A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Commencement Speech By Rowling

The commencement speech given by Rowling is just as exceptional to read as I’m sure it was to hear. She does an amazing job of utilizing true life despairs, fears, and circumstances to demonstrate extreme optimism through these hardships. Her tone is sincere and spoken from a position of wisdom. She begins by placing herself in the students shoes many years ago which builds a perception of trust through experience. She then proceeds to point out real life problems that she experienced and is very vivid in her descriptions of her peril and natural negative thoughts and reactions. Her act of pointing out these experiences pulls the audience into an emotional suspense in which she provides an optimistic outcome. This outcome leads the audience to believe she is wise beyond her years and that they are truly listening to

As I stated previously the success she had achieved in her life was well known. Her success was further validated when she identified as having failed at some point in her life. This sense of realism allows us to believe her claims. The arrangement of the speech is also imperative to her ability to convince us. If the speech were organized in a different manner; she would have lost some of her exposure based credibility. The speech is organized in such a manner, that it uses a tangible life experience with both tangible and intangible consequences to further build on her argument and her credibility. By doing this, the door was opened to address a more abstract argument of imagination and justifying it with worldliness. Additionally, I noticed her use of images and words that conjured emotions to describe experiences. These words and explanations did an amazing job of drawing us into her personal life, relating it to our own lives, creating a sense of suspense and despair, and then providing an amazing outcome and result. This creates an emotional attachment and drives action from the