7.01 Evaluating a Speaker

Element of the Speech	What the Speaker Says	Effect on the Audience
Claim: What is the speaker's claim?	Throughout the PSA, the conveyed message is that texting while driving is very dangerous, and it can even cost you your life.	Emotion is used throughout the PSA. It gives the audience a firsthand look on the consequences of texting while driving, and how it can even affect other people as well.
Point of View: From whose point of view is the speech told?	The PSA is being told through their point of view (1st person). They are talking about their experience surrounding the issue, not someone else's, as they are directly connected to it.	It makes the PSA more personal. Instead of somebody describing something that happened to someone else's family, it is coming straight from the source, and helps to build on the emotional appeal as well.
Evidence: What evidence is presented to support the claim?	The story of what happened to Alex is told throughout the PSA to show to the audience what can actually happen. They tried to get her to stop, and she did not. Because of that, she sadly lost her life. It helps to give the audience a real-life example of what happened, and what can happen to other people as well.	Since the audience is seeing a real experience, it makes them realize that it could happen to them as well. This also makes the audience think about if that were to happen to them, and reconsider how they drive.
Ideas: What ideas are stated which are related to the claim?	The main idea being conveyed here is not to text while you are driving. Alex's dad warned her many times on what could happen, and she ignored it thinking it would never happen to her. Yet in the end it did happen to her.	As little of a thing it seems to be, it can have much larger consequences than you can ever imagine. It can happen so quick, that you won't even have enough time to respond quick enough. These ideas, and stories to accompany them, help the audience to realize the dangers that this small action can cause, in such a little amount of time.
Emphasis: What points are emphasized within the speech?	There are a lot of things said throughout the PSA to help emphasize the overall point that texting while driving is very dangerous. For example, the mother states "...I needed to go find her. But, I knew where she was, and I knew what happened."	This creates anticipation among the audience, and again helps with the emotional appeal to help convey the general message to the audience in an effective way.
Tone: What is the tone or mood of the speaker?	The tone is emotional, but in a serious way that helps to communicate a specific message to the audience.	This specific kind of tone helps for the audience to understand what happened, and what they need to do to prevent a similar thing like this from happening to them.