Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons^™

Monsters To Destroy? The Rhetorical Legacy Of John Quincy Adams’ July 4th, 1821 Oration, Jason A. Edwards

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This essay examines how the John Quincy Adams’s foreign policy maxim of “we do not go in search of monsters to destroy” has been appropriated in contemporary foreign policy, including the recent 2016 presidential campaign, arguing his aphorism are authorizing words that validate and ratify the positions of pundits, politicians, and policy-makers of not only critics of U.S. foreign policy, but those who defend it. Mapping Quincy Adams’s aphorism allows us to explore the boundaries and direction of America’s role in the world and how it impacts America’s exceptionalist ethos.

Foreign Policy Rhetoric In The 1992 Presidential Campaign: Bill Clinton's Exceptionalist Jeremiad, Jason Edwards

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This essay examines presidential candidate Bill Clinton's rhetoric regarding America's role in the world during the 1992 presidential campaign. Despite the fact that foreign policy was George H.W. Bush's strength during the campaign, candidate Clinton was able to develop a coherent vision for America's role in the world that he carried into his presidency. I argue he did so by fusing together the American exceptionalist missions of exemplar and intervention. In doing so, Clinton altered a tension embedded in debates over U.S. foreign policy rhetoric. To further differentiate his candidacy from President Bush, Clinton encased this discourse within a secular …

A Superpower Apologizes? President Clinton’S Address In Rwanda, Jason Edwards, Thomasena Shaw

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

The failure to intervene in Rwanda was one of the greatest foreign policy mishaps of Bill Clinton's presidency. In March 1998, Clinton made an extended tour of the African subcontinent with a stop in Rwanda. During his brief visit, the president attempted to repair the image of the United States among Rwandans and the broader international community. Clinton used three primary image repair strategies: democratization of blame, corrective action, and transcendence. Despite his emphasis on the important lessons that the world could learn from the Rwandan genocide, we argue that his rhetorical choices ultimately undermined his larger mission and led …

History Speaks: A Manual On Impersonation Speaking, Robert D. Kendall

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In this manual I will first comment on the writing of history in general and then trace the very irregular and halting history of"Impersonation Speaking" as an art, particularly as it is conveyed through "First Person Monologs." Then l will lead the reader through the specific tasks of choosing and researching an appropriate character to portray, locating the speech in time and place, and identifying the audience in order to speak to its concerns. These chapters will be followed by a discussion of self­concept, and how it affects a character's public presentation. Then comes the task of looking at the …

Impersonation Speaking, Robert D. Kendall

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

The catalog description of SPC 337 reads like this: "The study of First Person Monologs as a form of pub!ic speaking. Research and development of an historical character/speaker for public presentation." Allow me to expand on this capsulized description. This course attempts to teach students the process of developing and delivering a public speech that some historical character of their choosing could have given at some point in that person/s life. Through a series of carefully planned assignments, one building upon the other, each student researches the life, character and times of a histor-ical figure: writes an original speech for …

Speeches Before The Tribal Chiefs Of The Iroquois Nation, Robert D. Kendall

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

The following scripts were written by Dr. Robert Kendall impersonating SA-GO-YE WAT-HA (aka, Red Jacket) and Missionary Brother Cram speaking before the tribal chiefs of the Iroquois Nation in Western New York in 1805.

Impersonation speaking was developed by Dr. Robert Kendall who taught in the Communication Studies Department at St. Cloud State University between 1971 and 1992. Dr. Kendall described impersonation speaking in this way: "Each student chooses an historical character, does independent research on that person, write a speech, locating it in a particular year of that person's adult life, making it interesting and relevant to a [contemporary] …

Script For Joseph And Frau Edebrock (1859), Robert D. Kendall

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

These speaking notes regarding Joseph and Frau Edelbrock were written in preparation for an impersonation to be later developed by Dr. Robert Kendall. Joseph and Frau Edelbrock immigrated to the U.S. from Germany, originally living in Indiana and then moving to St. Cloud, MN in 1851, becoming one of the earliest families in St. Cloud. He was elected mayor of St. Cloud in 1861.

Impersonation speaking was developed by Dr. Robert Kendall who taught in the Communication Studies Department at St. Cloud State University between 1971 and 1992. Dr. Kendall described impersonation speaking in this way: "Each student chooses an …

The Sprit Of Reform And Introductory Comments, Robert D. Kendall

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

The Sprit of Reform is a speech written by Dr. Robert Kendall impersonating Carl Schurz in 1884. Schurz emigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1852, served as a Civil War general, advised Abraham Lincoln and five other U.S. presidents, and as U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Ambassador to Spain, and as a U.S. Senator. He was a well-known journalist.

Impersonation speaking was developed by Dr. Robert Kendall who taught in the Communication Studies Department at St. Cloud State University between 1971 and 1992. Dr. Kendall described impersonation speaking in this way: "Each student chooses an historical character, does independent …

Communication Ethics: Is There An Alternative To Teaching It Prescriptively?, Robert D. Kendall

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

A goodly number of us are "only" teaching-practitioners in the field of communication ethics. To use the word "only" in this context is not meant to depreciate the worth of the classroom teacher, nor to suggest a separation between the theorist and the practitioner, but rather to identify where many of us, for one reason or another, focus the bulk of our time and energy, Because few of us in the profession take the time to concentrate on this particular scholarly activity, and because few of us are assigned to teach only a Communication Ethics course, we who teach the …

In Honor Of John Henry Newman, Robert D. Kendall

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In Honor of John Henry Newman is a speech written by Dr. Robert Kendall impersonating John Keble in 1854. Keble was a teacher and contemporary of JH Newman at Oxford University, UK. Newman publicly converted from Anglicism to Catholicism, and is remembered today by Newman Centers at colleges and universities.

Impersonation speaking was developed by Dr. Robert Kendall who taught in the Communication Studies Department at St. Cloud State University between 1971 and 1992. Dr. Kendall described impersonation speaking in this way: "Each student chooses an historical character, does independent research on that person, write a speech, locating it in …