A Rhetorical Analysis Of Amy Shehler's Speech

Half-way in the speech, he makes the first overt connection between the audience and his topic. His statement -"Think about your own work… everybody in this room is dealing with their own version of the candle problem” (7:49) flatters the audience, since it means that they are all affianced in truly challenging and difficult labor. More prominently, it makes his massage more personal. He persuades his audience repeatedly referencing "the candle problem” which the audiences hear it as "my problem”. His speech is composed of thoughts provoking ideas. He wisely injects hilarity throughout his presentation. He states in the 38th second, - "I need to make a confession. I did something I regret… in a moment of youthful indiscretion, I went to law school” and in the 1st minute -"I graduated in the part of my law school class that made the top 90% possible.” Both of these statements are humorous and they build connection with the audience. Another notable element is Pink’s speech is the use of contrast. The most memorable is the catch phrase he introduces with a slide

Florence Kelley delivered a speech to the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1905. Her speech is a plead for improving the existing child labor laws and working conditions. Throughout her speech, Florence Kelley utilizes many rhetorical strategies to convey her message about child labor laws, these strategies include: appeal to logos, parallel structure, and anecdote.

Steve Jobs effectively uses pathos throughout the speech to appeal emotions of his audience, effectively connecting with audience. Jobs starts off his speech by using pathos saying “I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college, and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation” (Jobs). From these first two

It was the last day of school where we got our report cards and it stated what our 6th grade classroom would be. I was a very weak student and I ended up in a place that wasn’t my best. People have made so many comments and put so many labels, but I pushed myself to change. Ever since this moment I have worked hard to make a change. I’ve had put so much pressure on myself and now I have the honor of being the one to stand here, in front of all of you as your Valedictorian.

Most graduates have a lot of stress and worry about their futures, the uncertainty of where they are going or what they will become. Ellen is relatable when she tells the graduates how she didn’t know who shes was, considering that, she was still dating men. Another use of a rhetorical question “But why am I here today?” to introduce an anecdote about her growing up in New Orleans. This question takes the audience’s attention back to her, because, consequently, they know that Ellen will explain why she is there; giving them a reason to listen to her words. Once again, Ellen asks “What else can happen to you?” in order to commend the graduates of having success after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. She uses the hyperbole and rhetorical question, “So what I’m saying is, when you’re older, a lot of you will be gay. Anyone writing this stuff down? Parents?” this keeps everybody’s attention and loops the parents into relating the commencement speech to them as well. Rhetorical questions help Ellen by giving the crowd small moments to reflect and invites them into her speech, connecting to them and allowing them to smile during serious content.

Jane Addams’ speech explains her stance of George Washington's legacy as a soldier, statesman, and a Virginia planter. In this speech, Jane Addams references George Washington’s accomplishments in his past, including how things would be if he is to be present today. The most significant uses of rhetorical devices in this speech include hypophora, rhetorical questions, enumeratio, distinctio, and metaphors.

On July twelfth, 1976, Barbara Jordan delivered a speech to the National Convention. She was the first African American to do so. Barbara represented the Democratic party. In her powerful speech, she addressed equality in everyone, response to change, and the future of America.

Hydrogen bombs are an exceedingly controversial subject; they enable humans to act as a pseudo god, giving us the ability to destroy all life in a matter of hours. In May 1982 in St.John’s cathedral Kurt Vonnegut gave a unique speech on hydrogen bombs explaining America needs them to protect from fates worse than death. Instead of a traditional and delicate speech about the atrocities of hydrogen bombs Kurt breaks formal etiquette almost immediately with jokes, humor and lightheartedness. By analyzing the diction and syntax Kurt uses in his speech a reader can see how Kurt overcomes controversy, gains his audience’s respect through ethos, and persuades them with logos and pathos.

People who are blind face many different problems in accomplishing everyday activities and becoming an independent individual. Some are able to overcome this issue while others struggle through it in their lives. In “Helen Keller’s Address before the New York Association for the Blind, January 15, 1907” she makes an appeal to the audience that the blind should be helped and made independent so that they can stand up and support themselves. She uses pathos or emotionally packed words, examples and anecdotes and cites from a prominent source to convince her audience that the blind are not helpless, but they are in need of guidance from people who can see in order to live and thrive independently.

Florence Kelley was a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women. Throughout her speech to the Philadelphia Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she stresses the importance of changing the working conditions that are in place for children. By using child labor as her baseline, Kelley is able to talk about her main point, which is her suggestion for women’s rights with the help of repetition, strong word choice, and opposition.

Rachel Carson purposely uses ethos, a means of convincing someone through an ethnic appeal, in her book Silent Spring. Using a variety of means of persuasion, she pleads to the readers in ways that affect them personally. She starts in chapter one, “A Fable for Tomorrow” by first describing the perfect world. Carson then proceeds to portray a fabricated story of the perfect storm scenario of chemical poisons in the atmosphere. She further clarifies this is not an attack, but rather self-infliction. From there, she describes in details the underlying problems brought upon humans by the chemical poisons used to control insects in chapter two, The Obligation to Endure. It additionally specifies the layout of the history of intervention by

Then she relates this to the audience about making connections with others and creating resilience to stress. This makes a memorable impression because she makes connections to stress and good biological relationships that the audience than use to appreciate stress even more. I personally find the ending of this speech effective because it leaves us with a good perception of stress. To me, it was clear that she wanted stress to be a good thing for us, and I got that impression with the connections she made throughout her speech with our minds, our bodies, and our connections with

Her sentences are punctuated by “ah”, “uh” and “um”, together with quick turns of thoughts. Transitions are often abrupt, such as the lines: “(Money was) really all I wanted. This ah to everyone who flew out, first of all, to be here, uh uh I thank you.” While these elements approximate spontaneous conversation and make her speech seem unplanned and personal in contrast to the usual concise, or otherwise “stylised” structuring of acceptance speeches that sound contrived, simulated or performed (Montgomery, pp. 402), it can also be argued that the tendencies identified are merely an attempt at synthetic personalisation (Fairclough cited in Montgomery, 2010, pp. 403) to index

Amy’s backstory only further pushes her into the box of the novel’s anti-hero. From her need to compete with her parent’s fictitious creation “Amazing

This one is slightly harder to comprehend due to the indirectness surround it. This section is more about doing than anything else. This can be seen when Amy is discussing her old group, UCB, motto of don’t think; she says “Don’t think. Get out of your head. Stop planning and just go,” (Poehler, 196). Farther into this section of Yes Please, Amy Poehler delves into careers verse passion and how to treat each of them respectively if they aren’t lucky enough to align. She truly inspires while expressing how hard she had to work to get to the top. She made herself into who she is now because she figured out who she wanted to be and she became it. A comedian is who Amy Poehler is so that is who she became through her years of hard work waiting tables, and making connections, and learning, and traveling to work and succeed. Poehler finds in all of this that ambivalence is key to success, with this she states “You have to care about your work but not about the result. You have to care about how good you are and how good you feel, but not how good people think you are, or how good people think you look,” (Poehler, 223, 224). Throughout this section Amy reinforces to be who you are through