Mousa 1

Austin Mousa

Mrs. Cox

English 101 Period 3

20 March 2020

Lincoln Timed Write

Brainstorm:

- Addresses politics, state’s rights, slavery, and his vison for the future generation.

- Parallelism

- Anaphora

- Repetition

- Use of pathos and logos to obtain credibility.

- Quotes from the last paragraph about motivating the country.

President Abraham Lincoln was the United States sixteenth president, and is recognized

for his fight against slavery and involement with the Emancipation Proclamation. Before he was

assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 15, 1865, he gave his Second Inaugural Address.

This speech addressed politics, state’s rights, slavery, and his vision for the future generation.

President Lincoln incorporated an abundance of rhetorical strategies to achieve his purpose and

reach his audience. The rhetorical strategies that can be analyzed throughout his speech are

parallelism, anaphora, and repetition. He uses these three strategies to persuade the audience that

he has credibility and his ideals are effective.

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President Lincoln uses parallelism, two or more phrases or clauses in a sentence that have

the same grammatical structure. This is used in his second to last paragraph when he states,

“Fondly do we hope -- fervently do we pray.” He puts the same amount of words on each side of

the sentence to create more of a proper and classy effect to his writing. This sentence also

includes repetition by repeating “do we.” The purpose behind why Lincoln decided to use this

rhetorical strategy is subtle, but useful.

Another rhetorical device that Lincoln incorporated in his speech is an anaphora. This is a

very common device that is used among many writers and speakers. It is a deliberate repetition

of the first part of the sentence to give emphasis on the idea that is trying to be displayed.

Lincoln used anaphora in his very last sentence when he says, “To bind up the nation’s wounds;

to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan -- to do all

which may have achieve and cherish.” The purpose behind repeating the word “to” was to

motivate his audience for what is in store for the future. President Lincoln played such an

important role in the development and motivation for our country that he has his own memorial

in Washington, DC.

The final rhetorical strategy that Lincoln uses to bring people together is repetition. The

use of repetition is found in the second sentence of the second paragraph when he says, “All

dreaded it -- all sought to avert it.” This appeal to pathos and logos is what makes Lincoln such a

great speaker. He refers to the Bible to give a sense of unity in the country when they need it the

most. This rhetorical strategy may be basic and overused, but Lincoln does it in a unique way to

bring his country together.

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Overall, Lincoln’s use of rhetorical strategies in his Second Inaugural Address was to

motivate and inspire the country. The effects of parallelism, anaphora, and repetition were subtle,

but much needed to make his speech proper and memorable for the audience. This speech has

shown how much of an impact President Lincoln has had, and still has on the country.