A Rhetorical Analysis Of Rita Dove's Graduation Speech

The students in attendance, who are accustomed to fruitless lectures from adults and are ready to move on to their own real lives, routinely tune a college graduation commencement speech out. Even the adults in the audience ignore the speaker as they utter a meaningless message. However, the University of Virginia's 2016 graduating class would be lucky enough to receive their commencement speech from Rita Dove, a very accomplished African American poet, who would be sure not to leave the audience empty-handed. With her words, she does more than just give students a weak assortment of advice or stories; she captivates the audience. She opens by establishing her goal: to encourage instead of advise, which coerces the audience to lean into what

By wishing the audience hunger, hard work, and uncertainty, Rita Dove attempts to cheer on the students in their future walks of life, make them aware of the decisions that lie ahead, and communicate her message in a way that strategically holds their attention for the duration of the speech. To truly draw the full attention of a crowd, they have to hear something different, something that grabs their attention immediately. For any of the students who do not already know her, Rita Dove first establishes her reason for being there, presenting that she has been teaching at UVA for twenty-seven years, and she even states that she has given commencement speeches before. This is a crucial opening step in building a pile of credibility, to place meaning behind her words and to draw the ears of the crowd onto her. She strategically begins by setting her speech apart from any that the audience has heard before, insisting that “this speech is different; this is personal.” In making this claim, she indirectly pleads with the audience to listen to her intently, because she will not simply regurgitate an overused, useless

However, she does not stop with a simple explanation because she knows the crowd in front of her wants answers that go beyond empty words. The ability to appeal to the logic of a person allows one to truly influence how they think, and Rita achieves this when she warns the audience not to “rush off willy-nilly screaming, ‘I'm going to conquer this world’— but you do need to be bold enough to step outside your comfort zone, even if it is scary out there.” This statement is not only a direct warning of what not to do but also offers a realistic alternative. By telling the students they don't need to do one thing, but instead do another, Rita convinces the audience that they need to decide how they are going to attack what is in front of them. All of the students in the audience are given a choice of how to respond to the uncertainty that is looming in the future, and with a person standing in front of them who has seemingly figured it all out, they are likely to deeply consider their