Serena Williams Flashcards
Introduction
Moving on to Serena Williams, she has had a rough past combatting racism, sexism and misogyny. She grew up in Compton and rose to fame after practicing tennis frequently as a child. She won Sportsperson of the Year in 2015, however unlike Smith, this is not her first victory as he has had many other victories in the past, such as 23 Grand Slam titles before this one.
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Williams opens her victory speech by paying tribute to the awards organisation sports illustrated and by referencing that this is an award for a “sportsperson” not a “woman”. Her use of the fillers “eh” and “um” immediately indicates that this opening is unscripted. Unlike Smith, her tone is also relaxed and conversational and this is because she would have been informed about the award beforehand so there is no element of surprise in the ceremony.
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This contrasts with Smith who was evidently shocked in his victory speech as he was not expecting to win the Award and was therefore much more emotional in his delivery.
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Also unlike Smith, Williams is not a professional speaker and is not used to using her voice in public so the fillers and pauses indicate her look of practice.
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Her religious reference to “Jehovah God” is her way of paying gratitude or showing her appreciation of her faith for paving the way to this victory. Williams converted to the “Jehovah God” is her way of paying gratitude or showing her appreciation of her faith for paving the way to this victory. Williams converted to the Jehovah witness faith in the 1980’s and has attributed her strength to her religious belief.
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Similar to Smith, she expresses her gratitude to her family, a common feature of victory speeches where the speaker should indicate they their victory is a shared triumph
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Williams then uses the pronoun “We” to address the female audience, “ladies.. Yes we can do it.” Her tone of defiance is a reference to the sexism prejudice she encountered growing up as a female tennis player and being criticised for her strength by male critics of the sport. The audience would find her rallying cry to female sports players inspirational.
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Moving on, Williams then uses the motif of goals, as a way of saying that a victory should be a motivation and not an end in itself. “I had a good… I still have goals” she reveals that this victory has actually boosted her motivation to keep winning, evident in the colloquial statement “I just wanna go and start training”.
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Williams then goes off on a tangent describing how she looks like her mother. This comical self interruption could be an indication of her nervousness on a stage and the pressure of public speaking “When i’m forty, like you” Her sudden loud laughter suggests her anxiety in this unfamiliar environment.
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Williams moves back on script and adopts a more serious and sincere tone to address her audience with the typical features of an inspirational speaker. “you can achieve anything you set your mind to” reflecting on the hardship of her Compton upbringing. She attributes this victory to perseverance.
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Williams concludes with the anaphora of “I had to work hard, I had to to be disciplined” this intended to inspire the audience to adopt a similar mindset if they want to achieve their goals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, they use the techniques in their victory speech well to evoke emotion and use this emotion to create an effective victory speech. Smith’s speech develops pathos between him and the audience as it’s evident he is embarrassed and emotional, not to mention he unknowingly won the 2021 Oscars, however William’s speech is more conversational and relaxed as she had prior knowledge of this victory and she was awarded Sportsperson of the year rather than Sportswoman.
