RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF ANNIVERSARY SPEECHES OF HEADS OF WESLEY GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL AND ST. AUGUSTINE’S COLLEGE IN CAPE COAST

Abstract

The study presents a case study on the use of rhetoric in anniversary speeches of heads of Wesley Girls’ Senior High School and St. Augustine’s College in Cape Coast, using Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) model of transitivity and Bhatia’s (1993) genre theory. The results show that anniversary speeches of heads of public Senior High Schools have a six- move structure, with moves two and three used by the schools to persuade audience and promote the schools. It was also found that the schools used the material processes to show the audience that they are working institutions, by indicating what they have achieved, what they are doing and what they will do. This representation of the schools through the transitivity concept and the move analysis promoted the schools. The study has implications for further research on the anniversary speeches of heads of public Senior High Schools in Ghana