Dandelions: The Uncommon Weed Analysis

 

Organizing a Speech Analysis

Dandelions: The Uncommon Weed 

Susan R. Hirsch

The rhetorical purpose was to inform her audience. Susan's specific Outcome Goal is to inform her audience of Dandelion's medicinal and culinary values, making it a useful plant rather than a " common" weed. 

The Introduction of the speech included all five parts. First, the attention grabbers were a series of open-ended questions with guided responses. The questions referred to dandelion's uncommon origin, while the responses guided the audience's thinking of the topic: dandelions. Second, significance of the topic was brought upon by connecting back to audience's childhood interactions with the " yellow flowers" and homeowner's interaction with weeds, because many do not want weeds around the house. This retrospection was successful in establishing the familiarity of the topic therefore bringing on the importance of analyzing and talking about " common" things in everyday life. Third, the qualifications were established by announcing her credibility to talk about the plant as a botany student, as well as her extensive personal research on the topic. Fourth, the Outcome Goal was evident by Hirsch's statement " Today, I will explain these uses to you". The "uses" refer to her previous statement where she identifies the usefulness of dandelions as " medical and culinary". Finally, she included the Preview the Main Points  before her Outcome goal by discussing that dandelion's have " medical and culinary" uses. I believe that her introduction was effective, because each sentence was leading up to one another and it was clear and simple to understand her intentions of her speech and what her speech will accomplish. 

Hirsch's first main point was dandelion's medicinal value.  She followed a chronological organizational pattern by discussing the past and then the present. For example, she mentioned that ancient Egyptians used dandelions to treat kidney and stomach disorders and then she brought her main point to present tense by stating " Today, scientists...." gained knowledge of dandelion's benefits to blood circulation and digestive organs. Same pattern was done for the second point, the culinary value. Susan utilizes one clear signpost right before the first body paragraph, where Hirsch states " We'll start by looking at the dandelion's medicinal value"; however, for the second body paragraph, her signpost sounded like a transition sentence, because it restated the main point instead of telling her location in the speech. It said " If you have no interest in using dandelions for your health, you can still find them of use in your kitchen". The sentence provides a summary of the main point, but not the speaker's exact location. This signpost is vague and should have been reworded to signify location.

 Susan's speech contains all three parts of conclusion. First, she reviews her main points: medical and culinary values of dandelions. Second, she restates her Outcome goal by discussing how despite dandelion's bad reputation-it is still a valuable plant. Lastly, the last sentence of the conclusion was effective in portraying a memorable image, because she connected her outcome goal to the title of her speech. Susan's outcome goal was to inform her audience of dandelions' special attributes, making it known not as a common weed, but as a rare, special " uncommon" plant thereby connecting it to the title of the speech " Dandelions: The Uncommon Weed". Interestingly, Hirsch's connection of Outcome Goal and the title was a clever trick. 

Overall, Hirsch's body organization was performed in a chronological way successfully, because  she went from old to new, so that the audience can relate to the new easily and readily. It wouldn't make sense for her to include the old times last, because it may disorient the audience. I believe that she has organized her Introduction, Body and Conclusion in a very quick and efficient way. However, she didn't master the second signpost that looked like a transition sentence. If she were to use signposts I feel like she should have stuck with them throughout the speech as to make her structure consistent. 

One additional comment I would like to propose is to her attention to minor details. For example, in her sixth paragraph she states," dandelion tea is highly effective in cases of eczema, scurvy and similar skin conditions". I believe that statement  " similar skin conditions" was absolutely unnecessary to include; however, it actually helps the reader to understand what previous words mean like " eczema" and "scurvy" mean without having to look it up online. Many people are not familiar with medical terms, but by including " similar skin conditions", Susan was able to eliminate any confusion amongst the audience- making it look similar to an essay.