From the Golden Dome of the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, comedian Jim Carrey astounded the students of MUM’s Class of 2014 along with their parents and faculty with his commencement speech. In his speech, Carrey gave some serious advice about self-discovery, fear and happiness sprinkled liberally with humor to the graduating students while remaining true to himself. It employed several non-verbal communication techniques as well as the three modes of persuasion that we learned in class.
Being true to yourself during a speech is something the audience will take notice of. When a person speak genuinely, their speech is more conversational and the audience is more engaged. This notion can be witnessed throughout the
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whole commencement speech. Jim Carrey has spent three decades making audiences worldwide laugh at his on-screen antics in such hits as “Dumb and Dumber,” “Bruce Almighty,” “Yes Man” and “Liar, Liar.” During his speech, he allowed this personality and humor to come through. His comedy and personal narratives elevated the speech as he draws in the audience and delights them. For instance, he employed his rubber face and physical goofiness just often enough to remind us why we shower him with laughter. But, it is also important to note that he does not let these elements overwhelm the inspirational message of speech. He spoke of doubt and fear, and how to rise above them in order to achieve the kind of life the students imagine as they take this milestone step into their futures. While speaking of these life lessons, he cleverly altered his tone to be more authoritative as his voice was inflected. Upon closer examination, Carrey strategically used three modes of persuasion while conveying his main idea. He starts of his speech comically and attempts to establish his credibility as he employs ethos. Although he is a famous comedian, and has garnered respect through Hollywood for his antics, while speaking to the audience at the commencement he constantly reiterates how he epitomizes his message. “I’m saying, I’m the proof that you can ask the universe for it — please!” Plus, he is also wearing doctoral graduation cap and gown further adding to his credibility. Besides ethos, pathos is also evident in his speech. Pathos can be seen at several points like when he talks about his childhood story, “our family had to do whatever we could to survive,” and when he personifies the outside world as a cat. He stated “She’s a wild cat! Oh, she’ll rub up against your leg and purr until you pick her up and start petting her, and out of nowhere she’ll swat you in the face.” The use of impactful words here appeals to the audience’s emotions, imaginations, or sympathies. Carrey even got a little teary-eyed reminiscing about how he found his purpose in life and got involved with The Church of Freedom From Concern. Logos was not explicitly present in the speech.
But, coming to a conclusion via logic reasoning can be seen in the speech. Carrey uses the logical appeal as he follows the format of an epideictic speech. He first acknowledges the students, faculty members, and parents attending the graduation ceremony. Then, he states the central value of dreaming big and choosing love rather than giving into fear. In order to logical appeal to the audience, he shares different examples to support his claims. One of the most memorable supporting evidence was when Carrey shared personal anecdote about his childhood. He said his father could have been a comedian but chose to be an accountant because he wanted a stable job. Carrey's father later lost his job, which taught Carrey an important lesson. "I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which, was that you can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love," Carrey said. In the context of rhetoric, logos here appeals to an audience’s sense of logic, reason, and rationality. Following the epideictic speech format, he ends the speech by challenging the audience to live by the central value, “after you walk through those doors today, you will only ever have two choices: love or fear. Choose love, and don’t ever let fear turn you against your playful …show more content…
heart.” Use of non-verbal communication In addition, geared his speech towards his audience.
He employs audience centered language by using inclusive language such as "us" and "we" as well as local terms in order to make the audience feel like the speech is centered on them. For example, during his speech, Carrey dropped in a few Iowa-related lines, including a reference to baseball players coming out from the corn. Carrey also referenced many practices of Maharishi followers. One of these mentions related to the belief in the significance of directions. "Excuse me if I seem a little low energy tonight, today – whatever it is," Carrey said. "I slept with my head to the north last night… Woke up right in the middle of Pitta and couldn’t get back to sleep till Vata rolled around." By addressing the listeners using audience centered language, he is implying that he took time to research about the institute and centers the topic around the audience. This creative use of language lead to a very memorable speech without using overly flamboyant language that distracts from his
message. while delivering his speech, he sticks with simple and short language. By doing so, his main idea becomes clearer to the audience.
In 2005, David Wallace Foster delivered a memorable commencement speech to the graduating class of Kenyon College. It was not the standard US commencement speech with “the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories” which then turn out to be “one of the better, less bullshitty conventions of the genre”. By using pathos , Foster created an intelligent argument that wasn't overpowering but thoughtful and understanding. The argument made by Foster in his speech is about the capital-T Truth. And to Foster, the capital-T Truth is about life before death. The point of Fosters speech is to expose the importance of education, the value it possesses and the awareness it brings. Its modest amount parables, proverbs and cliches revealed the honesty behind his words and ugly truths that caused a stir the audience. Wallace Foster stripped away the standardness of such monotone and basic writing of commencement speeches to his advantage. By using pathos he builds bridges, sustains his arguments and emotionally influences his audience.
Some people dream of wealth, happiness, or genius, but is any of that easily attainable? An intellectual young man from the movie Good Will Hunting has an unusually high IQ that is shrouded by emotional problems. Will Hunting is arrested after yet another case of physical assault in Boston, and this time it was a police officer. When he is arrested, his genius is discovered by a college professor, Gerald Lambeau, who sees potential in Will despite his flaws. Instead of jail time, Labeau offers him a fair bargain. As long as Will attends mandatory therapy, he will be allowed to work alongside the professor. But education isn’t everything, because under Wills sarcastic wit and mathematical genius, he hides his true self. Will scares off five different therapists before he finds himself stuck with Sean Maguire, who ends up using personal and profound forms of therapy to crack Wills shell. Sean delivers this speech to help Will realize his ignorance of his insecurities and other people by using ethos, logos, and pathos appeals; Sean addresses that true knowledge and perspective can only
On February 19, 2010, Tiger Woods spoke to his fans, supporters, and non-supporters in search of forgiveness. In the speech, he apologizes for his acts of cheating on his wife, Elin. He hopes to change and gain support from his audience in doing so. Woods issues a strong apology by showing his respectable character, establishing culpability in the audience, and utilizing first-person point of view.
A town, a team, a dream. Friday Night lights document the 1988 football season of Permian High School in Odessa, Texas. Bissinger explores the various themes of the novel and uses conceit to colorfully describe the contrasting attitudes towards sports and academics. In the small town of Odessa bases Fridays nights in the fall are dedicated to Permian football. As a result of the obsessive attitude towards football a ridiculous amount of pressure is thrusted upon the coaches and players. Bissinger tackled the many problems in the town such as extreme pressure to perform, racism, and the relationship between parent and child. While Bissinger had several preconceived notions, he was ultimately proven wrong and through analysis of themes and incorporation of comparisons in the form of conceits he was able to develop his understanding of the town and accurately depict the events that transpired.
Ann Richards’s keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1988 was extremely interesting to watch. I believe her speech was intended to be focused on the American family and also the American farmers. These two areas seemed to be very important to Mrs. Richards and she made a point to discuss both.
In the argument that college is not for everyone, Reeves establishes his ethos through both extrinsic and intrinsic support while maintaining clarity using the logos approach. Pathos, however, lacked the same amount of control. By using an excess amount of pathos while approaching rhetoric with a condescending tone, the author diminished the persuasiveness achieved by combining the techniques. This resulted in a limited audience due to the insulting nature of the closing remarks geared to the very audience he was trying to reach.
Renowned and engaging speakers have the ability to connect their values and ideas to greater causes and principles, leaving an enduring impact on the audience. You may be questioning what makes a great speaker? And what qualities and features contribute to the formation of a powerful speech? It is understood that a great speaker has the ability to communicate to larger truths and carve those truths on the audience’s hearts and minds as they surpass the context, place and time of the deliverance of the speech, and focus on conveying their ideas and values.
In her ,“Harvard”, address, actress, comedian and producer Amy Poehler speaks to the graduating class of 2011. Her speech is filled with her uplifting sense of humor and her down-to-earth personality that you can’t help but enjoy. Poehler utilizes various rhetorical strategies throughout her address such as allusion, and conveying pathos in a humourous as well as an emotional way. By using these, she successfully encourages the young students and families at Harvard University to work their hardest and take on the world.
Many would argue that President Obama is one of the most effective speakers in the decade. With his amazing speeches, he captivates his audience with his emotion and official tone.
“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” This mantra from Margaret Mead is a somewhat humorous yet slightly satirical spin on how people tend to think of themselves as one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable human specimens. However, one English teacher from Wellesley High School takes this critique one step further with his polemic presentation at the school commencement. David McCullough, a Massachusetts English teacher, gave a seemingly somber sendoff to his graduates in 2012, with a speech that contained some unapologetically harsh sentiments. However, by looking past the outwardly dismal surface of the speech, the students can infer a more optimistic message. By incorporating devices of asyndeton, paradox, antimetabole, and anadiplosis, McCullough conveys to each student that even though none of them is unique, their commonality is not a fault they all have merit and should strive to view the world through a more selfless lens.
In December 2009, the world was shocked by Tiger Woods. News was released to the public of a scandal regarding Woods cheating on his wife with numerous women. As a well-known and respectful individual in the golfing world, it was important for him to take responsibility for his actions. More importantly, in order for Woods to keep his sponsors and save his reputation, he needed to apologize to his sponsors and family. His apologetic speech exemplifies his remorseful attitude through diction, or word choice, and the use of ethos, or credibility, and pathos, an emotional appeal, to the audience.
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
President Obama’s Inaugural Speech: Rhetorical Analysis. Barrack Obama’s inauguration speech successfully accomplished his goal by using rhetoric to ensure our nation that we will be in safe hands. The speech is similar to ideas obtained from the founding documents and Martin Luther King’s speech to establish ‘our’ goal to get together and take some action on the problems our country is now facing. As President Barack Obama starts his speech, he keeps himself from using ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’ and replacing it with ‘we’, ‘us’, and ‘together’ to achieve his ethos.
In June of 2011, Conan O’Brien gave the commencement address to the 2011 graduating class of Dartmouth College. O’Brien uses humor and anecdotes to deliver a powerful speech which resonated with most viewers. O’Brien also used many literary devices for the graduates to better understand his primary points. Conan O’Brien delivery of his commencement address was effective because of his use of pathos, ethos, and antidotes, which contributed to his fantastic speech.
President Obama’s Address to the nation was presented on January 5, 2016. His speech was shown on all of the major network stations. The main goal of his speech was to get the point across to the nation about the increasing problem of gun use. His speech really focused on the issue of gun control and if it would benefit the country. Overall, the biggest idea of his Address was that gun control is a large issue in the United States. The way to prevent deaths caused by firearms can be prevented in other ways than taking peoples guns away. The examples brought up in this Address really stood out to me. The use of personal, national, and global examples really made his speech stronger on the topic of effectiveness.