speak. It’s that simple. When you know your topic, THEN you can freestyle. Then you can ad-lib. Questions won’t throw you off your mark. Practice your speech. Research your topic. It relieves your nervousness. Nothing will completely eliminate it – and that’s fine. As my father told me long ago: “The world pays well for knowledge. Give them what they came for!”

Just remember this important point for every speech, “You don’t know everything, but you probably know more than your audience does.” Relax and speak.

Explanation:

A) The political institution Dickinson wants to maintain is the English monarchy.  He provides a series of reasons in favor of the status quo and against the Revolution.  For him, this institution has given the colonists freedom and he believes that establishing a Republic will result in "licentious anarchy and popular tyranny".

B) The English monarchy served as a guide for the colonists "directing them ... to the same object, which is self preservation and happiness".  This institution, according to Dickinson, maintained union in the colonies and gave the people freedom.  The monarchy "only sustains and governs".

C) Representative democracy is a system in which elected officials represent groups of the population in the government.  In the passage, he mentions the Parliament and how it represents the "variety of opinions and diversity of interests", which is what a representative democracy should do.  Unfortunately, though, the colonists did not have a direct representative in the Parliament.

Explanation: