Luntz' rules and Palin's speech

I looked at the transcript for Sarah Palin’s statement at Ground Zero in New York and decided to compare it to the 10 rules for effective language that Luntz outlines. Here is the short statement which I found on CNN.com.

PALIN: “Every American student needs to come through this area so that, especially this younger generation of Americans is, to be in a position of never forgetting what happened here and never repeating, never allowing a repeat of what happened here. I wish every American would come through here. I wish every world leader would come through here, and understand what it is that took place here and more importantly how America came together and united to commit to never allowing this to happen again. And just to hear and from and see these good New Yorkers who are rebuilding not just this are but helping to rebuild America has been very, very inspiring and encouraging. These are the good Americans who are committed to peace and security and its been an absolute honor getting to meet these folks today.”

Rule One: Simplicity – None of the words in Palin’s speech are obscure or not readily understood.

Rule Two: Brevity: Use short Sentence – Palin’s sentences tend to be very long and complex. This speech contains only five sentences although the speech contains 139 words. This is an average of 28 words per sentence. These long, drawn out sentences make it difficult to understand her at times.

Rule Three: Credibility: Her words seem credible to me. Although I could not hear her speaking the words, the long sentences and repetition make it seem as though she was deeply emotionally affected by coming to Ground Zero. It is understandable that she would be.

Rule Four: Consistency – She repeats herself a lot in this short speech. However, it doesn’t seem like Luntz is talking about this type of consistency. It seems as if Palin is tripping over words as opposed to purposefully reiterating that we should never forget 9/11. However, she (along with pretty much every politician) is consistent in asserting that we should not forget the terrorist attacks on this country.

Rule Five: Novelty – Palin doesn’t really say anything novel in this speech. Not forgetting 9/11, America uniting after the attacks, and praise for New Yorkers’ response is more consistent than novel.

Rule Six: Sound and Texture: It is difficult to evaluate this because I have not heard the speech. There are points in the speech which are not grammatically correct but that might have made more sense in context with pauses, rhythm, and inflection. From the text alone, I would say that not much attention is paid to sound and texture. She does use repetition of words such as “repeat,” “come” and “America.” She also uses some parallelism in sentences 2 and 3 in saying that she wishes someone would come to the site.

Rule Seven: Aspirationally – This is what people want to hear. Everyone wants to hear that America came together and united after terrible attacks. Everyone wants to remember the victims.

Rule Eight: Visualize – There is some visualization – especially when she mentions not forgetting. The remembrance of 9/11 is something that is different for everyone and can be related to Luntz’ idea of “imagine.” The speech is not particularly visual.

Rule Nine: Ask a Question – no.

Rule Ten: Provide Context – it is obvious that she is standing at the base of Ground Zero, giving this speech. She doesn’t explicitly give the context but it is implied as being already known.

The score:
Rules used effectively: 1, 3, 7, 10
Rules moderately used: 4,6,8
Rules not used:2,5,9

Palin only used 4 of the rules effectively and three of the rules moderately. It seems as if this speech, therefore, according to Luntz’ rules is very mediocre. It is neither excellent nor absolutely terrible.