When Antwan Wilson was first asked to give the commencement speech for Nebraska Wesleyan University, he said he was humbled. “People who grew up like I grew up don’t give commencement speeches in the state of Nebraska,” he said. “At least not when I grew up, that’s not the way it was.” But on Saturday afternoon, the chancellor of D.C. Public Schools will deliver the university’s 128th commencement to 489 undergraduate and graduate students. It’s been 22 years since Wilson’s own graduation, but
In Oprah Winfrey’s Harvard Commencement Speech, like most graduation speeches aims to inspire the new graduates to enter the world with confidence and optimism. She encourages the graduates to force themselves to think the same way about failure as she does, or not see a lack of success as failure. For many, it will be the first time experiencing the real world, so she encourages all in the audience to not only redefine failure and hardship but also use their acquired knowledge for the benefit of
delivered speeches at USC Annenberg and Howard University, respectively, and utilized rhetorical appeals to communicate their messages. Oprah Winfrey's 2018 USC Annenberg Commencement Speech encouraged graduates to use their education to make a positive impact on the world. Chadwick Boseman's 2018 Howard University Commencement Speech emphasized the value of hard work, perseverance, and the pursuit of enlightenment in the face of adversity. He encouraged the graduating class to embrace their struggles
Throughout reading “Commencement Speech, Kenyon College”, I found this short story very inspiring to read as I found myself doing more research for this essay because I was so interested in it. Wallace was very reluctant to give this speech because he wasn’t sure he was ready to talk in front of 400 graduates and what if what he had to say was ordinary not something that would stick with all these students the rest of their lives. Reading this speech through the first time the tone particularly stuck
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
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
storyteller – Rhetorical Analysis of Steve Jobs’ Commencement Speech Lu Jia As one of the greatest presenters of his time, Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford was also a huge success. It was regarded highly both by his direct audience – the graduating class at Stanford, as evidenced by their repeated cheers and applauses; and by the mass media - a Forbes article praised his commencement speech as “still inspirational after 10 years”. Video of the speech attracted 22 million views on Youtube and
On July 12th, 2005 Steve Jobs' wrote a speech called the commencement speech, where Steve relied primarily on appealing to emotions and being a credible speaker as well as included personal anecdotes to effectively convey the message that the graduates should make use of their limited time. Jobs believes that it is important to find an occupation that fulfills your wants and needs, as well as being happy with it. In all, it is imperative that you “love” the job you have, and without satisfaction
In Ellen’s commencement speech to the Tulane University class of 2009, the use of rhetorical questions, metaphors, allusions and hyperbole gives the graduating class a time to reflect and remember their time at the University connecting with the speaker in a special way, whilst also maintaing a light and happy mood, by using comedy and entertainment. For Ellen, the road to success was very difficult nd had a tragic beginning. Her girlfriend was killed in a car accident and she was living a very dull
David foster Wallace delivered a commencement speech to the graduates of Kenyon College, in which Wallace attempted to instill in his audience the mindset needed to cope with the monotony and frustration of adult life. He stresses the importance of being “conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience”. This speech has received critical praise and recognition for being one of the best commencement speeches of all time, but does
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
In his commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005, David Foster Wallace was tasked with the responsibility of imparting some wisdom onto the graduating class. Wallace’s message to a room of full soon-to-be college graduates at the precipice of the of their impending true adulthood, he offers them a message that cuts through the mess and concisely delivers a message that many would ironically overlook, which is for the students to realize that at times, imperative life lessons are not only the
one expect from a commencement speech? Perhaps a short speech about the importance of education, or a pretentious child-like poem to contrast with the formal institution it takes place in. Maybe it would be useful to give a speech that acts as a handbook on “making it to 30, or maybe even 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head.” As crass as it sounds, some people may want to know how to attempt that challenging feat, and David Foster Wallace delivered a commencement speech that gave them
Short but smart, targeted yet universal, poignant and timeless – thus is Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford. Some attribute its success to Jobs’ personal influence and charisma – they do add significant weight to the speech, undeniably. But close inspections from the lenses of rhetorical analysis allow us to appreciate this speech from a different perspective – in particular, how the speech was crafted into a fitting response to its rhetorical situation and how Jobs managed to strike
College commencement speeches are usually a glistening review of the college from an alumni who accredits their success to their school education but Steve Jobs addresses the graduates of Stanford college slightly differently. He shared his successes of his career but did not attribute them to his college equation but almost the opposite. He is known as one of the largest inventors in the tech industry and in the personal computer era and he shares how achieved this massive amount of success. Throughout
Literary analysis People before us fought for our right to speak freely; Colin Powell agrees and says that university students shouldn’t let people hold them back. Although freedom of speech is protected everywhere, at university’s freedom of speech is encouraged. People have to live up to the expectations set by people previous to your life. We have to take advantage of what others fought for; because for all our rights we have others died for. We shouldn’t let their deaths mean nothing exercise
views on education. His passionate and inspiring speech called “Lift Off” was given at HGSE’s Commencement Ceremony on May 25, 2016. The speech discusses the importance of education as well as the obstacles and injustices students, especially those of color, have experienced throughout history in getting an education. Livingston’s graduating classmates who are becoming teachers, as well as teachers and educators in general, are the audience of his speech. He directly speaks about past teachers and experiences
gave this speech to tell them that becoming an adult is not great, but it will be okay in the end. I really enjoyed this speech, Green was able to make it relatable through his role. He also was able to make the reader or listener feel emotions. He makes his speech memorable from his style and sentence structure. One strategy that Green uses is style, he uses sentence structure very well. He makes points stick in the reader's or listener's mind. My favourite
delivered a very passionate speech about life here at Howard and how he used his drive and growing potential to further propel him into his career today. My analysis will focus primarily on how Combs used the art of storytelling, quotation, and redundancy to not only engage his audience’s interest, but to solely maintain their interests and evoke passion from them. He used a vast amount of techniques within his speech, however I chose to only focus on the major divisions of his speech. His introduction captured
In 2005 Steve Jobs was asked to give a commencement speech to the graduating students at Stanford university. Steve Jobs, a tech millionaire, got his start as the co-founder of Apple, one of the most influential tech companies around today. Him and his friend, Steve Wozniak, started the company out of their garage, little did they know that it would turn into the multi international company we know today, relied on by millions. Due to all of his experience and success at overcoming hardships, Steve