Background Information
Contemporary Reactions
"The Gettysburg Address: Contemporary Reactions" http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/ideas_more.htm- Reports of speech by five newspapers
- Reactions by Goldwin Smith, Horace Greeley and Charles Sumner
- Site also includes general background information
"Eyewitness to History" http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/gtsburgaddress.htm
- Eyewitness account by Lincoln's secretary, John Hay, with explanation
Other Media
"American Rhetoric: Gettysburg Address" http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gettysburgaddress.htm- Audio of four readings
- Readers include Jeff Daniels, Sam Waterston, Jim Getty, Johnny Cash
- Photo of Lincoln at Gettysburg
- Text of speech to read along
"Drafts- The Gettysburg Address" http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/gadrft.html
- Library of Congress exhibit
- Photographs of two handwritten drafts of the address, plus transcripts
- Background on the history of the different drafts
Background to the Gettysburg Address:
"The American Civil War: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address" http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-20-voa1.cfm- Written in Special English
- Radio story (with audio), transcript also available
- Provides context of speech
- Describes Lincoln's process of writing the speech
Parallel Structure
"Parallel Structure in Writing" http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/printable/623/- Description and examples of parallel structure as a grammatical principle
- Offers proofreading strategies about parallel structure
"Parallel Structure and Repetition" http://www.union.edu/RESOURCES/LANGWRIT/WRITING/Help/parallel.html
- Explains why a writer or speaker might use parallel structure
- Explains why repetition isn't always bad
- Gives a brief example of parallel structure in grammar
- Quotes the Declaration of Independence to illustrate the power of parallel structure as a stylistic tool
"A seminar on writing prose: Repetition vs. elegant variation" http://www.thinkage.ca/~jim/prose/repetitionvselegantvariation.htm
- Writing advice from science-fiction writer James Alan Gardner
- Explains when repetition works and when it does not
- Gives examples of effective repetition, tedious repetition, and elegant variation
"Parallel Form" http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/parallelism.htm
- Explanation and examples of parallelism from The Elements of Style
- Refers to the Gettysburg Address
- Provides two quizzes on parallel structure
"Parallelism in the Gettysburg Address" http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/gettysburg.htm
- Provides a "slideshow" that illustrates parallel structure in the Gettysburg Address
- Scroll down and click the movie icon to see the slideshow