Writing My Own
“I Have a Dream” Speech

In his famous speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out many great things about our country, and he explained one of our biggest problems at the time. He used several persuasive techniques to get his point across. Some of these included:

Technique / Definition/Effect / Remember
Imagery /
  • Using powerful adjectives and figurative language to help the reader visualize, hear, smell, taste, or feel something about the topic
  • Gives the reader a connection with something familiar
/
Allusion /
  • A purposeful or accidental reference to a person, event, or text from history
  • Allows the listener or reader to better understand the author’s point by connecting it to prior knowledge
  • Understanding depends on the background knowledge of the listener or reader
/
Repetition /
  • Repeating words or phrases frequently
  • Emphasizes a point the author is trying to make
/
Personal appeal /
  • Using words such as us, we, our together
  • Makes a connection or enlists the audience
/

Many speeches follow the same format, including Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech. The five basic parts of a speech are:

Parts of a Speech
1)Attract the attention of the audience (question, story, quote, allusion)
2)Providing evidence for purpose/need
3)Providing a workable solution
4)Outlining benefits of the solution
5)Call to action

“I Have a Dream” Speech: Brainstorming

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech addresses a very complicated issue. The issue of inequality was more difficult to solve than many of the everyday problems we face.

You are going to write your own “Dream” speech about an issue you think is important in the world today. Below, brainstorm a list of problems facing the world today. You will later pick only ONE to write about.

______

______

______

Use the spaces below to brainstorm ideas for your speech once you have chosen your topic.

The problem I will write about is:
1) Attract the attention of the reader
2)Provide evidence that there is a problem
3) Provide workable solutions to the problem with explanations
4) Provide benefits of the solutions to ALL people
5) Call the audience to action
Possible techniques to use for all parts of the speech are: / ___Allusions (Can you think of a quote from a famous document, book, movie, song, etc. that connects to your problem?)
___Repetition (What point are you trying to make? Can you think of a catchy phrase to repeat to get your point across?)
___Figurative Language (Paint a picture for your reader using similes, metaphors, hyperboles or other types of imagery)
___Personal Appeal (Using words like us, together, we or appealing to all groups of people helps your audience feel included)

Drafting

What is your dream? Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed that one day, our nation would live up to the promises of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence that all people would have freedom and equality. Using your brainstorming list, can you think of any problems that you dream will someday be solved? Notice that in Martin Luther King’s speech, he outlines the problem, but then he gives a list of positive dreams that would come true once the problem was solved.

So, what is your dream today?______

______

Now, let’s write a speech about your dream! Below is a list of suggestions and space to help you draft your speech.

Attract the attention of the audience
  • Grab the audience’s attention with something positive (Refer to the things you love about your life, community, or world from the brainstorming process)
  • Asking a rhetorical question*, an anecdote, a famous quote or an allusion to a person, place or text from the past are all options

Provide evidence for purpose/need
  • Why is this a problem?
  • What evidence can you provide that this is a problem?
  • Don’t forget to use good persuasive techniques (examples: repetition, imagery, figurative language)

Provide a workable solution
  • What can be done to solve this problem?
  • Don’t forget to use good persuasive techniques (examples: repetition, imagery, figurative language)

Outline the benefits of finding a solution
  • How will the world be a better place because a solution has been reached?
  • How will things change for the better?
  • Don’t forget to use good persuasive techniques (examples: repetition, imagery, figurative language)

Call to action
  • What does the audience need to do now?
  • Get them involved!
  • Don’t forget to use good persuasive techniques (examples: repetition, imagery, figurative language)

Revisions

Have a peer or adult read your paper. Reading aloud will help you both listen for obvious omissions or areas that are unclear or need work. Is the main message focused and clear to the reader? Is your speech organized? Is it persuasive? Repeat with more than one partner if necessary. Use a pen to make corrections during this process.

Record three additions or deletions that would help improve your writing here:

Part of the speech that needs improvement / How I plan to make it better

At this stage in the writing process, the writer should go back to the original copy and add in any corrections that need to be made.

Editing

Use a peer editor and the chart below to review your paper for these common grammatical mistakes:

Common mistakes: / Corrections needed in my work:
Capitalization (the beginnings of sentences, proper nouns such as specific names of people, places or things, titles)
Punctuation (end punctuations marks, commas and semicolons used correctly)
Sentence fragments or run-ons (Is there a subject and a verb? Is it a complete thought? Are there too many thoughts in one sentence? Should the sentence be broken into two?)
Spelling (they’re, their, there, then/than, its, it’s)
Word choice (Are all words used in the correct way?)

Make these corrections to your paper, and reread the work one final time to prepare it for publishing.You will now write a final, published copy. Your work should be no more than 500 words. Make them count!