The Rhetorical Analysis Of President Barack Obama's Speech

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On September 8, 2009, President Barack Obama held a speach at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, which was broadcast all over America to the millions of students, from kindergarden up to twelfth grade, he was hoping to reach with an important message. In the speech he stresses the importance of getting an education, and he reaches out to the students to tell them why they have a responsibility not only to themselves but also to the country; ”-if you quit on school- you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country”1. With this sentence he suddenly makes every single student listen, he makes the whole genration feel important, and hopefully this will motivate all of them to work harder in school, get an education …show more content…

This is probably a choice made mainly because the audience is students - therefore simple is better, and it won't be as hard to keep them focused. In the first part, the introduction, he tells the audience why he is there, what his main message in the speech is and he uses a couple of situations from his own childhood as examples. Obama starts out by asking the audience a rethorical question; ”Hello everyone – how's everybody doing today?”2, this is a very relaxed introduction to a speech but it makes the audience listen and feel like he is talking directly to them. After this he welcomes each group of students more directly. He says he understands that many in the audience probably are nervous because it is their first day of school, that others would wish that summer was not over yet and that some probably feels really good about this year being their last. He also tells about how he as a kid felt about school, tired and complaining. The President is of course an authority you listen to being the leader of the country, but by using pathos, talking to each group of students and saying that he understands how they feel at the moment, makes him human too. In the end of the introduction he tells the audience what he wants to accomplish with the speech; ”I've talked about your teachers' …show more content…

The middle part can be divided into two parts, in the first he explains the responsibility they have to themselves, to find out what they are good at and what they have to offer by taking an education. He says that maybe some of the students could be a writer, innovator, inventor, senator og a supreme court justice someday, but that they might never know if they do not take an education. He argues this by explaining that these jobs can't be achieved without going to school, doing your homework and taking an education. By saying this he creates dreams and goals for the students, and offers them a simple way to reach these dreams. When he says this he also uses ethos and makes sure that no one feels less worth than others, everyone is equal and they all have the same possibilities. In the second part he goes more into why being responsible and taking an education is not only important in their own lives, but that their choices will affect the whole country and it's future; ”And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine wether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future”4. A huge problem for students today is for them to see the relevance of the things they learn in school but Obama

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