Unit 1 of 9
Who Is Speaking, to Whom, and Why
What you will learn
- Name who is speaking, who they are speaking to, and what happened that made them speak now.
- Explain what the writer wants the audience to think, feel, or do.
- Find the writer’s main point and choose a short quotation that truly supports it.
- Write a paragraph that connects the quotation to the writer’s goal.
Learn it step by step
Start with the situation
Before you hunt for techniques, ask five simple questions: Who is talking? Who is listening? What happened? What does the speaker want? Why does this moment matter? These answers give you the situation around the writing.
Find the problem that caused the writing
A writer usually speaks because something needs attention. That immediate problem is the reason for speaking now. For example, 'voting rights' is a topic; 'people were promised citizenship but still could not vote' is the urgent problem.
Turn purpose into an action
Do not stop at 'the writer wants to inform.' Say what change the writer wants: warn the audience, expose a contradiction, defend a policy, honor a person, or push people to act. An action word makes your answer precise.
Connect a choice to the audience
A writer chooses words based on what the audience already believes. If the audience values freedom, the writer may show that unfair treatment conflicts with freedom. Your explanation should name both the choice and the belief it presses on.
Try this five-step routine
- Read once to understand what is happening. Do not mark every sentence.
- Read again and underline the one sentence that best shows the unit’s main skill.
- Say the writer’s move in ordinary words: 'The writer compares [name both ideas]' or 'The writer admits [name the fair point].'
- Add the purpose: 'This helps the audience understand, believe, feel, or do [name the response].'
- Check your answer against the exact words in the passage and make it no broader than the evidence.
Annotated passage
Three Addresses on the Relations Subsisting Between the White and Colored People of the United States
Written by Frederick DouglassPublished: 1886
The numbered highlights continue from the beginning to the end of this passage.
If liberty, with us, is yet but a name, our citizenship is but a sham, and our suffrage thus far only a cruel mockery, we may yet congratulate ourselves upon the fact that the laws and institutions of the country are sound, just and liberal. There is hope for a people when their laws are righteous whether for the moment they conform to their requirements or not. But until this nation shall make its practice accord with its Constitution and its righteous laws, it will not do to reproach the colored people of this country with keeping up the color line–for that people would prove themselves scarcely worthy of even theoretical freedom, to say nothing of practical freedom, if they settled down in silent, servile and cowardly submission to their wrongs, from fear of making their color visible. They are bound by every element of manhood to hold conventions in their own name and on their own behalf, to keep their grievances before the people and make every organized protest against the wrongs inflicted upon them within their power. They should scorn the counsels of cowards, and hang their banner on the outer wall. Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow. We do not believe, as we are often told, that the [Black Person] is the ugly child of the national family, and the more he is kept out of sight the better it will be for him. You know that liberty given is never so precious as liberty sought for and fought for. The man outraged is the man to make the outcry. Depend upon it, men will not care much for a people who do not care for themselves. Our meeting here was opposed by some of our members, because it would disturb the peace of the Republican party. The suggestion came from coward lips and misapprehended the character of that party. If the Republican party cannot stand a demand for justice and fair play, it ought to go down. We were men before that party was born, and our manhood is more sacred than any party can be. Parties were made for men, not men for parties.
If the six millions of colored people of this country, armed with the Constitution of the United States, with a million votes of their own to lean upon, and millions of white men at their back, whose hearts are responsive to the claims of humanity, have not sufficient spirit and wisdom to organize and combine to defend themselves from outrage, discrimination, and oppression, it will be idle for them to expect that the Republican party or any other political party will organize and combine for them or care what becomes of them. Men may combine to prevent cruelty to animals, for they are dumb and cannot speak for themselves; but we are men and must speak for ourselves, or we shall not be spoken for at all. We have conventions in America for Ireland, but we should have none if Ireland did not speak for herself. It is because she makes a noise and keeps her cause before the people that other people go to her help. It was the sword of Washington and of Lafayette that gave us Independence. In conclusion upon this color objection, we have to say that we meet here in open daylight. There is nothing sinister about us. The eyes of the nation are upon us. Ten thousand newspapers may tell if they choose of whatever is said and done here. They may commend our wisdom or condemn our folly, precisely as we shall be wise or foolish.
What the numbered highlights show
- The strong word 'mockery' says that voting rights are not merely incomplete; the promise has been made to look false and insulting.
- Douglass tells the group not to listen to people who urge silence. The command makes courage and public action sound like duties.
- This short sentence gives the harmed person the right and responsibility to speak. It supports the larger call for self-advocacy.
- Douglass places human dignity above loyalty to a political party. The contrast warns listeners not to let party labels control their judgment.
- The comparison gives the audience a familiar example: other groups receive attention because they keep speaking about their cause.
- The image of daylight answers suspicion. Douglass presents the meeting as public, honest, and worthy of national attention.
Rhetorical techniques in this passage
Each technique points to the numbered highlight where it appears. Hover over or focus the technique name for a definition.
Loaded dictionHighlight 1: “our suffrage thus far only a cruel mockery”
The strong word 'mockery' says that voting rights are not merely incomplete; the promise has been made to look false and insulting.
Direct commandHighlight 2: “They should scorn the counsels of cowards”
Douglass tells the group not to listen to people who urge silence. The command makes courage and public action sound like duties.
AphorismHighlight 3: “The man outraged is the man to make the outcry”
This short sentence gives the harmed person the right and responsibility to speak. It supports the larger call for self-advocacy.
ContrastHighlight 4: “We were men before that party was born”
Douglass places human dignity above loyalty to a political party. The contrast warns listeners not to let party labels control their judgment.
Appeal to logosHighlight 5: “We have conventions in America for Ireland”
The comparison gives the audience a familiar example: other groups receive attention because they keep speaking about their cause.
Appeal to ethosHighlight 6: “we meet here in open daylight”
The image of daylight answers suspicion. Douglass presents the meeting as public, honest, and worthy of national attention.
Appeal to pathosHighlight 1: “our suffrage thus far only a cruel mockery”
The strong word 'mockery' says that voting rights are not merely incomplete; the promise has been made to look false and insulting.
Frederick Douglass, Three Addresses on the Relations Subsisting Between the White and Colored People of the United States (1886). View the source edition.
See how the analysis works
Douglass speaks after emancipation, but full civic equality has not arrived. He reminds listeners that they already claim to value liberty. Then he shows the contradiction: a country cannot praise freedom while denying equal political power. The repeated call for people to speak for themselves is not just inspiring language. It pushes the audience to see public action as necessary.
Practice with five comparable passages
These public-domain speeches, essays, and arguments let you practise the same skill with a new passage. Each link opens the named source edition.
public addresses
Three Addresses on the Relations Subsisting Between the White and Colored People of the United States
Why read it: Compare how Douglass changes urgency, shared values, and direct demands for different civic audiences.
Project Gutenberg public-domain edition of Douglass’s collected addresses.
Open this public-domain sourcepublic speeches
Presidential Addresses and State Papers, Volume 1
Why read it: Track how a president establishes the occasion, names his listeners, and turns national identity into a call to action.
Project Gutenberg public-domain edition of Roosevelt’s presidential addresses.
Open this public-domain sourcememoir and public address
Up from Slavery
Why read it: Compare Washington’s appeals to a mixed public audience with Douglass’s more confrontational civic demands.
Project Gutenberg public-domain edition containing Washington’s Atlanta Exposition address.
Open this public-domain sourceaddress to educators
The Requisites of True Leadership
Why read it: Identify the educational occasion, the audience Wells-Barnett addresses, and the standards of leadership she asks listeners to reconsider.
Transcript and source citation supplied by the Archives of Women’s Political Communication from the 1891 educators’ association proceedings.
Open this public-domain sourceessays and social criticism
Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil
Why read it: Study how Du Bois presents personal authority and shared democratic principles to readers beyond one immediate audience.
Project Gutenberg public-domain edition of Du Bois’s essay collection.
Open this public-domain sourceMultiple-choice skill check
Read the source excerpt or passage lines below. Keep them in view while you answer each question.
The address responds to the persistence of unequal civic treatment after legal emancipation.
Douglass seeks to expose incomplete citizenship and press his audience to treat enforceable equality as a national obligation.
The passage assumes that American citizenship and liberty should carry real legal and political force.
Douglass uses contrast between formal liberty and lived exclusion, along with appeals to national principle, to make partial citizenship appear both illogical and morally unstable.
Quote the shortest phrase that contains the key contrast, then explain how its language activates the audience’s existing commitment to liberty.