Rhetorical Strategies In Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech

Claudia Weber

Mrs.Corey

English 2 Advanced Honors

21 March 2022

Rhetorical Strategys in Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech In his articulate and entrancing speech given to Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs clearly persuades emotionally and logically by asserting his position to his audience using alliteration and imagery to create the ideals and randomness of life. Steve Jobs clearly asserts himself as describing his journey with Apple and the hardships he had to endure and persevere. He states, “We worked hard, and 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”(Jobs). By stating his vast procurements which solidify his credibility and take control over the crowd from admiration and respect. He also claims, “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. ..Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to

He acredits his past by describing his earliest childhood with expectations of his birth mother, “She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.” By stating this he shows how he was adopted, and was to be adopted but in the way he says “everything was all set” implies that things didn't go as planned. He also appeals to emotion by stating, “Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.” which serves the implication that he didn’t graduate, and though successful, he too struggled in life. His appeal to emotion entrances the audience, especially when describing his scare and perseverance with pancreatic