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Rhetorical analysis steve jobs speech
Rhetorical analysis steve jobs speech
Rhetorical analysis steve jobs speech
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Rhetorical Analysis on Steve Jobs’s Commencement Address
Entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, in his commencement address at the University of Stanford, “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish,” describes his life in three very different stages. Jobs’s purpose is to explain what he went through in his life and to inspire the people who have just graduated from a very prestigious university. He adopts a sincere and motivating tone in order to relate his story and situation to his audience.
Jobs begins his commencement address by narrating his college experience that shaped his life of success. He appealed to the audience’s pathos when he explained how he dropped out due to all of his parent’s savings being spent on his college education,
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“But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent of my college tuition” (Jobs, 2005, pg 1). Another appeal he used was to the irony of how he dropped in on a calligraphy class and how he didn’t think that it would help him in his life until they were designing the first Mac, “None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me” (Jobs, 2005, pg 2). He also indicates that most of his decisions have been made by trusting his judgement, this appeals to ethos because of how many people like to trust their gut, “You have to trust in something- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down,” (Jobs, 2005, pg 2). He uses these strategies in order to gain credibility and a relationship with the audience. The different uses of ethos and logos makes the audience think about how they came to the decision to go to college and how those decisions have shaped their life for the better or for the worst. Jobs shifts to his second story by describing how he started Apple, then faced adversity, and succeeded.
When Jobs talked about starting Apple he used ethos due to him talking about how he and Woz worked hard and how they started from the bottom, “Woz and I started Apple in my parent’s garage,” then rose to the top, “in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees,”(2). Another appeal that he used was overcoming obstacles as he was fired from Apple, which left him devastated, but it allowed him to explore other possibilities creating a new fire under Jobs, “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me,” (Jobs, 2005, pg 2) this appealed to logos. Towards the end of the story he talked about how you need to find what you want to do and don’t stop until you do, “If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle,” (Jobs, 2005, pg 3), this appeals to the audience’s pathos, because everyone is scared of getting stuck in something they don’t enjoy. He uses these appeals in order to prove that hard work and determination are essential to success and happiness. He warns the audience to never settle for something that you don’t like and that through hard work you can end up where you want to
be. Jobs ends his commencement address by warning the audience to not waste their time on Earth and to stay hungry. Jobs tugs at the emotions of the audience by letting them in on his experience with cancer, “The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer that three to six months, he later found out, “it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now,” (Jobs, 2005, pg 3). He then gave them some advice to encourage them, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living in someone else’s life,” (Jobs, 2005, pg 4). He used these appeals in order to prove his point that life has unusual twists and that you should not waste your time while you have it. The advice from such a successful entrepreneur should motivate the audience to take control of their lives and get to where they want to be in life. In conclusion, Jobs did a very good job of using ethos, logos, and pathos to convey his message and encourage the audience. He tugged at their emotions, gave them some advice, and led them through a story of his up and down life in order to give them examples of how life can be full of twists and turns.
To regard the importance of the bigger picture, he maintains parallel structure and utilizes the repetition of words in the body of the speech. “The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life” occurs when one seizes the day—when one finds the joys in life by realizing “you are not special”. The pauses and short sentences also adds to the conversational aspect and pace of the commencement piece. To continue, he notes how in this moment of time, every single one of them is dressed “exactly the same” and their diplomas are “exactly the same”. The unification of these prospective seniors further augments the message of settling. McCullogh further critiques the phrases that defy logic. High school students have perceived that “good is no longer good enough, where a B is the new C”. The goal into doing one’s best has been shaped into doing the capabilities of another, in which McCullogh responds metaphorically to only focus on the betterment of the self: “climb [the mountain] so you can see the world, not so the world can see you”. All of these seniors have fallen into the preconceived mindset of superiority, unifying them together but it is their personal capabilities that distinguishes one from another, successes from failures. The support and inspiration he is aiming for is clearly portrayed in proposing to the students to, “[d]ream big. Work hard. Think for yourself”. He inspires them to experience life instead of accomplish
David McCullough Jr., delivered the commencement at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts on June 1st 2012 to staff, the 2012 graduates, and their family and friends. The speech was straightforward and supplied valuable information for their future. . McCullough’s speech at times felt harsh, offensive, and insulting. His words and examples were given to achieve insight, knowledge, and awareness for each student’s future. The commencement expressed a great deal of achievement, but conveyed that there was more work to be done. His speech was effective and appreciated through humor parallelism, repetition, and anaphora. His point of view has obtained respect and determination by all those that have been challenged and have heard his words.
Fear of the unknown can be a very terrifying situation, many people graduate college thinking they are done when in reality they are just getting started with life. In Steven Spielberg’s Commencement speech to the Harvard Graduates, class of 2016. Spielberg exploited the fears and truths in life, what he was faced with and how life turned out for him. In my opinion Steven Spielberg did a really good job of structuring his speech and keeping the audience’s attention, Spielberg’s speech was well written and well delivered. He used some very nice quotes in the speech to inspire the audience. Steven Spielberg’s Speech was effective in persuading the audience, he really showed great use of ethos in his speech because many of the audience could relate. And just like in his movies Spielberg used pathos in his speech when he connected some of his popular movies with the speech in order to appeal to the audience.
In his speech, Trump used ethos, logos, and pathos, to try and further connect to the audience. Ethos is the use of reputation, or experience as a way of convincing people to trust in what the speaker is saying based on their credibility. This seems to be Trump’s favorite kind of proof as he uses it heavily over the others. Pathos is the use of
Imagine your son or daughter holding a gun, and accidently shoot his family member. Person shows up to a school building armed and shot 20 innocent children who would’ve had bright future ahead of them. This situation happened multiple times in the past. It is an alarm, sounding for us to create better gun control. America is a huge nations and gun control became a major problem as mentioned in the speech, fellow Americans have reportedly died at the end of a gun monthly. Everyone can deliver a speech, yet not everyone can draw the reader’s attention, sell their words, and gain attractions from the audience. A great speaker is known for his usage of appeals. LaPierre called
In Steve’s graduation speech on June 12, 2005, he stated, "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.” This is what Malcom describes as qualities that work has to have to be satisfying—autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward. Steve Jobs’s approach to his work was a large contributor to the overall success of Apple. By following his interests, he created some of the most influential products to the technology field that 500 million people use—second only to Facebook. The Wright brothers hardly gave birth to the idea of an airplane. Dozens of inventors were trying to build kite-like structures with broad wings and engines to power them; the Wrights methodically gathered all they could learn from those others and figured out how to use a lighter
“I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months”. This quote came from Steve jobs when he delivered a speech at a Stanford University graduation ceremony. He came to the graduation, to deliver a speech that had an allegory to motivate people to follow their dreams and passions. Separating his life into three stories, of how he came to be successful and the obstacles that he had to overcome.
At the 2012 Freedom to Connect Conference in Washington D.C., Aaron Swartz gave an effective speech titled “How We Stopped SOPA.” In his speech, Swartz recounts how he was able to stop the “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeit Act,” later called the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” from passing through Congress. This seemed like an impossible task, but Swartz goes into depth regarding how he and his peers made the impossible become reality. Swartz’s purpose is to create a sense of patriotism throughout his speech and prompt his audience to protect and defend the most valued right given to American citizens: freedom. Swartz employs a relatable and honest tone using anecdotes, gains the trust of the audience by appealing to ethos, and emphasizes his ideas with the aid of repetition. Swartz
Following the collapse of France during World War II, the conditions the Allied powers faced became bleaker by the day. The United Kingdom was standing alone in the face of Germany, and under Hitler’s reign, the German “blitzkrieg” or “lightning war,” a tactic involving bombardment, tanks, and ground troops in quick offense proved too much for many countries. Winston Churchill would be the one to reignite hope in the hearts of the British people, delivering his “Their Finest Hour” speech on the 18th of June, 1940. Churchill utilized persuasive rhetoric whilst appealing to the people's logic and emotions, to raise morale and spirit in the United Kingdom to fight.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American Composer who is worldly recognized for his musical named “In The Heights.” Throughout his life, he’s won a variety of awards which leaves him only one Oscar away from achieving EGOT status. EGOT represents that a person has won all four of the major entertainment awards such as an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. (Liebman Entertainment LLC) Due to the fact of his accomplishments, Miranda was chosen to speak at the University of Pennsylvania graduation in the year 2016. Lin-Manuel Miranda states “ Your stories are essential” encouraging the graduates to go on and share their stories with others.
The speech was mainly focused on the upcoming challenges and encouraging the public to share in building the United States. He established a strong feeling of honor of being American through telling short stories about troubles that the United States managed to overcome. His language was specific and served the pathos appeal. For instance, using "thriving" and "suffering" as two opposite words to describe the last financial crisis.
Wherever you are, if you look around you will find at least one person with an IPhone. I am typing this now on a MacBook. Steve Jobs formed an empire that changed the lives of a multitude of people. In 2005 at the Sanford graduation ceremony Steve Job’s spoke a coming of age speech about doing what you love. Now, over a decade later, the importance of this speech remains the same. Job’s has always presented new products for Apple in a compelling way, by structure his speech, and using pathos and repetition, he does the same during his inspiring You’ve Got to Find What You Love speech.
Jobs starts his speech with humor. He said, “I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation,” this statement instantly added an element of humor to his speech and this was well observed by the audience. The opening statements of the speech automatically lightened the mood. Steve jobs’ introduction appeals to the emotions of the audience, giving Jobs a valuable opening into the rest of his speech. In the whole speech, Jobs recites three stories from his personal life, which gave him inspiration.
The first months after Steve Jobs came back to Apple were the hardest-working in his life. He reviewed every team at Apple and asked them to explain wh...
In his message before the graduates enter into a new world, Jobs used personal setbacks in his life and how he ascended from them in an effort to encourage them to pursue their dreams. In the initial stage of the presentation, I questioned whether Jobs was the right speaker to motivate college graduate since he admitted that he was a college drop. I mean, who is Steve Jobs to talk about sticking to your dreams when he could not even finish college. However, listening to the successes in his life, he could not be better suited for the task as success is what everyone strives for; especially those college students who would have spend years studying. Judging from the audience’s attentiveness and applauses during the presentation, it would seem that his message had been well received.