Direct address is a great technique to engage an audience and to make them want to listen to what you have to say.
It encompasses the use of personal pronouns: you us we our your yours ours Direct address is perfect when you want to be inclusive and have the audience believe that you care about their opinions and feelings, or that you want the same things as them. Direct address used well Martin Luther King Jr is the king of inclusive rhetoric. Consider: I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But 100 years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. Notice how at the start of the speech, King immediately includes the audience members and joins himself to them with the use of the inclusive pronoun "our". This creates a sense of community and ensures that the audience feel like King is one of them. The continued use of "we" sustains this idea and so, subconsciously, the audience feel connected to King. When you use direct address, it is important to do so in a manner that is respectful of the audience members and sensitive to what it is that you have been asked to do. Direct address used poorly Think about this extract from a speech regarding the building of a supermarket on a local playing field: You may think that you know better than we do, but you're wrong. You are nothing but corporate bigots and you will regret this choice. Notice the aggressive tone. This writer has immediately threatened the audience and therefore abandons the sense of community that they should have been aiming for. This means that the audience's feathers are ruffled, and in the wrong way. Direct address should be used to promote, not berate. TL;DR When writing non-fiction, direct address is a gift. However, be careful not to use it threateningly as this will ensure the reader switches off! Excellent speeches that use direct address: Winston Churchill - We shall fight them on the beaches... Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement address Carl Sagan on humanity
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In a Nutshell...Paper 2 is a BEAST of a paper. In it, you have to read two non-fiction pieces, before analysing the language and structure of one and evaluating the success of a writer's techniques in the other. To finish, you have to compare the two texts thoroughly, looking at methods and techniques. Archives
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