Madeleine Albright Rhetorical Analysis

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In 1997, the United States secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, gave a commencement speech to the graduating class of a women’s college in Massachusetts. She mentioned ethos, cause and effect, and process analysis to motivate graduates to be strong and take what’s their right to have. Her purpose in giving the speech was to encourage female students to become leaders and resilient women. She first started her speech by mentioning ethos and appealing to the audience's beliefs and ethics. She said “As individuals, each of us must choose whether to live our lives narrowly, selfishly and complacently, or to act with courage and faith” which appealed to her audience’s morality which would encourage them to reflect on their mindset and thoughts. …show more content…

She mentioned that to review a great example of American’s courage and strength which have made the impossible possible. What she mentioned was also an inspirational lesson for graduates to have a better understanding of courage as well as leadership. As she continued her speech, she mentioned the ethos once again in which she talked about how women can sit down and stay quiet in difficult situations, but instead, women everywhere chose to claim their rightful place as full citizens and fully participate in every society on earth. Her purpose in comparing two different types of women was to show them that women are now stronger than ever before and would not stay quiet like they did years ago. She brought this specific topic up to support female graduates who are future leaders and to encourage them once again that women are great strong human beings as well as great fighters. Lastly, she used process analysis to give the students examples of different women in different cities with different difficult situations that she has

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