Patrick Henry, Persuasive Review

Read Patrick Henry's "Speech to the Virginia Convention" (82).

Persuasion is a form of speaking or writing that aims to convince an audience to take a specific action. A good persuasive speaker or writer appeals to both head and heart--or logic and emotion--to win over an audience. To be persuasive, a writer or speaker must provide reasons to support a particular opinion or course of action. In the final analysis, audiences are often won over by the speaker's ability to address their concerns as much as by forceful arguments and a powerful personality.

For each of the following speeches, answer the questions below.

Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (46)

Thomas Jefferson, “The Declaration of Independence” (100)

Patrick Henry, “Speech to the Virginia Convention” (82)

What is the speaker’s purpose and who is the intended audience?

What is the main idea of each of these works?

Identify one example of a logical appeal

Identify one example of an emotional appeal

Identify one example of metaphor

Identify one example of parallelism

What is the overall effectiveness of the persuasion?