Obama Speech Critique Essay

This essay is about President Barack Obama’s speech “ Back to school “ which he held September 8th 2009 at the Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. The overall message in the speech is whether young people are taking school serious and understand the importance of hard work. Not only for themselves but also for the future of the country.

In his speech, “Remarks by the President in a National Address to America’s Schoolchildren,” Obama effectively argues his claim, that kids should go to school and try very hard to succeed to schoolchildren around the U.S. He effectively argues his claim because he uses supporting details and stories of students that have undergone tough situations, but still overcame those obstacles to succeed and school. Also, he is trying to tell kids that they should do well in school to get a good job and make a difference. He also uses rhetorical appeals to help with the supporting details. One of supporting evidence that he brought up was that if someone wants to become something such as a doctor, or lawyer you will need a good education to do

As for Ethos that make the speech more credible, we have the president. The president makes the speech more credible because, he is well-known almost everywhere in the U.S. which gives us the reliability and trustworthiness needed in this situation. Another credibility of this speech would be that it was being played on the radio throughout the U.S., which means it must have been of the utmost importance.

Once again his overall posture and confident level was excellent. The speaker shows passion for the subject he is speaking on from the hand movements when he speaks on poverty and domestic abuse as being trivial (a means to an end). The speakers volume was just right he spoke high enough for the back of the room could here, and the speech was easy to understand. When given a speech a speaker should consider his audience in the wording of his speech, is he giving a speech to children for educational purposes or a group of college students, this is call no one left behind so the entire audience is on track.

Picture this: a cold January day in Washington D.C, the first African American president is about to be inaugurated with a combined audience of over 38 million looking to be inspired.

He chooses his spots on where and when to address the audience on a certain issue. When listening to the speech, or viewing it, you notice this even more. He chooses his pauses wisely, something that is overlooked by many. He draws attention to his more important sentences by pausing for a little more than a second, then continuing on. When one pauses, it almost draws the reader into the importance of the next line, or even the line before. One is thought to believe that it has great importance, because it’s almost hard to say. He chooses to do this several times not only when discussing the Iraq war, but when discussing the current administration in the oval office. He states that “the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into red and blue states; red states for Republicans, blue states for

President Barack Obama spoke his remarks at Howard University commencement ceremony for the class of 2016. This special moment in the speech is honoring people of color, especially African Americans and made history at this University, having the president to present his speech (Donnella). Obama explained how America was different when he graduated college and society is now accepting new cultures and backgrounds within today’s workforce and education. Obama wants the audience to take opportunities and learning new skills to expand their education.

Some examples of convoluted sentences from the text are “His father,” and “The people I meet.”

Obama introduced his speech greeted the audience, and since the beginning he identified himself as one more citizen of the America, by refereeing to his broadly audience as “his fellow citizens,” (Klein) which was an effective way to have the people attention. Then he grounded his words on the Constitution of the United States to introduce his thesis about how the patriots of 1776 fought to give us a republic and a government that defended the rights of its people. He also presented the main points of his speech, and concluded his introduction by sharing common past experiences about the economic success achieved and about the importance of protecting the most vulnerable. This way he put his ideas in context and made his address more credible.

Reagan was a well open speaker that impacted the audience. Before Reagan was president and the head of California, he was an actor. Since he was an actor, he knew how to talk to people out loud. In the speech, Reagan speaks effectively to the audience that gets a reaction out of them as well as making the audience interested in the things he says. After Reagan greets the crowd, he grabs the audience’s attention. Reagan remained a Democrat until he converted to the Republican side, the acting career was beneficial for talking to the audience to tell an anecdote about his switch.

In the speech your could actually see his face and see his different expressions and emotions, you could also hear the different tones of voice that he used when talking about different things. During the speech he said a lot of meaningful things, I like when he said, “Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.” I think that a lot of people can take this message in very different ways, but his is his opinion and this is what he thinks, and he is trying to get his point across to everybody in that room. When he is speaking he is speaking in his own opinion he doesn’t care what other people think, this is his opinion and he wants other people to try and see in his point of view even if only for just a short time. I think that even though this is what he is thinking he still connected with a lot of other people, he made big connections, even world-wide connections. Also when speaking it is easier to get your point across to the people instead of having to write a book about it, it’s way

The address describes insightfully there is always more to do, always more to learn, and always more to achieve. “Your body of work is never done” (Obama 6). In other words, Obama feels that “its about the daily labor, the many individual acts, the choices large and small that add up over time, over a lifetime, to a lasting legacy” (Obama 5). These are the statements Obama makes in his speech. It is about the daily labor, which means individuals should never let a job distract them from what matters in life or compromise values, principles, and commitments (5). No matter what title you obtain in your life, life is short and there is always more to accomplish. Choices small and big add up over a lifetime and it is up to the nation to make the most out of their lives. In order to make his speech persuasive, Obama uses these rhetorical elements: pathos, kairos, and structure matters.

Senator Obama is altering the language. Christians did not exist in the Old Testament story of Ezekiel, but Senator Obama is effectively connecting with every major religion. Simultaneously, he is reaching out to the secular world as well. Being cognizant that everyone does not actively practice a religious faith, Obama chooses stories that

The speaker made direct eye contact at all times unless his head was moving to place emphasis on what he was saying. Further, the speaker spoke loud enough to be heard and did not require me to turn my volume up super high while struggling to hear him. Additionally, the speaker utilized a good pace. He moved slow enough for me to comprehend everything he was telling me but fast enough so that I did not get bored and distracted. Finally, the speaker alternated his pitch throughout the speech which kept my attention. Overall, besides the previously addressed issues, the delivery of the speech was great! I would, however, suggest having more time of the speech spent face to face with the speaker for a more powerful speech.

He managed to present control and unity between two opposing forces. He talked about all he would deal with as a president as well as a global icon who was working hard for global peace. Towards the end of his speech, her noted that , "I do not shrink from this