As you experience the speech, identify the speaker’s viewpoint and notice the reasons and evidence they supply to support it. Listen for evidence and logic that is either valid or fallacious. Be attentive for language that is either appropriately emotional or unfairly loaded. Take notes as the speech progresses. Then, read and answer the questions.
When you have finished, submit this document to your teacher for grading.
Questions
(Score for Question 1: ___ of 5 points)
1. What is the speaker’s viewpoint? What is their claim?
(Score for Question 2: ___ of 5 points)
2. What reasons does the speaker provide to support their viewpoint or claim?
Write your answer here.
(Score for Question 3: ___ of 5 points)
3. What evidence does the speaker provide to support his reasons?
Write your answer here.
(Score for Question 4: ___ of 5 points)
4. What counterclaims does the speaker address, and how do they respond to them?
Write your answer here.
(Score for Question 5: ___ of 5 points)
5. What examples of fallacious reasoning, distorted or weak evidence, and exaggerated language occur in the speech?
Write your answer here.
(Score for Question 6: ___ of 5 points)
6. Write a 1–2 paragraph evaluation of the speaker’s argument. Discuss whether the speaker used valid reasoning and sufficient evidence to support his viewpoint.
Write your answer here.
Transcript (Video)
Screen 1:
Ben Affleck: In Congo last year, I visited a home for orphaned street kids who were terribly mangled and disfigured by polio.
This is the twenty-first century, and Eastern Congo is medically a medieval throwback to a time when the most pernicious diseases ran roughshod over humanity, and most medical institutions, NGOs, and foundations are not breaking down the doors to the Kivus to get in there and make it better.
Who is breaking down the door? Who has been inside doing the hard, unglamorous work in terrible conditions is the International Medical Corps. And I've seen where they are living and I can tell you, they are not doing it for the money.
You will hear the voices of critics who will tell you, "Americans don't care about Africa. Africans are too different from us to elicit real empathy. It's too far away. We're a self-absorbed country that just wants to eat fast food and watch reality television, and in a down economy, no one's going to give money to those who are suffering because people feel like they have less for themselves than they used to."
Those voices are convincing, but sophistry always is.
At the turn of the last century, King Leopold's murderous colony in Congo was in the process of claiming ten million lives, all under the auspices of a humanitarian mission called the Congo Free State.
The first man to report these terrible abuses, to make them public was George Washington Williams, a minister, a veteran, a politician, and an American, a man who used the term "crimes against humanity" long before Nuremberg.
Huge numbers of Americans joined groups, sent money, and agitated on behalf of the Congolese. And due to enormous pressure, King Leopold was forced to sell his state and finally end his brutal regime.
This movement was begun by an American and fueled by Americans, who did care about Africa, at a time when the Ku Klux Klan was in its ascendancy, when they weren't able to see televised images of suffering, and when real wealth in the United States was far, far below what it is today.
Americans have a proud legacy of this work. The International Medical Corps has a history of carrying it out on the ground where few others would dare to go.
You are here continuing both efforts tonight. I ask you to take pride in our shared history of service, activism, and philanthropy. I urge you to see that it continues tonight and I thank you.
Description Narrator: The actor Ben Affleck stands at a wooden podium in a darkened hall. He is wearing a dark suit and silver patterned tie. Occasional camera flashes light the stage.
