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Rhetorical Analysis Of You Are Not Special By David Mccullough

607 Words3 Pages

“You Are Not Special” presented by David McCullough, Jr. This was a graduation speech presented in front of the graduating class of Wellesley High School. McCulloch presented this informative speech to let all the seniors at WHS what the real world is really like. McCullough goes off stating that this class of graduating class is not special at all. At first you think he is being mean and harsh but he goes on with facts, saying what these students are not special. McCullough uses facts like 3.2 million seniors are graduating, from more than 37 thousand high schools. With everyone graduating in the same cap and gown. Later on in McCullough speech he said that is everyone is special that means there 6.8 billion examples of perfection. If everyone is special no one is. McCullough had 3 main points with his first one talking about wedding and his second point the seniors graduating into his last point of how the real world is. His introductions he welcomes everyone thanks everyone for coming, friends,family,teachers and people on the board of education's. McCullough hits his main point then in his conclusion of his speech with telling the students to really live life with selflessness and taking one …show more content…

McCullough was keeping the audience attention by making a joke by tying it back into the graduation speech. He made sure he wasn't saying meaningless jokes just to make the crowd laugh. McCullough used some persuasive strategies within his speech. For example he used a lot of pathos. He was using a lot of emotional appeal within his speech to get the audience more involved. He was giving the audience a happy feeling by making them laugh throughout the whole speech. McCullough also used logos to convince the audience in a good way or bad that the class of 2012 is not special by using facts and statistics to show them that they are just like everyone

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