Rhetorical Analysis Of Education For The Future

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world”. Education plays a huge role in today’s society around the world. There are many debates on how the education system has improved or deteriorated. In Barack Obama’s speech “Education for the Future”, he emphasizes how education has improved but still needs more improvement in America. President Obama’s uses of repetition, concessions, and personal anecdotes to convey his intention to the audience. Obama utilizes repetition multiple times throughout his speech to emphasize his argument towards education. Repetition is the use of restating phrase or words. In the first paragraph, he states “…No matter who you are, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from…” (Obama). He repeats “no matter” to show that even if you aren’t this or that you are

Concession is a literary device used in argumentative writing where one acknowledges a point made by one’s opponent (Literary Devices). For example, “We need to grow our economy for everybody” and guarantee “every young person access to a world-class education”. Later on, he states the positive that has occurred, “our high school graduation rate is the highest…the Latino dropout rate has been cut in half…” (Obama). Obama is explaining how the America still has challenges towards education, but has made a vast advancement towards education. The use of concession shows that the author knows that positive that is happening, but also shows that America’s education needs to improve their weakness regarding education. Overall, Obama’s speech assesses the accomplishments and challenges of today’s education system. He uses repetition and concessions to sway the audience towards his perspective on education. He addresses not only the reform that has occurred for education thus far, but also the problems that must be tackled for the sake of future