In the midst of the cold war and rising competition with the technological might of the Soviet Union, John F. Kennedy is confronted with a situation where he must convince the American people to bare the plentiful obstacles of space exploration. Further, President Kennedy must persuade the public to consider his proposition on why space travel might be beneficial and a requisite for the success of American ideals. With that in mind, what better place to give this speech than rice university? A school in Texas praised for its academic and scientific achievement. Poised for the opportunity, Kennedy captures his moment by not only creating a situation in which he can engage America’s greatest intellectuals, but also televise to the public and
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A key example of Kennedy using this tactic is his acknowledgement of the costs through an excerpt from William Bradford “…all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage” (Kennedy 2), and “Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward” (Kennedy 2). What might seem as a risky action in this case is actually very respectable and effective at establishing a reputation of trust. This trust comes from the fact that he acknowledged the immense cost that a space program would have on the American people and shows that he is laying out all information without keeping expensive programs a secret. In addition, Kennedy’s approach to ethos becomes more formal when considering one of his beginning quotations “I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor…” (Kennedy 1). Though this statement is quite obvious about its intentions, Kennedy finds it necessary so that he is considerable to the audience as an intellectual making an argument. After all, one would have to be deliberate and intuitive to challenge the oppositional scientific might of the Soviet Union and encourage the American people to fight …show more content…
As a result, the effectiveness of his speech was multiplied. With that in mind, it can be observed that Kennedy deliberately unifies his audience by using phrases like “We choose to go… We choose to go to the moon in this decade… the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge[space travel] is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win” (Kennedy 3). With that said, there is no doubt that by style alone Kennedy produced one of the most powerful quotes of his time. Further, Kennedy goes on to use an effective example by condensing time to show the imminence of space travel, “No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man¹s recorded history in a time span of but a half-century…we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight” (Kennedy 1-2). With his careful crafting and placement of words, Kennedy is able to create this unique time effect to draw his audience in. With the combination of all the elements listed above, Kennedy produced an immaculate and effective proposal for the exploration of space. Some might say that his combination of style, ethos and Kairos were contributing very little to his speech, but that is surely wrong since several of them accounted for some of the best quotes within the
A key example of Kennedy using this tactic is his acknowledgement of the costs through an excerpt from William Bradford “…all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage” (Kennedy 2), and “Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward” (Kennedy 2). What might seem as a risky action in this case is actually very respectable and effective at establishing a reputation of trust. This trust comes from the fact that he acknowledged the immense cost that a space program would have on the American people and shows that he is laying out all information without keeping expensive programs a secret. In addition, Kennedy’s approach to ethos becomes more formal when considering one of his beginning quotations “I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor…” (Kennedy 1). Though this statement is quite obvious about its intentions, Kennedy finds it necessary so that he is considerable to the audience as an intellectual making an argument. After all, one would have to be deliberate and intuitive to challenge the oppositional scientific might of the Soviet Union and encourage the American people to fight …show more content…
As a result, the effectiveness of his speech was multiplied. With that in mind, it can be observed that Kennedy deliberately unifies his audience by using phrases like “We choose to go… We choose to go to the moon in this decade… the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge[space travel] is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win” (Kennedy 3). With that said, there is no doubt that by style alone Kennedy produced one of the most powerful quotes of his time. Further, Kennedy goes on to use an effective example by condensing time to show the imminence of space travel, “No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man¹s recorded history in a time span of but a half-century…we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight” (Kennedy 1-2). With his careful crafting and placement of words, Kennedy is able to create this unique time effect to draw his audience in. With the combination of all the elements listed above, Kennedy produced an immaculate and effective proposal for the exploration of space. Some might say that his combination of style, ethos and Kairos were contributing very little to his speech, but that is surely wrong since several of them accounted for some of the best quotes within the