Steve Jobs Commencement Speech
Great Storytelling Lu Jia Few commencement speeches enjoy more fame than Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford. It was regarded highly both by his direct audience – as evidenced by their repeated cheers and applauses; and by the mass media – a Forbes article praised it “still inspirational after 10 years”. Video of the speech attracted 22 million views on Youtube and his famous ending quote “stay hungry, stay foolish” quickly became catchphrase of the year. Apart from Jobs’ status as a legendary inventor, what else might have contributed to the success of this speech? This essay attempts to evaluate Jobs’ commencement speech from the rhetorical perspective by exploring how the speech was crafted into a fitting response to its rhetorical …show more content…
As Dr. Blizer pointed out, “a work of rhetoric is pragmatic; it comes into existence for the sake of something beyond itself; it functions ultimately to produce action or change in the world”.1 Jobs’ commencement speech was made on June 2005, following his return to Apple and the successful launch of iPod. As CEO of Apple and Pixar, Jobs was invited by Stanford, a top university situated not far from the Apple headquarter, to speak at its 2005 commencement ceremony. His audience was Stanford’s graduating class who were both intelligent and probably had high hopes for a speech made by the famous CEO – they were intellectually and mentally ready to be engaged and …show more content…
He prepared his script in a way that the main structure of each story was identical. Each story would begin with a thought-provoking, Zen-like title – “connecting the dots”, “love and loss”, “death”; followed by a story of his life; and end with a revelation. The three episodes also followed chronological order – they concern college, career, and eventually death. This structured organization divided the speech into three organic parts; brought clarity to an otherwise lengthy speech; and enabled his audience to stay focused the entire time – it exemplifies the successful adoption of logic (logos) to organize the content of a
Steve Jobs Ethos Pathos Logos
502 Words | 3 PagesJoshua Chanea Mr.Pace HCP 9 January 13 2023 2023 Mini Project Have you ever tried presenting, but couldn't find the right words to convey your message to convince people of your topic? Well these two famous people used a rhetorical strategy called “Pathos” to convince and motivate people for the better. Today, we will be going more in depth of the use of one of the rhetorical strategies, pathos, and see the difference between how Steve Jobs and Martin Luther King Jr. uses it. First and foremost, the CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs. Mr. Jobs uses many examples of ethos, pathos, and logos to convey his message.
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The Rhetorical Analysis Of Steve Jobs Commencement Speech
756 Words | 4 PagesThe Steve Jobs commencement speech was a speech that was given by the former Apple Inc. CEO to Stanford University during the 114th commencement on 12th June 2005. The speech Steve Jobs gave Stanford University is a very effective speech, because of his use of rhetorical devices. Jobs especially use his background and childhood to play upon his rhetorical approach. In Steve Jobs, he tells several stories about love, detection, death, loss. The main part of the Speech is how Steve Jobs encourages the students to pursue their dreams, and do what makes them happy, even if it all doesn’t go after the plan.
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950 Words | 4 PagesBarack Obama Has a Way with Words Barack Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope” speech was given on July 27, 2004 as the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. The speech made Obama further known in the world of politics, and a star among the Democratic Party. Though the description of presidential candidate John Kerry’s qualities makes Obama’s belief that Kerry will make the best president his obvious purpose, the quality of his speech boosted his career. Obama uses repetition devices, various sentence structures, and abstract language to create the strength and persuasive aspects of his speech.
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Rhetorical Analysis Of Steve Jobs 2005 Commencement Speech At Stanford
1458 Words | 6 PagesGreat Storytelling Lu Jia Delivered on a campus in California to an audience of a few thousands, yet it ended up inspiring tens of millions from both U.S. and worldwide; worshiped by Silicon Valley as the ultimate career talk, yet it embodied many aspects of life - chance, love, loss, and ultimately death. Short but smart, targeted yet universal, poignant and timeless – thus is Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford. Some attribute its success to Jobs’ personal influence and charisma – they do add significant weight to the speech, undeniably. But close inspections from the lenses of rhetorical analysis allow us to appreciate this speech from a different perspective – in particular, how the speech was crafted into a fitting response to its rhetorical situation and how Jobs managed to strike a chord with his audience through the masterful use of logos, pathos and ethos, whether planned or not.
Rhetorical Analysis Essay On Steve Jobs
491 Words | 2 PagesSteve Jobs 2005 Commencement Address at Stanford University, Steve Jobs talks about his experience when he had been diagnosed with cancer. The doctor had told him that he need to prepare to pass away soon. That same day, he went back to get a biopsy the doctor found that his cancer was curable. This experience made him realize every day is not promised.
Steve Jobs Rhetorical Analysis Essay
871 Words | 4 PagesThroughout his speech, Jobs’ main goal was to connect with the audience on different levels and build trust so they believe him when he says if a person works hard and always follow their dreams, they will be successful. He establishes the connection through his style of writing by using ethos, pathos, diction, and repetition. Steve Jobs needed to prove to the audience that he was a credible person to talk about following dreams, and working hard. He used ethos to demonstrate how he is
How Is Ethos Used In Steve Jobs Speech
1026 Words | 5 PagesCo-founder and CEO of Apple Inc, Steve Jobs, in his commencement speech at stanford university, illustrates three distinguishable points of his life. Jobs’ is very successful in his approach to inspire the graduates by speaking on the experience and insight he has gained. Jobs has a simplistic yet elegant tone and diction to convey his hardships to communicate how much life has to give and teach us in an inspirational way. Jobs begins his speech by dethroning himself as the well-known self made billionaire to create a connection to the graduates. He starts by putting the audience on a higher plateau with “I am honored to be with you”(1) and “ this is the closest I have been to a college graduation”(2) and when speaking of himself and his speech, he states it is “No big deal”.
Simon Sinek Persuasive Speech: The TED Talk
1021 Words | 5 PagesHow Simon Sinek Persuade Audiences that the Secret to Success is a Reason Why In the TED talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, the presenter, Simon Sinek, a “leadership expert,” claims that all great leaders and innovators have one thing in common, they all have a reason why they do what they do. He convinces the audience that his claim is correct through a relatively balanced use of the three Aristotelian appeals: pathos, logos, and ethos. He gives specific facts and examples, to show his audience how his claim has worked for history’s greatest individuals and organizations. Finally, he uses rhetorical devices such as amplification and parallelism to strengthen his argument.
Barack Obama Inauguration Speech
1332 Words | 6 PagesThe rhetoric style of this can be compare to a preacher where it begins slowly and gradually acknowledging the audiences to whom he or she was speaking to. This is basically what the President did at the beginning of the speech where he starts slowly and gradually acknowledging the audiences which consists of vice president, chief justice, members of the congress and lastly the fellow citizens. Through this, Barack Obama demonstrated that he fully respect the political administration offices and at the same time make it crystal clear that he is part of the citizen as well. The rhetorical presidency has embedded itself in American politics and does not seem to be going anywhere soon. Thus it is crucial to understand the influence of presidential rhetoric.
Steve Jobs Persuasive Speech
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Informative Speech On Bill Gates
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Steve Jobs Commencement Speech Summary
718 Words | 3 PagesIn the speech “Steve Jobs Commencement Address to Stanford University, Class of 2005” , Apple CEO Steve Jobs provides his audience with personal experiences and the rough periods he went through in his early years before founding apple that helped him succeed. With the use of his stories Jobs creates a character that prevails through obstacles and manages to achieve his goals, which inspires his audience to look up to him and show that failure is sometimes necessary to succeed. At the beginning of his speech, Steve Jobs begins describing his life with a series of stories that helped him reach his success, this helps Jobs create ethos because his audience will understand the hardships he went through to be where he is today, instead of just thinking of Jobs as the founder of Apple and not really knowing about the struggles he had to go through.
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