Summary Of Commencement Speech At Mount Holyoke College By Anna Quindlen

Hook: I never knew that one day, one idea could have such a big impact. That one thing could change the history, set up the rest of the country to follow suit with this specific topic, and things that need a change in general.

On April 10, 1962, steel companies raised the prices by 3.5 percent of their products. President John F. Kennedy had tried to maintain steel prices at a stable rate. President John F. Kennedy, known for his diligence and persuasion, held a news conference about the hikes in steel prices. President John F. Kennedy, in his speech, uses rhetorical strategies such as diction, emotional appeals, and a persuasive tone to convince Americans that steel companies are declining the standards to maintain stable prices.

Theodore Roosevelt, in his compassionate letter to his son “The Proper Place for Sports” (1903), implies that football or sports in general shouldn’t take priority over more urgent responsibilities. Roosevelt supports his opinion by incorporating insightful historical events, acknowledging the potentially reasonable opposing view, and implementing compelling anaphora. His purpose is prevent his son, Ted, from completely being engulfed by his demanding dream of joining his school football team in order to convince him to focus on other vital duties, such as schoolwork. Roosevelt adopts a sympathetic tone (“I am proud of your pluck, and I greatly admire football… But the very things that make it a good game make it a rough game”) aimed to his

Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863 delivered one of the most iconic speeches in American History. His delivery infuses us with such raw power and emotions that poured out from the bottom of his heart will change the hearts and minds of Americans for ages to come. Abraham Lincoln did not just write one speech he made five different copies with different sentence structure and paragraph structure, to show how important the layout of the message and how it needed to be simple and to the point. Dissecting “The Gettysburg Address” we begin to understand Abraham Lincoln’s heart lies, he reminds everyone about our past and that we should honor those who fought for our freedom; he tells us “All men are created equal” only to show us what we need to work on as people in the present, he spreads hope for the future and encourages us to grow together

During the history of the United States there have been very respectable speakers Martin Luther King Jr. John F. Kennedy but perhaps no greater leader in American history came to addressing the country like Abraham Lincoln. In his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln gave a short speech concerning the effect of the Civil War and his own personal vision for the future of the nation. In this speech Lincoln uses many different rhetorical strategies to convey his views of the Civil War to his audience.

Admiral William H. Mcraven addressed the 2014 graduating class at the University of Austin, Texas with more than eight thousand students in attendance. The address given by Adm. Mcraven touched the hearts of millions from all around the world by his inspirational message of how one person can change the world if they simply helped change the lives of ten others in their lifetime. I chose this speech for my rhetorical analysis because of the simple message it portrays, how helping a few can eventually help many. Adm. Mcraven’s address was especially effective for his audience, much due to how he relates to the students by reminiscing of the day he graduated from UT while providing advice for young college graduates preparing to begin their adult lives.

Is college still important and relevant? The question is answered and confirmed when Liz Addison, author of “Two Years Are Better than Four”, wrote a counter argument in order to disprove the opposing views of Rick Perlstein, the author of, “What’s the Matter with College”. The topic that is being brought to light is the subject of whether or not college still matters. Perlstein that college is no longer what it used to be. It was after reading Perlstein’s article that Addison masterfully wrote her counter argument which successfully contradicted the opinionated, inaccurate views of Rick Perlstein. Although Rick Perlstein and Liz Addison both wrote their article with the same purpose of appealing to the readers’ sense of emotion, credibility

John F. Kennedy uses literary devices to capture the attention of the audience, sets himself equal to his audience getting their attention and support, and uses the christian religion to strike the emotions and gain the support of his audience.

5. Identify an example of logos in the speech. Explain why it fits the parameters of logos.

One minute and thirteen seconds. The last entry on the flight transcript: LOSS OF ALL DATA. On January 28, 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight. Aboard were five astronauts, one of whom, Christa McAuliffe, was ready to become the first school teacher in space. Sadly, none of the five survived. Later that night President Ronald Reagan came on air to give the State of the Union address and talk on the tragedy that had just unfolded. Through this speech President Reagan consoles the families of those who lost their lives, the American schoolchildren, and the American public as a whole. He also gives this speech to reassure America of the viability of the NASA program and the light in the future. By the use of rhetorical skill, including analogy, strong emotional appeals, and his position of power, President Reagan manages to convince America that despite the tragedy the benefits of keeping a space exploration program greatly outweigh the losses.

In his commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005, David Foster Wallace was tasked with the responsibility of imparting some wisdom onto the graduating class. Wallace’s message to a room of full soon-to-be college graduates at the precipice of the of their impending true adulthood, he offers them a message that cuts through the mess and concisely delivers a message that many would ironically overlook, which is for the students to realize that at times, imperative life lessons are not only the ones that they cannot conceive or believe, but the ones that are obvious but hard to acknowledge let alone discuss. The lesson in this is that no matter how instinctive that cynicism is, it is imperative that people must try to more honest and open

Former Illinois State Senator and soon to be Forty-fourth president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, recounts what happened in the past to make America what is today and how he intends to maintain the ideas of America’s founding fathers throughout his term of presidency. His intended audience of the first inaugural address is the citizens of America and his purpose was to comfort them about the past and encourage the future of America. He creates a patriotic and empowering tone in order to appeal to pathos. His diction throughout the speech illustrates patriotism, allusions, and anaphoras.

In 2005, David foster Wallace delivered a commencement speech to the graduates of Kenyon College, in which Wallace attempted to instill in his audience the mindset needed to cope with the monotony and frustration of adult life. He stresses the importance of being “conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience”. This speech has received critical praise and recognition for being one of the best commencement speeches of all time, but does it live up in terms of rhetorical technique? Although this main message is supported by Wallace’s excellent linguistic and persuasive abilities, and more specifically his appeals to ethos and pathos, his logos lacks the concrete reasoning

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.

President Eisenhower, in his address to the country, more specifically the people of Arkansas, discusses the inevitable situation involving racial segregation occurring in Arkansas. Eisenhower’s purpose is to convey to the country that he will fight to preserve the decision that the Supreme Court came to on racial segregation. He adopts a personal tone in order to convey to the people of Arkansas that he understands how they feel in this situation. After establishing that he will do whatever is necessary to protect the rights of the students and connects with the Arkansas people by addressing the fact that his decision wasn’t based on his personal beliefs, Eisenhower shifts his focus to validating the citizen’s feelings of anger and feeling slighted.