President Bill Clinton’s Oklahoma City Memorial Speech Rhetorical Analysis

This resource includes the annotated text and marginal notes for President William J. Clinton’s speech at the prayer vigil for the victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing delivered on April 23, 1995. The speech was given in memorial for the 168 who were killed during the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Reading and annotating informational texts is a critical component of the Common Core State Standards, and analyzing informational texts is a key skill that students will need for college and the jobs of the future. Using the comment feature in Microsoft Word, this resource includes critical commentary and analysis of the figurative and connotative meanings, rhetorical devices (logos, ethos, pathos), repetition, allusions, themes aligned with the RI1, RI2, RI3, RI4, RI5, and RI6 standards from the Common Core State Standards. In addition to the identified figurative language, rhetorical devices, etc., the document includes standard alignment for each comment and marginal notes that explain the significance of each identified element. This resource will help teachers to guide students’ close reading of the text and help them to become more critical readers of informational texts. The provided commentary includes Common Core standard references so that you will be able to help students to see how the guided statements and commentary align with specific reading informational standards. The zipped folder also includes a blank copy of the speech so that students can annotate the speech.


President Bill Clinton’s Oklahoma City Memorial Speech Rhetorical Analysis by Dr. Joel C. Boyce is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.