Speech

The Longest Day, the Shortest Speech

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"The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do."

Address by Dwight D. Eisenhower

Written in case of failure of D-Day Invasion, Normandy, France on June 6, 1944

In my analysis of this speech, I have found that the speech fails to adhere to the guidelines of informative speech. Although it meets a few of the guidelines, the speech overall is unsuccessful in the essence of providing the vital information needed to make it a worthy informative speech.

In it’s opening sentence, the speech violates the guideline “Don’t be too technical”. The speaker’s use of words such as “landings” and “foothold” are technical jargons that the ordinary audience would not be able to fully comprehend. His speech is more directed towards the military savvy audience than the common citizen and leaves a lot to be desired. The speaker could have improved his speech by using less specialized words. Although sometimes, it becomes difficult to put military terms in easy to understand language, the speaker could have used words such as “attack” in lieu of “landings” and “control” instead of “foothold”. This would have made it much easier for the audience to understand and relate to the scene.

Also, in the opening sentence, the speaker violates another guideline “Don’t overestimate what the audience knows” about the topic. He refers to “Cherbourg-Havre” area and makes no relative reference to the lay of the land. Although the average historian and biographer following the war would be able to determine what the “area” is, the average audience would have no clue. The speech could have improved if the speaker would have made a reference to France. That would have rung bells in the minds of the audience, as France is a more recognizable area than “Cherbourg-Havre”.

The speaker does, however, fulfill the guideline “Relate the...