Rhetorical Analysis

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On May 5, 2013, in New York, New York, Rita Pierson delivered an inspiring informative speech that has changed the way that many educators, educate. Rita's speech focused on education and how educators tend not to discuss the importance and value of human connection, relationships. Pierson has been an educator and education reformer for forty years following in the footsteps of her parents who were both educators. In this speech she has three key points discussing why kids drop out of school and why they do not learn, it is either because of low attendance, living in poverty, or negative peer influence. Pierson informs her audience about why we should encourage children to do better, to be pushed in school, to become successful and with that …show more content…

Pierson uses many techniques to effectively deliver this speech, but she was most effective in using rhetorical devices such as diction, pathos, parallelism, vocal variety, eye contact, and anecdotes to emphasize and explain how one of the most important factors in education are good relationships. She also uses a lot of her own enthusiasm and humor to maintain her audience interest. Pierson brings humor into her talk with telling a personal anecdote of one student receiving an F on a quiz, and she put a smiley face their paper. The student then asked, “Why did you put a smiley face on my paper?” to which she replied, " Now, you will do better next time, you got two right, you didn't miss them all?" She also uses pathos and humor by saying that it is hard to teach kids that smell bad. Teachers teach because "teaching and learning should bring joy". Pierson’s uses pathos while being honest as well, she emphasizes the importance of engaging, being zealous, humble and cognitive is only achievable through a relationship thrived on passion for the subject, and a solid understanding of assisting one another when …show more content…

She also used repetition by constantly repeating words like relationship, communication, and education to emphasize the importance of these things. She also effectively used parallelism, “You know Ms. Walker you made a difference in my life, you made it work for me, you made me feel like I was somebody when I knew I wasn’t, and I want you to just see what I’ve become.” , here she was referring to the students that her mother had taught before she retired. Because Pierson memorized her speech she was able to make a lot of eye contact, she never took her eyes off the audience. Through her body language, Pierson conveyed her confidence and the connection she made with her audience. As she became more comfortable, she smiled more and moved around

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