AmericanRhetoric.com is not a subscription service; it’s free. This database is linked from 277 universities and community colleges. I could also see this being used by high school teachers for use in their classrooms.

Maria Feracioly ~ April 18, 2009 ~ LS 574 W4http://www.americanrhetoric.com

What does it offer?AmericanRhetoric.com is an online speech database of and index to 5000+ full text, audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events, and a declaration or two (AmericanRhetoric.com). It is run and maintained by Michael E. Eidenmuller

This resource offers a myriad of prefabricated listings including: Top 100 political speeches

of the 20th century 32 important speeches of

21st century America Movie speeches listed

alphabetically by movie title

Rhetoric of 9-11

You mean that there’s more?The site also includes: a compendium of  200+

brief audio (mp3) clips illustrating 40 different figures of speech (AmericanRhetoric.com)

Christian rhetoric An area for scholars Fun exercises to test your

knowledge of rhetoric

Each week a new speech is featured

Newly added speeches are highlighted

Special features to recent speeches are available

Contains links to most communication journals and associations

Links to popular magazines, newspapers, polling data and legal resources

Let’s take a look at the main page

Your one-stop shop: the sidebar

The sidebar on the left side of the screen shows the databases’ offerings by category.

It is easy to navigate.

Exploring is a great way to familiarize oneself with the contents.

The Site Search

By choosing SITE SEARCH, you will be linked to a new page.

Scrolling down to the middle will bring you to the Google search box, which is the search tool for this site.

So, there are not certain fields that one can search.

and limiters

"AND" is the default search in Google. It will automatically look for all the words you enter, unless you tell it otherwise

To tell it otherwise, use the "OR" or the "-" operators:

OR tells Google to find AT LEAST one of your keywords in a page

The minus sign (-) excludes the word immediately following it

Define: returns definitions from the web for the keyword or phrase that follows it

Filetype: finds only documents of the specified type. You can also find multiple file types in one search by using the "OR" operator.

The [number]..[number] query is especially useful to limit a search to specific years. For example, to find information on depression written between 1986 and 1994, search "depression 1986..1994.

Intitle: finds only documents with your keyword(s) in the title. This is a good way to avoid documents that mention your keywords only in passing in the text. On the flip side, it may limit your search a bit too much if you're using uncommon keywords. This is best to use only if you are still getting too many irrelevant results with other limiters.

allintitle: In this case ALL of the keywords you enter need to be found in the specified location before Google will present the result.

A Search

In this search, I chose to use the intitle: limiter. So, I’m searching for speeches that have the word rights in the title.

My results included 7 hits.

Another Search

In this search, I chose to use the date..date limiter. So, I’m searching for speeches that occurred between 1967 and 1968.

The CategoriesThe predefined categories/listings are very helpful as well as the ability to use the Google search:

Movie Speeches

Rhetoric of 9-11

Top 100 Speeches

Online Speech Bank

Online Speech Bank

There is a title bar at the top of the page to show you Special Events, Recent Additions, Main Links and the Speech Index.

Online Speech Bank ResultsChoosing Get Speeches A-F results in an alphabetical listing. A legend is displayed at the top

of each page.

You can see that the first entry, Abbott & Costello: Who’s on First, indicates that the full text and audio/video are available; choosing it you obtain:

Top 100 SpeechesChoosing Top 100 Speeches results in a ranked listing, showing under the header titles

rank, whether the text, and/or audio/mp3 is available as well as the duration of the speech.

Rhetorical LiteracyChoosing Rhetorical Literacy results in a ranked listing of 32 Important Speeches in 21st Century America,

showing under the headers: speaker, whether the text, and/or audio/mp3 is available as well as the duration of the speech.

Movie Speeches

Selecting Movie Speeches A-F results in an alphabetical listing of movie titles indicating the format(s) available.

Movie Speeches on Special Engagement

These speeches are not offered consistently but rotated; I wanted to see which speeches were offered for Fight Club. There was one result.

Rhetoric of 9-11

Results are listed by timeline and are also categorized under the title of most popular and includes meta-sites pertaining to this topic as well.

Rhetorical Figures in SoundChoosing Rhetorical Figures in Sound results in 200+ brief audio (mp3) clips illustrating 40 different figures of speech.

I chose the term assonance, which results in the definition, an example and an audio file.

The Extras

Rhetoric Quiz! is a 10 question quiz to test your rhetoric knowledge of the top 100 speeches and speakers (I didn’t score as badly as I thought that I would)

Rodman & de Ref examine the metaphoric screen with an in-depth look at speech filters

Corax v. Tisias contains an exchange between Corax vs. Tisias looking at Rhetoric in the story

What is Rhetoric provides a listing of scholar definitions for rhetoric by Cicero, Francis Bacon and others

Plato on Rhetoric is Plato’s discussions pertaining to rhetoric from Gorgias

Aristotle on Rhetoric contains excerpts from his Rhetoric

Communication Journals is comprised of a multitude of links to communication journals

Communication Associations lists and provides links to communication associations

RCA is an outside link to the Religious Communication Association

News and InfoChoosing News and Info provides an extensive listing of results in four categories:

News and SearchLegal ResourcesPolling DataCitation Guides

Features and AwardsThe site has received an array of features and awards, excellent accomplishments for a single owner

site.

The Strengths

If you’re looking for a movie quote and you can identify the movie title, then the search is easy

Delimiters for Google searches perform well

Marvelous resource for 9-11 speeches

The site has many additional resources pertaining to rhetoric including definitions and examples

It’s a reputable source of information

The movie speeches offerings are not comprehensive

Because the site is owned and maintained, it relies on the ads of sponsors; this includes occasional pop-ups and pages with numerous ads that one must navigate around

Site navigation is burdensome; one must use the back arrow to find a main menu.

Some navigational links did not function

The Weaknesses

Summary

The site as a resource is good; if one is searching for a particular speech, this is a great tool!

It is more than a speech database; it is a rhetoric research tool. I encourage you to visit the site and become familiar with its

offerings