Your task is to write a campaign speech, in order to influence our votes toward you on Election Day. In this speech, you will explain why you are the ideal candidate to be the first MACC Mini-Brain. Later, you will deliver this speech to the class on Campaign Day.
(You know now you can do that without throwing up or dying, as proven by the Mini-Research U.S. Politicians project, so just relax and don’t let that last paragraph blow your mind too much.)
Your campaign speech should include:
- An introduction, in which you (subtly) grab our attention. In this introduction, you should introduce your top three leadership qualities and give a brief teaser of your plan to make Portable 2 a better place. Focus here: you want to draw us in, not scare us away.
- Three paragraphs, explaining why your leadership qualities are suited to the position of the MACC Mini-Brain. In each paragraph, take one leadership quality and tell us about a specific time when you have demonstrated this quality. Think about what we have seen from Clinton, Trump, and Michelle Obama: telling specific stories about your qualities is the way to capture people’s hearts and make you relatable. Remember, the juice is in the details. If you wish, you can also explain why this quality is important for the MACC Mini-Brain to have.
- A paragraph detailing what your version of the MACC Mini-Brain would look like. You can explain how you would lead, or explain your policy plan(s), or both.
- A conclusion, in which you recap your leadership qualities and how they relate to your plan. You want to be memorable.
Things to focus on:
- Specific word choice – what word says exactly what you want it to say?
- Sentence structure – how can you use structure to aid in clarity?
- Details – how can you use specific details to strengthen your argument?
- Flow – each ideas and each sentence should lead naturally to the next
- Realness – it should sound like a real person, talking to other real people: you are at your best, publicly, when you are closest to your most relaxed self. You are not acting like a politician; you are just you.
- Taking it seriously – humor is okay (even encouraged!) but the objective is a real one.
Your setting is this classroom, so don’t write a speech that you would deliver at a rally in an air hanger. This is more like a town hall.
Spelling, punctuation, and grammar totally count.
If you’re looking for inspiration, there are a few videos below. Remember the qualities we identified when watching Obama and Bill Clinton speak:
- honesty
- unifying
- repetition; coming back to your theme
- unbiased
- connecting to others; finding commonality
- use of antithesis
- positive message
Obama 2004 DNC Keynote – with analysis
Obama 2004 DNC Keynote in full
Bill Clinton 2016 DNC speech