Introduction
Speeches have elements which make them standard or incomplete. When I entered the room, I could feel that who was before the audience was a professional speaker. This is because she made her speech in a systematic way, starting from the introduction, ending in the middle of the speech, and ending with a good conclusion. Therefore, the paper below is an analysis of “A Whisper of Aids” and observations made during the session, which is a form of speech. Therefore, the analysis is based on purpose and audience, content, and tone, as well as the structure of the speech.
Purpose And Audience
“Whisper of Aids” is a speech that was delivered to students in a school based in the United States of America. The speech was aiming peers on HIV/AIDs and was delivered by Mary, one of the HIV activists in the United States of America. According to the flow of the speech, the speaker is an HIV/AIDs patient who is trying to give the experience of the disease to the audience, hence sharing advice concerning the matter. The speaker admits that she bears a message of challenge, and if she were asked, she would never like to be HIV-positive. The audience is youth and teenagers who are in adolescence. The speaker, Mary Fisher, was trying to create awareness of HIV/AIDS and explain how the situation can be solved. The main reason for choosing such an audience is because, according to her, they are the most targeted group by HIV globally.
Content And Tone
During her speech, Mary made essential points concerning the matter of HIV/AIDS. Firstly, she made it clear to her audience that HIV is no longer a threat, but it is among them and hence requires attention. She has also made it clear to the audience that the subject of the discussion, which is HIV, is a killer disease since it has no cure. Therefore, there is a need to create prevention towards it. In my opinion, this is the information which the audience requires. They required an understanding of the subject, the threats associated with it, and the preventive measures that the speaker outlined. In addition to that, it was related to the attitude of mercy, which would be useful in passing the message on the prevention of HIV among teens.
Structure
According to my observation, Mary, the speaker of the discussion, made good structure in her speech. The way the speaker started her speech won the attention of the audience. She makes her audience feel part of the storyline by informing them that she was a victim of the discussed issue. In addition to that, she segmented her speech into three regions: the beginning, middle, or main body, and the definite conclusion. In my opinion, the way Mary outlined her speech was useful. This is because of her tonal variation, especially when giving real-life examples. However, the statement did not have much repetition but was parallel structured, which made it efficient.
