Rhetorical Analysis Of What Makes A Good Life Speech

In Robert Waldinger’s What Makes a Good Life speech, he grabs the audience's attention by at the start of the speech by asking them a question, thus engaging them into what he about to say. The question is what makes they healthy and happy and where they would invest their time and energy as they go through life which is ultimately what his speech is about.

While analyzing the speech, I notice how he isn’t shaky from nervousness or his voice’s pitch getting higher which makes him confident, is already prepared of what he wants to talk about, and therefore does not cause any distractions towards the audience. His voice tone is at his natural state as I assume as it calm, not quick to rush words out, and engages the audience by not bringing

People believed that being famous and being wealthy were needed to be at the hierarchy of having the good life, while Waldinger believed having a healthy relationship with friends, family, and community was the way to go.

In Jamila Lyiscott’s speech 3 Ways to Speak English, she grabs the audience’s attention by using a rhyme scheme and the word “articulate” throughout the entire speech. The way she explains the 3 ways is her ability to call herself “tri-langual” by using 3 forms of communication towards many numbers of groups.

What caught my attention in her speech was the different form of speech that I’m not used to by rhyming the suffixes instead of giving an expected style of speech. She seems to know her speech exceptionally well by not stumbling over words or miss any words, which if she did it would have made the speech confusing my messing up the pattern that she established. Her tone is broader than Waldinger’s speech maybe because she is in a more inclosed space which may have an effect, but is not in question that she gets her point across. She also talks in a more rapidly, uptempo style than Waldinger

Her hand gestures are still natural, but she uses more gestures to express her emotion and the way she feels to further emphasize her story. Her facial expressions and voice tone is more vibrant and aggressive to further go along with the emotion she’s expressing and to grab the viewer’s attention to detail. She does a good job on being the main focus of her speech by not having any outside sources such as slides, note card, etc. and also keeping her body relaxed and in a natural state by not pacing around, expressing natural movements, and many other things. Throughout the speech, she puts emphasis on the word ‘articulate’ as she uses it various amounts of times to get the viewers to catch on to what she is trying to say and the message she is trying to get across. She does express humor here and there but she doesn’t use it as a focal point to keep her audience engaged, instead, elaborates on a story on why she’s