Dr. King's Speeches: "Life's Blueprint" & "To the Mountaintop"

Which appeal was strongest in Dr. King's "Life's Blueprint" Speech

• Ethos: the speaker's credibility and trustworthiness

• Pathos: the emotional reactions created in the audience.

• Logos: the use of logic such as facts, historical examples, and other proofs.

Answer explanation

There is no wrong answer!

The value of using different appeals is that they impact each listener differently.

Match the following

• A reference to someone, an event, or something well known.

• Repetition

• The extension of a comparison with multiple metaphors.

• Extended Metaphor

• The use of a similar structure and often repeated words or phrases to emphasize ideas.

• Alliteration

• The repetition of similar sounds at the beginning of words.

• Parallel Structure

• The use of repeated words or phrases to add emphasis or draw attention.

• Allusion

Reorder the following based upon the three main points King makes in his "Life's Blueprint" speech.

• Once you decide on what you will do with your life, do it well.

• Create a plan for your life.

• Work as hard as the Michelangelo, Shakespeare, and Beethoven who were the great masters of their craft

Use what you know about parallel structure to complete the following quote from "Life's Blueprint":

If you can't be a ​ (a)   at the top of the hill, be a ​ (b)   in the valley. If you can't be a ​ (c)   , just be a ​ (d)   . If you can't be a ​ (e)   , be a star.

• pine
• shrub
• highway
• trail
• sun

Which rhetorical device is used below:

"Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great essayist, said in a lecture in 1871..."

• Allusion

• Metaphor

• Imagery

• Parallel Structure

Which TWO rhetorical devices are used in the following quote:

"Don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead, or the unborn couldn't do it any better."

• Extended Metaphor

• Parallel Structure

• Hyperbole

• Allusion

Answer explanation

This quote uses parallel structure to list "the living, the dead, or the unborn" which also helps to emphasize the exaggeration of working hard (a hyperbole).

When Dr. King begins his speech by asking "What is your life's blueprint" which two rhetorical devices are being used?

• Rhetorical Question

• Allusion

• Simile

• Metaphor

Answer explanation

This question isn't seeking a response, so it is considered rhetorical. It is meant to get the audience to consider what King is asking.

It is also a metaphor because the blueprint represents having a plan for one's life.

The following quote uses which THREE rhetorical device:

"Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a ¨ and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good solid blueprint...the question is whether you have a proper, a solid, and a sound blueprint."

• Parallel Structure

• Repetition

• Extended Metaphor

• Simile

Use what you know about parallel structure to complete the following quote from "Life's Blueprint"

"If you can't fly, ​ (a)   . If you can't run, ​ (b)   . If you can't walk, ​ (c)   , but by all means keep moving."

• run
• walk
• crawl

Which appeal was the strongest in Dr. King's final speech, "To the Mountaintop"?

• Ethos

• Pathos

• Logos