Common Core ELAGrades 11–12Speaking & Listening

SL.11-12.3: Evaluate a Speaker’s Premises, Emphasis and Tone

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.3 · Cluster: Comprehension and Collaboration.

The Official Wording

Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 11-12, Speaking & Listening · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What SL.11-12.3 Means in Plain English

Juniors and seniors listen past a speaker’s claim to what it stands on: the stance, the premises taken for granted, and whether each idea really leads to the next. They also weigh the rhetoric: loaded words, what gets repeated, what gets skipped and the tone.

Ninth and tenth graders (SL.9-10.3) caught fallacies and distorted evidence in a speech. Grades 11 and 12 are the last band before college and career readiness, and they ask for a verdict: whether an argument that commits no obvious fallacy still rests on a premise the listener should refuse.

SL.11-12.3 I Can Statements

I can name a speaker’s stance and the premises it rests on.
I can test whether each of a speaker’s ideas leads to the next.
I can explain how word choice, emphasis and tone steer listeners.

SL.11-12.3 Worked Example

A cruise-line spokesperson speaks at a port-town hearing, and two students evaluate the speech. One admires the delivery; the other finds the premise the speech never defends.

Prompt

Evaluate this speech from a hearing on whether the town should approve a second cruise pier. Spokesperson Dana Whitcomb: “Every one of our 3,000 passengers steps ashore with money to spend. That’s 3,000 new customers every Tuesday, 3,000 reasons for your shops to stay open. A few residents grumble about crowds on Front Street, and we hear them. But this town was built on the sea, and the sea is calling again. A second pier means jobs. It means growth. It means a future.”

Not YetDana Whitcomb was a really effective speaker. She was confident, she used big numbers like 3,000 passengers, and the ending about the sea was powerful. She also respected the residents by saying she hears them. I’d vote for the pier.It praises the delivery and repeats the numbers as if they prove themselves. It takes “we hear them” at face value and never asks what the speech assumes, what it repeats or what it leaves out.

Meets the StandardWhitcomb’s stance is that a second pier is good for the town, and it rests on one premise she never defends: that every passenger who steps ashore spends money in local shops. Nothing links 3,000 passengers to 3,000 customers; plenty stay on the ship’s own tours or eat on board. Her word choice tilts the room, too. Residents “grumble,” which makes their concern sound petty. She repeats 3,000 three times and says jobs, growth and future without one figure behind them, while crowding gets a single clause. The tone is warm and nostalgic, and the warmth covers a gap: no number for what passengers actually spend.It names the stance and the unstated premise, shows the missing link between passengers and customers, and ties each rhetorical choice (the word grumble, the repeated number, the slogan list, the nostalgic tone) to what it does to listeners.

Moves to Use

Say the stance in one sentence, then ask what must be true for it to hold.Check each link: does this idea actually lead to the next, or is a step missing?Mark loaded words and ask whose concerns they shrink or inflate.Track emphasis: what gets repeated, what gets one clause, what never comes up.Name the tone, then say what the tone is doing for the argument.

Common Mistakes with SL.11-12.3

Grading the speaker, not the speech

“She was confident and used powerful language, so the argument was strong.”

Try this: Have students evaluate a transcript first, with no delivery to admire, then compare their verdict with one written after watching.

Missing the unstated premise

Students check every fact in the speech but never ask what it assumes without saying

Try this: Ask “What would have to be true for this claim to hold?” after every speech, and list the answers the speaker never proved.

Naming the tone without its effect

“The tone is nostalgic,” and the analysis stops there

Try this: Require every tone word to come with a because clause that says what the tone helps the speaker avoid or achieve.

Where SL.11-12.3 Fits

Comes BeforeSL.9-10.3Weigh a speaker’s point of view and rhetoric, and catch fallacies and distorted evidence.

AlongsideRI.11-12.6Explain how style and content give a speech or essay its force, the reading side of the same evaluation.RI.11-12.8Lay out and judge the premises and reasoning in seminal U.S. texts and works of public advocacy.

Comes NextSL.11-12.4Build a presentation whose own premises are stated and defended, because the audience will test them.W.11-12.1Write an argument that takes on the strongest premise of the other side fairly.

Practice SL.11-12.3

Quick Check

What premise does Whitcomb’s speech rest on without defending it?
That every passenger who steps ashore spends money in local shops, which turns 3,000 passengers into 3,000 customers.
How does the word grumble work on listeners?
It makes residents’ concern about crowds sound petty, so the speech can acknowledge them while shrinking their point.
What does the speech emphasize, and what does it give a single clause?
It repeats 3,000 three times and ends on jobs, growth and future; crowding on Front Street gets a single clause.

SL.11-12.3: Other Names

SL.11-12.3CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.3