IB English A Lang & Lit Speech: Example + Try It Yourself Notes

Annotated Example: Speech

Examiner Commentary

1. The opening apology is a sophisticated use of ethos: by admitting imperfection and epistemic limitation, the speaker constructs a persona of honesty and humility, pre-empting the criticism that graduation speeches are formulaic and self-important.
2. The short, isolated sentence 'So here is what I do know' is a structural pivot: its brevity creates weight, a structural rest before the main argument begins in earnest.
3. The paragraph about unfairness uses concession and rebuttal: 'This is true' establishes the speaker as honest, before the rebuttal reframes unfairness from a problem into a resource.
4. The parenthetical clarification prevents a dangerous misreading, demonstrating care for the audience's interpretation.
5. The closing line is a chiasm (reversed parallel structure): 'The world does not owe you...' becomes 'You owe the world...'.
6. The shift from passive to active performs the speech's argumentative movement, from what the world owes you to what you owe the world.

Try it Yourself

1. Practice approach: The excerpt below is from a speech delivered at a town's fiftieth-anniversary celebration.
2. Read it and answer the questions that follow, using the annotated example above as a model for the level of detail expected.

1. What is the occasion and how does it shape the register and purpose of the speech?
2. Identify two oral rhetorical devices (for example: anaphora, tricolon, direct address) and analyse each one using the device-effect-purpose structure.
3. How does the speaker establish ethos? What persona do they construct for the audience?
4. Analyse the closing device. Name the device, explain its effect on the live audience, and connect it to the speech's overall purpose.

Sample Analysis: Fiftieth-Anniversary Speech

1. Occasion: a town's fiftieth-anniversary celebration, delivered by a local leader to the assembled community. This civic, celebratory occasion shapes a warm, inclusive register and a purpose that credits collective effort rather than individual achievement.
2. 'Neighbours, friends' is direct address: it collapses the distance between speaker and audience, framing the speech as conversation among equals rather than address from above, fitting the communal occasion.
3. 'We built... We built... We built...' is anaphora: the repeated clause accumulates a sense of collective labour, crediting the town's founders rather than any single leader.
4. 'I stand where my grandmother once stood' builds ethos: authority is grounded in lineage and lived experience rather than title, constructing a persona of continuity and humility.
5. 'That is not a failure. That is an inheritance' closes with antithesis: reframing incompleteness from deficiency into legacy, leaving the audience with forward-looking responsibility rather than closure.