Tomya Williams

SPCH 11100

Professor Van Putten

20th May,2025

“I have a dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. and the lifeboat experience

Martin Luther King Jr’s speech ‘I have a dream’ was very impactful to many around the world. As I read and listened to  the speech I was very interested in the choice of language   and three parts of it were very impactful to me. “But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”  The metaphor used in this part was outstanding. He highlights how opportunities are not limited and that they are allowed to use these opportunities as they were promised. They need and have the right to claim them. He later goes on to say“As evidenced by their presence here today, they have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny[Tw1] , and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone”. He is addressing the white people that have come to support them and he doesn’t want  hate  to increase as he wishes to get  freedom in a peaceful manner.  He recognizes that nobody is free until everyone is and uses this knowledge to get everyone to fight together rather than causing separation. “This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation[Tw1]  into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”This was impactful to me as highlighting hope gives the audience motivation , he allows us to imagine a life with unity and how amazing it would be.

The lifeboat project was a very fun experience. I really enjoyed the ‘Who am i’ section of the project as it allowed me to get creative and express myself. It allowed me to explore aspects of my personality as I had to think deeply about who I am and my goals which I often don’t think about.

I was in group three. The members of this group include Aaron Khan,Martin Sierra,Gabriela Rodriguez,Czaryna Moreno and myself, Tomya Williams.Many of the self choices matched that of the group choices. The arguments for the  survivors made use of  logos and pathos.The majority of the group decided on who to save based on who would help us to survive. My initial decision was to choose Lola and I argued using pathos as I believed she went through alot and deserved a second chance at life. My mind was changed when a member highlighted that she would not be very useful to help us survive and persuaded me  to choose Barry instead even though he was not my initial option.They highlighted the pros and cons of letting Lola and Barry on the lifeboat which helped me to understand their perspective and change my decision.

 Some of the  arguments were intense but everyone was still very respectful and allowed each person to state their position and reasoning.This was the same for the class choice. The class discussion was very insightful as everyone brought new reasons  forward to persuade us to choose survivors we would have never chosen. Logos  was used the most out of all the strategies in persuasive language for these arguments. These  arguments were very interesting and  seeing how passionate some people can get while fighting for what they believe was entertaining.It was one of the most interesting and unique assignments I have ever done. The project brought to life many of the aspects of persuasive language as we argued who should survive.

Fear Chart

Speech	Fear/Anxiety/Problem	Correction/Preparation	Performance/Critic	Feedback	Grade
Introduction	Losing concentration	I practiced the speech many times  before	It went very good and I  finished in the time frame	The audience thought I had good vocal variety and did an  interesting speech	50(not percent)
Demonstration	The demonstration would go wrong because i forgot a step	I practiced the speech many times in front of people	The performance was good but I needed to tighten my outline	Audience thought it was a fun and clear demonstration , engaging,good vocal variety	86%
Numbers Speech	The audience would not find the subject interesting	I did as much research on the person i chose and tried to pick the most interesting parts of their life so they would understand why i choose them	The performance went well but the audience did not know who the person was	I had good vocal variety and  pacing	80%
Informative	Did Not gather enough information on the topic. Gathered inaccurate information	I did a lot of research on the speech topic and explored many sources that are credible	The speech was excellent	Audience suggested to add a certain fact on the topic that i didn’t add and stated that i had good vocal variety and credibility with the many sources i included	80%
Persuasive	Thought i would not do a good job at persuading the audience as i did not completely agree with the topic i had to present	I practiced a lot and did alot of research. This allowed me to understand the stance i was given	The speech went great	The audience stated i had good vocal variety,dressed appropriately, had good pacing but the speech was more informative than persuasive	90%