Inspirational Speech: The Importance Of A Graduation Speech

Graduation is not as glamorous as everyone thinks. Sitting in the bleachers for four hours in the scalding heat with your nicest clothes on is not fun (at least for me). I would’ve had no problem skipping my graduation, except for one part. There is one segment of graduation that makes the whole thing bearable, the speech. The graduation speech plays a pivotal role in making or breaking graduation ceremony. These speeches not only serve to inspire the public, but also shapes the values of the academic community. If the speech blows, the graduation will most likely blow. No one wants to attend a lack luster graduation, right? There are certain elements that create a mind-blowing speech. Today, we will be exploring the different tactics speech

The speaker utilizes diction to approach their audience’s emotional side. Remember the whole purpose of a graduation speech is to inspire the audience. Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state, gave an inspiring, jaw dropping speech at Knox College. Her clever word play played a pivotal role in inspiring her audience, “Heed that lesson, and you will have all the ammunition you need to prevail in the battle of ideas. You will have the courage to confront the axis of evil arrogance, ignorance and hate” (Albright). She basically is saying that we need to make the right decisions in life. However, the words she uses like ammunition, battle, and axis compare everyday actions as they are war. If she uses more bland words the message would not be as powerful. To reiterate, we are soldiers fighting all the evils in this world has a more powerful connotation than just saying make good choices in life. All in all, diction is just another important feature that you have to be aware of in drafting a commencement

We have also mentioned how these conventions effect the audience. These conventions work to inspire the public. The different rhetorical strategies the speaker employs in his/her speech can influence how the audience will react to their message. However, there is larger audience besides families and friends, I am talking about the academic discourse community. First of all, what is a discourse community? A discourse community can be described as a group of people who share common interests. In this case the academic discourse community is the school. The school wanted their former graduates to come back and bestow their words of wisdom onto these incoming graduates. These values of never giving up, learning from your mistakes, and doing what you love are passed down to the graduates. They are giving advice for these future members (of the academic community) to follow in order to be successful. The discourse community is shaped by their members. This in return will establish a good reputation for the school. One might interpret that the school only values their reputation for creating successful alumni’s. That might very well be true, but we cannot know for sure. All we know for sure is that the school places a high value on the success of their graduates. Why else would that have a successful alumnus come talk to