Madeleine Albright Commencement Speech Rhetorical Analysis Essay In Madeleine Albright's Commencement Speech (Given to a Mount Holyoke College graduating class) She uses multiple Rhetorical Devices such as anaphora, epistrophe, as well as her syntax to push her point access to her audience. Her point, being, that this class is one to “break the glass ceiling”. A way that Albright pushes her point across is through anaphora (the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of consecutive clauses). A good example is the consecutive use of “I met a woman…”.
As a social worker and reformer, Florence Kelley utilizes asyndeton, juxtaposition, and rhetorical questions in her ardent speech for the attendees of the convention for the National American Women Suffrage Association to “enlist the workingmen voters” in helping with the implementation of more stringent child labor laws to encourage the protection of children, especially girls, from working in factories at such young ages. Kelley’s employment of asyndeton in the second paragraph as she states, “Men increase, women increase, youth increase in the ranks of the breadwinners…”, makes her speech more passionate and effective by speeding up its rhythm and pace. She applies this rhetorical strategy to segue into the fact that despite the increase across different demographics, none is so exponential as the growth of “girls between twelve and twenty years of age.” She describes this fact before the convention to depict the extensive hindrances this particular contingent faces.
David McCullough, in his Wellesley High School Commencement Address, utilizes imagery to convey to his audience that each individual possesses the same common potential. While addressing the graduating class of 2012, McCullough makes a point to emphasize how unexceptional the students are. By bringing to light the fact that the students are all wearing the same “ceremonial costume…shapeless, uniform, one-size-fits-all” (McCullough 1), he illustrates the conformity of the crowd. By depicting the cap and gown, McCullough demonstrates that each student at the ceremony are at the same level.
Most commencement speeches are often boring, drawn out, and they seem similar, but this isn’t true about all of them. In his humorous and incredibly inspiring commencement speech given to Lesley University in 2018, Jason Reynolds captivates and teaches his audience through the use of storytelling and comedy to deliver his life advice. In Jason Reynolds commencement speech, he uses humor and other rhetorical devices in order to appeal to the audience’s emotions. For example, in the first sentence of his speech Reynolds makes a comment on how much of a challenge it was trying to fit all of his hair into the graduation cap.
In her “Commencement Speech at Mount Holyoke College”, Anna Quindlen employs personal anecdotes and her academic background to effectively build her credibility. Quindlen explains how her strive for perfection in her younger years only served to add needless parasitic pressure. She claims that “being perfect day after day, year after year, became like always carrying a backpack filled with bricks on my back” (Quindlen 1). Drawing from her personal experiences, Quindlen challenges her audience to “give up the backpack”. By building a strong connection through shared hardship, Quindlen appears as an authority on defying conformity to discover one’s own individuality.
Steven Zheng Mrs.Korey 3/20/23 English 2 “Jason Reynold delivers Lesley University Commencement Address,” Rhetorical Analysis Numerous individuals each year graduate from college, destined for the real world as they take flight. In the highly creative and skillfully crafted, “Jason Reynolds delivers Lesley University Commencement Address”, given at the commencement of the graduates of Lesley University on May 19th 2018, Jason Reynolds delivers a poignant and deeply meaningful message of taking on the world. Jason Reynolds establishes credibility and meaningfully appeals emotionally to his audience through his masterful use of similes, metaphor, alliteration, repetition, symbolism, humor, and charisma to help them take flight in their lives.
In her commencement address at the University of Virginia, Professor Rita Dove - Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former US poet laureate - expresses her wishes for the graduating students on how to be fulfilled in life by lightening the mood with light-hearted quips and giving credibility to her advice with accomplished figures as examples. Dove includes small quips and jokes to keep the audience engaged and lighten the otherwise serious tone. Instances of this include early in the speech when Dove calls herself a “contrary fairy godmother” and a “wily genie”. This allows the audience of nervous graduating students to feel more relaxed throughout the rest of the speech so they are more likely to pay attention. When someone is stressed or anxious
In her 2013 “Bowie State University Commencement Speech”, found in They Say/I Say, Michelle Obama, the current First Lady of the United States, uses several rhetorical strategies, including historical references and appeals to emotion and history, in order to drive her central message of the importance of education and the responsibly of her audience to deliver the legacy of education to the next generation. Throughout the piece, Obama relays a historical analysis of the progress made in education for African Americans, including an exploration of the toil and sacrifice made over the decades so that that progress could come to pass. She concludes by calling the graduating students to action to carry on the legacy of educational excellence that
The world, as well as ourselves, can become confident. I will encourage scholarship, leadership, and good citizenship with my school and community. With my hardwork, not only shall I benefit, but all that I help shall be benefited as well.
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
Good evening Lia, 1st, thank you again for everything! Thank you for thinking of me back in December and for agreeing to write my member letter. Below, please find information regarding my reason for wanting to join Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, along with details concerning my public service. Lastly, I've attached my resume for your review to assist with the writing of this letter.
The 2016 spring commencement speech given by Quint Studer, he was a student who struggled in high school due to having both a speech impediment and being hard of hearing. But, he was able to make it through high school and college thanks to the people he encountered in his life that helped him. The “pebble in the pond” theory as explained by Quint Studer is the ideology that you indeed do have an impact on many of the people you come in contact with during life. For example, he mentioned a teacher he had in the 6th grade. This teacher knew that Studer had a problems preventing learning so he moved his desk next to Studer, allowing him to be able to give him the extra helping hand, without being obvious.
This artifact is a rhetorical analysis about a commencement speech from Steve Jobs to the Stanford graduating class of 2005. The commencement speech was broken down into his three stories. I used these three stories to summarize his overall message which is to follow your passion in life using anecdotes, pathos, and ethos. This artifact relates to this page because this is one of my writing sample I wrote in my English 12 class. I feel like the paper was easy to write because all I had to was summarize his speech using rhetoric.
Bro. RVP (PUT HIS NAME) It was great seeing you at the regional convention in Chicago. I wanted to inform you the Xi Alpha Chapter will not able to attend the national convention in Baltimore, MD. The chapter will only have one member at the end of the semester due the fact brothers will all be graduating.
Q2 - Dove In her 2016 commencement address to the graduating students at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Rita Dove first dismisses the popular speech topics of life advice, then encourages the graduates to strive and have determination, then finally treasures them about the opportunities of an unknown future by conveying her wishes that the students take risks and follow their passion in order to set the students up for success in an unknown part of their life. Rita Dove felt that most commencement speeches focus on one thing, life advice. To stand out and give the graduation class words that they’ll remember, she instead wishes upon them. These wishes are more interpretive than literal as she wishes for hunger, hard work, and
