The purpose of the following paper is to critique special occasion speeches using the provided speech evaluation form. The evaluated speeches are presented in the form of video. Each of these two speeches will be evaluated separately.
The first speech was made by Matthew McConaughey at the eighty-sixth Oscar Academy Awards in 2014. The audience included the representatives of the film industry and their relatives. He was presented with the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in “Dallas Buyers Club” and wanted to thank the academy, all the nominees, God, and everyone who was involved in his success.
In his speech, Matthew McConaughey pointed out that he never stops making goals and achieving them. He also mentioned that his late father must be happy with his achievements watching him above at this moment and found kind words for his mother and his wife. The audience needed the information about the actor’s appreciation of the moment and the support he had to achieve it. The actor’s speech was emotional, interesting and showed a positive attitude.
The speech had a clear beginning, middle and the end. It contained a repetition “thank you, thank you, thank you to the academy” at the beginning that showed his self-confidence (“Matthew McConaughey Winning Best Actor” 1:23-1:27). It seemed to me that he was sure he would win. There is another repetition in the end to emphasize the importance of his words. The vocabulary of the speech was appropriate to the moment because it was formal. Still, he used the every-day vocabulary to make the audience laugh. The sentence structure was appropriate to the formal style. The actor used both simple and complex sentences according to the language rules.
The speaker made a positive first impression. It seemed to me that he was sincere in his appreciation. The dress and appearance of the speaker were formal and appropriate to the speech.
The second speech was made by Meryl Streep at the Golden Globes in 2017. The audience included the representatives of the film industry, mainly foreign actors. She wanted to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press for the opportunity to conduct the ceremony and emphasize the role of foreign actors in Hollywood.
Meryl Streep pointed out that if all the foreign actors leave Hollywood, there will be nothing to watch but football. She also mentioned the origin of some actors who were present at the ceremony and stated that there were a lot of great movies this year. Still, she emphasized that the best performance she witnessed was made in real life and explained the importance of protecting those who are disabled (“Meryl Streep Powerful Speech at the Golden Globes (2017)”). The audience needed the appreciation of their work and importance of their profession. The speech conveyed emotions and empathy of the speaker’s attitude.
The speech had a clear beginning, middle and the end. It contained a repetition in the middle to emphasize the interest of the speaker to the movies that have been released recently. The vocabulary of the speech was appropriate to the moment because it was formal. Still, the speaker used every-day vocabulary in her jokes. The sentence structure was also appropriate to the formal style and language rules. There were no grammatical mistakes in her speech.
The speaker started her speech with a joke and made the audience laugh more than twice stating she was a good speaker and charming actress. Her mentioning of disabled people made her speech very powerful. The dress and appearance of the speaker were formal and appropriate to the speech.
The presented analysis included critics of two special occasion speeches. All the questions of the provided form have been covered except for the parallel structure question. I found the work rather informative and entertaining.
Works Cited
“Matthew McConaughey Winning Best Actor.” YouTube, uploaded by Oscars. Web.
“Meryl Streep Powerful Speech at the Golden Globes (2017).” YouTube, uploaded by MariiVicky. Web.