The Rhetorical Analysis Of Steve Jobs Commencement Speech

“Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination. And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you 've gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured - and they overcame them.” (Obama 6) In the speech Obama had presented at the graduation class of 2013 at Morehouse College, he wants them to remember their struggles and be able to overcome them to do what is right. Obama uses a lot of rhetorical appeal such as pathos, such as the fact that he did not have a father figure in his life, yet he reached the top position in the country after years of hard work and support from his single mother, and grandparents. The second most effective rhetorical appeal is ethos,

It is often meaningless to evaluate a speech without first considering its context and purposes. 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’ speech was no exception – its basic function as a commencement speech was ceremonial by nature. Compared to other ceremonial speeches such as a testimonial or an inaugural address, a commencement speech is less restricted in terms of topic. It is, however, bound by the occasion and

Jobs’ portrayed a concrete diction through the phrase “I was lucky, I found what I loved to do so early in life” (Jobs, 2005, Pg. 2). This phrase helped the language of the text reflect back to Jobs’ purpose of the commencement speech. Jobs’ later got fired from Apple Corporations,“I felt that I had let the previous generations of entrepreneurs down- that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me” (Jobs, 2005, Pg.2). Jobs’ enlightened tone slowly declined into a calm, gloomy mood which portrayed that not everything in life came easy to Jobs and success was earned through hard work and devotion. Jobs’ purpose in this second story was to illustrate the difficult times he had, however through determination and hard work he was able to overcome them and do what he

Every writer or speaker spends a lot of time prepare what they what to say and how they want to say it. It is a long process and takes a lot of time; because they need to think and re-think about the main idea and the purpose. Also they need to be awareness that it is difficult to engage people in spoken or written form. In order to communicate effectively most of them use rhetorical enhances communications and presentation skills. Rhetoric is an ancient art which started in Greece but it is still use it now day in speeches on different situations. There are excellent examples of that on graduation speeches. Ed Helms, famous actor, gave an effective speech on the Cornell class of 2014 because he knew who their audience was, he used correctly

According to the dictionary kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. This seems quite adequate as a description, however, in our modern society, we are easily caught up in our ravels for success, for happiness, for love. Often so that we solemnly forget that leading a happy life is usually not possible without the kindness of others. It might not be possible to truly define what kindness is, even though the dictionary makes an attempt, and perhaps it is not even necessary. However, it is definitely something we notice when it goes missing. It might not be the same immediate reaction as when we lose our phones or keys, but going about in our busy lives while forgetting kindness will eventually be the ultimate regret in the pursuit for happiness. This is reflected and elaborated amiably upon by Professor George Saunders in the Commencement Address he gave in 2013 at Syracuse University, New York, where he states ones of his biggest regrets, a failure of kindness.

Jobs outlines exactly what his speech is about by explaining in the first paragraph that he would be telling three stories that pertain to his life. By choosing to share three different stories about connecting the dots, love and loss, and death, it made him speak in a conversational style, making the audience more comfortable. When an audience is engaged, it is much easier to connect with the speaker. Jobs’ also decided to use humor within his words and phrases to engage the audience. He states “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces...and since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them.”(Jobs) He had been discussing his Calligraphy class for a few minutes, so he added a bit of comedic relief to stop the audience from getting bored. Steve Jobs also added humor in serious parts of his speech to lighten the mood. When speaking about being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Jobs stated “I didn’t even know what a pancreas was!”(Jobs) He put emphasis on that statement to life the levity of the cancer diagnosis and the possibility of facing his own mortality. This made the audience more comfortable with the reality of his

Barack Obama’s win for President in 2009 was a historical moment for the United States. His inaugural speech was much anticipated, because this was going to set the tone for his presidency. His speech told the American people that improving the economy is one of his priorities, but there were also other areas he would like to improve like healthcare and the education system. This was a speech that was meant to persuade the American public to take action for them to rise as a nation again, and for them to put their trust into him. His message addressed a couple of specific points like his gratefulness to the American people, the different crises America is facing, how America will overcome these crises, replying to his cynics, addressing the world, and then he reminded America again to be brave like they’ve always been to overcome the hard times (5 Speechwriting Lessons from Obama's Inaugural Speech, (n.d.).

This speech presented by Barack Obama kick-started his political career, putting him on the map worldwide. We must remember, Obama didn’t start with the name recognition others had, such as Reagan and Trump, Obama had to get the recognition from giving fantastic speeches like this. This speech fits all 10 characteristics of great speeches easily which showed how talented he was as a speaker. This is arguably his best speech which is why we are going to discuss this one in particular.

Donald Trump opening moment at republic national convention had powerful conviction that radiated with the audience. On July 21, 2016, he focused on the foundation of what makes the audience established their rapport towards GOP, known as Grand Old Party or republicans. Moreover, he demonstrate on how to use the current dynamics of the United States relationship with politics and laws to strength his position in discussing social structure of the country. To illustrate, attacks on the police force must be withdrawal to bring prosperity to the nation, and bring united front to fighting terrorism that is “lurking” in our own background to defend the country from foreign enemies or domestic enemies. Trump core message, however may be lost in translation, because of the dialog use during the speech to describe the Democratic Party.

As Barack Obama’s term is coming to an end, people are coming out and announcing their presidential bid. Each new candidate gives a speech when they announce their bid. One candidate in particular whose speech stood out among the others is Donald Trump. Donald Trump’s presidential bid speech gave Americans a change of view on Donald Trump and made an immense impact on the political world.

In my point of view, I found Bill Gates as the most promising leader throughout the globe. Bill Gates was the youngest, wealthiest CEO of all time, but this success was not only achieved by luck. His inspiring charming personality and effective communication skills made him the real “BILL GATES”. One of his talks on the teacher’s feedback is much of an importance. The name of the presentation is “Bill Gates: Teachers need real feedback” and the target audience is teachers as well as general public.

Steve Jobs once said, “You gotta have a problem you wanna solve. A wrong that you wanna right, and it’s gotta be something you’re passionate about because otherwise you won’t have the perseverance to see it through.” This is exactly what Steve Jobs did when he started Apple thirty-nine years ago by making personal computers affordable for everyone.

Steve Jobs starts his speech with a great deal of credibility. His introduction, by Stanford president John Hennessy, emphasizes the success Jobs has had in his companies and other ventures. Jobs’ name is already

Relate the Topic to the Audience: While none of us have ever met Bill Gates, everyone here has most likely heard of him, and thanks to him, we can all effectively use computers to their full potential.

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. In his early college days he dropped out of his regular classes. Jobs explains that his regular classes were not interesting to him and he didn’t believe they would help him succeed in the future, so he took up Calligraphy classes. For the time being Jobs was not