Obama's speech

The purpose I saw in Barack Obama's speech during the Democratic National Convention was that he was trying to generate support for the democratic party while simultaneously discrediting the republican party. This purpose makes sense because he is trying to become the next presedent. The opening of his speech persents this from an interesting point of veiw: he speaks as if he has already won the election. After the opening he presents facts about what has been going on in our nation, and speaks about what the republicans have been doing; specifically he speaks about what his competitor (senator McCain) has done. He uses that to lead into how the philosophies of the republicans and democrats differ. After that uses the actions of a previous democratic president, and stories of the people who raised him to strengthen his position. Later in his speech he tells us some of his plans and reminds us about what republicans have done concerning these same issues. He then tells us what he has been trying to do to affect the war in Iraq while he points out what McCain has been doing during this same time frame. After that, Obama brings up previous democratic presidents who have served in war to adress issues that the republican party has been trying to use to undermine his viewpoints; he then goes on to state what his military policies are. Nearing the end of his speech he briefly touches on some of the most controversial issues in America right now; before stating that the rupublicans are out of ideas, so they are trying to win the election by making him seem like a greater evil than they could turn out to be. The end of his speech goes into changes that have occured recently and draws on the "I have a dream" speech to give us an example of how unity can make unbelievable changes possible. I find it interesting that he never states the name or color of Martin Luther King, reffering to him only as a preacher from Georgia that spoke of his dream.
I believe that the effect of his speech held true to his purpose but could, potentially, have been improved by spreading out his refferals to the "I have a dream" speech throughout his speech instead of trying to cram as much of it as possible into the very end of it. One reason why he may have put it at the end is so that it wouldn't overshadow his own speech, and so his speech wouldn't override the messages that thinking about the "I have a dream" speech brings up. With the way his speech was organized I would say that the audiences he was trying to affect were undecided voters, veterans, family oriented people, and environmentalists. He may have also been trying to have an effect toward generating uncertainty in people who might otherwise vote for McCain. Obama was doing this by attacking McCain's actions while making it clear that he respects the person that is his opponent. The effect of this speech was enhanced by the fact that Barack Obama is a good speaker, as such this will be a difficult speech for John McCain to match.

Educational text

I would say that educational texts are any material that you can learn from. This could even include texts that are completely fictional in nature so long as they provide information that you can make use of. Texts that I would not consider educational practically don't exist because if you pay attention, and cover as many viewpoints as possible, you can learn from anything. Admittedly educational text can be directed toward certain audiences or age groups, however that does not make them any less valuable. The lesson contained in a text does not have to be big or even directly reffered to in the text so long as it is there for people to find.