How Is Ethos Used In Steve Jobs Speech

Steve Jobs is an American icon that has created a society filled with technological advances no person could have imagined. In 2005 Jobs’ gave a commencement speech at Stanford University that captured many peoples hearts with his use of emotion and rhetoric. By breaking down his speech into three parts he was able to connect his whole speech into one theme, never giving up until you find something you love. The three stories he decided to share included connecting the dots, love and loss, and death. Through Steve Jobs’ use of appropriate delivery, language and establishing his credibility he was able to give a speech that is now unforgettable to many people.

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life,” a quote from

Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University, specifically describes the purpose (Jobs Para 20) Clearly explained throughout the speech Job made a message of never giving up until you find what you love to do. Job’s broke his speech into three main parts, stories of his life, to make a full circle of what he wanted the audience to take from the speech. By doing this he was able to keep the audience intrigued by what he was going to say next. Also by having good credibility Steve drew the audience in even before his speech began.
Little people did not know who Steve Jobs was and the impact he made on technology including the creation of Pixar Animation Studios, the Macintosh, and NeXT. This prior knowledge publicly know by many gave him prior credibility even before starting his speech. The fact that he was so successful in life drew the audience in and made it easier to get their attention. At the start of his speech Jobs describes Stanford as “one of the finest universities in the world,” (Jobs para 1). By describing Stanford in such a way a lot of the audience wants to listen because they too believe what he is saying. Jobs goes onto explain he will be talking about his life and the three stories. He is given credibility due to the fact it is his life and he knows what happened in it. Other than Jobs credibility, his language made his speech memorable.
With the audience being a group of about to be Ivy League graduates Jobs use of language was appropriate and very respectable.

He never seemed to make a negative comment about another person or group unless it was himself. For example he said “Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me…” not once did he mention this name so nobody would be offended (Jobs para). Using rhetoric he persuades the audience that you can achieve great things. Jobs’ uses emotional triggers, anecdotes, and repletion to do so.

Steve Jobs use of pathos easily makes people believe they can go through hardship and somehow achieve great things in the end. He talks about his college experience or lack there of and not being able to afford it, also he brings up being fired from apple. These two things made the audience feel for him but then as he explained how successful he became the idea of perseverance and not giving up seemed easier. Along with emotional appeal his anecdotes captured the audience. He describes his college calligraphy class,

“I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.”(Jobs

para)
The use of his words almost makes you feel like you were in the classroom. There wasn’t a moment where his anecdotes didn’t create some sort of positive effect. Towards the end of his speech, Jobs used a quote multiple times, “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” (Jobs para). This quote was used in repetition had an effect on the audience immediately. It completes the whole speech by tying in each story to one mutual thought exposed by this quote. By placing this quote at the end there was a link formed between the three stories.
Jobs use of vivid language was exposed through his use of anecdotes. He was able to keep a consistent speed and place pauses where they were needed. Additionally Steve Jobs had an amazing delivery with few distractions. His voice was very clear and only once did he stumble on a word. One flaw was the fact he read straight from his speech and made little eye contact. Also he was constantly touching his beard, which may have been distracting to people. Due to the effectiveness of his message in his speech the positives definitely out weighted the negatives.
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart,” this quote from Jobs’ speech is one of my personal favorites (Jobs para). The way he described death as an awakening and thinking you have nothing to lose made me as a listener want to get up and find my love in life. “The overwhelming viral response to the commencement address is a testament to just how much of a mark Jobs left on the world, and especially on young aspiring innovators.” Said by Carolyn Gregiore on why watching this speech is important, explains how I feel about Steve Jobs and the mark he left on me after watching the speech (Gregiore para) “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” a small quote that may stay with me for the rest of my life was the perfect closing to his speech because it left me with a thought like I said is unforgettable. By explaining how Steve made it through many hardships it gives me the hope that I will be able to push through them if I hit

some.
Creating an unforgettable speech can be extremely hard to achieve but Steve Job was able to produce a speech that did just that. While forming good credibility, use of language, and delivery Jobs’ speech may be one most relevant to our century (Gregoire para). Establishing a theme of not giving up until you find something you love provided an easy way for the audience to connect. Steve Jobs may have walked to the podium in jeans and sandals under a robe but he really did leave an impact on the audience who viewed it.