Analysis Of David Mccullough's Speech You Are Not Special

Nour Harb

Speech to Critique The speech “You’re Not Special” was given by David McCullough Jr., a teacher at Wellesley High School, at their 2012 commencement ceremony. The audience he spoke to was not only the graduating class, but the parents of those students, and teacher or administrators of that school. He gave a commemorative speech. David McCullough Jr. gave a speech to not only commend the graduates for all they’ve done but to urge them to know that they are not even close to finishing their journey. He wanted to convey with his examples that life is difficult and that they are not going to be handed things in life because their nice or they think they deserve it. I didn’t think the thesis sentence was very evident because after is intro he automatically went into an example that he later ties not his speech. The purpose of the speech was to not only congratulate the graduates, but to inform them that their journey is far from over. His main topics for the speech were the importance of

Considering that he speaks to large groups of students every day, he managed to keep his voice animated, and even though he stumbled over his words a little, he overall was very composed and kept the audience engaged. For the most part his physical delivery was minuscule because he was behind a podium. But he would use hand gestures at certain points to further express his point. The overall impression I conveyed from David McCullough is confidence, and because of title, as well as his confidence, he seemed very credible. And because of his confidence and credibility, the audience was very engaged and responsive. David McCullough Jr., in my opinion, achieved his purpose for the speech. I believe that even though he was humorous and joyful at some points in his speech, he made sure that the students understand the seriousness of the future they have planned. If I were to give him a grade, he would absolutely get an