Gettysburg Address Notes

1. The Gettysburg Address
Notes

2. • Author’s Purpose — A writer usually writes for one of more of these
purposes: to express thoughts or feelings, to inform or explain, to
persuade, or to entertain.
Ask yourself: Why is the writer writing this? What thoughts or feelings are
being provoked? Am I being informed of something? Am I being persuaded?
Am I being entertained?
Example:
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States. He was born on
February 12, 1809 in Kentucky. He was married to Mary Todd and they had
four children. One of his famous speeches was the Gettysburg Address.

3. Inform, Persuade, or Entertain?
The boys were happy when they woke up to find that it was windy
outside. It would be a perfect day to fly a kite. They grabbed their kites
and went to the park. They spent the whole day there having kite
contests and races. The best part was that no one broke or lost his kite.
What you learn in school will help you later in life. It will also help you
get a job. If you work hard in school and make good grades, you may be
able to go to college and have a career.

4. • Main Idea — The most important idea or impression about a topic
that a writer or speaker conveys. It can be the central idea of an
entire work or just of a paragraph. It is often expressed in a topic
sentence.
Main Idea:
Growing up and learning about life
Themes:
The importance of…
Friendship
Love
Choice
Humility
Literary works can have many
themes, which are sometimes
inseparable from the main idea.
But while there can be many
themes, there is one main — or
most important — idea of an
entire work.

5. The Battle of Gettysburg
• July 1-3, 1863
• Bloodiest battle in the civil war; marked a turning point.
• General Lee of the confederate army lost 1/3 of his men (28,063 —
3,903 dead, 18,735 injured, and 5,425 missing)
• Union losses totaled 23,049 (3,155 dead, 14,529 wounded, 5,365
missing).
• Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863
to dedicate the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg.
• At the time it was panned by critics as ‘silly remarks’ by the president.
• Now it is considered one of the greatest speeches in our nation’s history.

7. Find the Rhetoric!
• With a partner, take 10 minutes to identify the following rhetorical
devices in The Gettysburg Address (write in your notes). Be prepared
to discuss how these devices advance his purpose.
Repetition Parallelism Allusion

8. Homework
• Complete the following activities on p. 31 of your textbook:
• Critical Vocabulary
• Multiple-Meaning Words
• Each question should address all four words listed (engaged, testing, poor,
and measure)