Explore how Tim Collins addresses his troops in a motivational speech

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Explore how Tim Collins addresses his troops in a motivational speech

 Tim Collins utilises many effective language devices to motivate and inspire his troops in the speech. First of all, you can see he emphasises unity through his word choice: he says “We are going into Iraq”. In the transcript the word “We” is in bold which means that he put emphasis on it through his tone of voice which again reinforces unity further. This gives a sense of unity and empowers the troops through a sense of security which is gained by the feeling that they are all in this together.

He also extensively uses emotive language        : He is sensitive towards his troops’ feelings and emotions as he says “those of them who do not wish to go on that journey we will not send them” this shows that he cares for his troops. However, it could be argued that he is isolating those who are not going as he uses “them” when he could have said “us” saying “those of them” makes it sound as if he is isolating them. He demands his troops are “magnanimous in victory”. The use of the complex emotive word “magnanimous” shows how he reminds them to act respectfully thus emphasising he also cares for the Iraqis. Collins uses quite a complex word when he could have just used a simpler adjective such as “noble”: It could be argued that the high complexity of the adjective “magnanimous” mirrors the level of nobility and respect he expects from his troops. To add to the effect the word is emphasised through his tone of voice as shown by the fact that it is written in bold in the text.

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Another interesting device he uses is biblical allusion. This is particularly effective as his men are Northern Irish thus would be religious which means that they fully understand and identify with the use of Allusion. He states that Iraq is “steeped in history”. The verb choice here, “steeped”, emphasises how much history Iraq possesses. He states that is the site of the “garden of Eden (3) of the great flood” It could be argued that he is implying that Iraq is where history began thus emphasising its importance and value. The long 3 second pause almost implies that this is ...

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**** 4 STARS This is a very good essay which uses PEA (Point, Evidence, Analysis) throughout. Terminology is used accurately and well supported by well selected quotes. Close analysis of language is accurate and writer explores the audience response to speech.