Steve Jobs' Commencement Speech Review

Steve Job’s commencement speech in 2005 at Stanford University, which is one of the best university in our country was very memorable and inspiring for Stanford graduates and also for audience listening to speech. In his speech, Jobs inspires students and audience to pursue their dreams and always to follow their heart no matter what even though things don’t always go according to plan and never give up. Steve Job is mainly known for his contributions in the technological world but along with that he is also recognized for his world-renowned presentations. Jobs’ simplicity in delivery and extensive use of rhetoric makes his speech effective and comparable to speeches of famous narrators. In this commencement speech, Jobs uses simplicity in the structure of his speech along with the use of rhetoric such as ethos and pathos besides usage of personal stories to make this speech effective in inspiring his audience and making it memorable.

The memorable speech by Steve Jobs entitled “How to Live before you die” inspire us to always pursue our dreams and never give up in everything we do despite we have to get through many awful challenges. He tells three inspirational stories of his own lives that could have made him to give up in life but instead; he used the challenges as stepping stoles for him to be more successful in his live. Steve’s first story really teaches us the value of determination. After he decided to drop out from Reed Collage, he continue to educate himself by going to classes that he really interest him and because of that he was able to create his own computer that is widely used nowadays which is Mac. The second story is about how he was fired from his own

Steve Jobs was like the Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and the Albert Einstein of our time.  He not only innovated personal computing, but personal media and communication, iTunes which became one of the most popular music and video retailers and Pixar which was one of his side projects had become one of the greatest animation digital movie creators and software. But all that is a just part of the list of his legacy, because in the end he still left behind Apple which is world’s most valuable company, which is valued at $350 Billion Dollars.

Steve Jobs, a businessman in Silicon Valley, gave the Stanford Commencement Address in 2005. Rhetorical tools are used to persuade the audience. Ethos deals with the speaker's credibility, Pathos appeals to emotion and Logos appeals to logic. Steve Jobs’ successfully used the rhetorical tools Ethos, Pathos, and Logos throughout his speech.

Steve Jobs was one of the most successful American entrepreneur. He was the CEO and co-­founder of one of the most renowned technological companies in the world, Apple. In his commencement speech “How to Live Before You Die,” Jobs addresses the very thing us as human beings value the most, life and death. In this emotional speech, the late Steve Jobs uses rhetorical strategies such as his diction, syntax, and other figurative language. To begin, the author uses diction and his word choice to reach his audience in a very unique way.

The second story allows the audience to truly measure success and what it takes to become successful. He again induces pathos from the audience. When he talks about his trouble during creation of the Macintosh. He was hired as an employee to develop the Macintosh and fired quickly, rendering all his time and effort unfinished. This difficulty brought him to create a new company. He says, “It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.” He uses stylistic devices such as metaphors, metonymy and hyperbole to not only convey his meaning, but also add some element of humor in his delivery.

This essay is about the elements of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, in Steve Jobs Harvard commencement speech. The element of Ethos is covered in his talks about dropping out of college, in his first story. The element of Pathos is covered in his story about his brush with death. And Logos is covered all through the story, and is mainly hinted at when he talks about being fired from Apple, and then becoming the CEO of three companies.

For the duration of his speech, Jobs included background stories and details of his personal life which each coincided with the purpose of his statements. In order to elaborate on the idea of failure, Jobs spoke of the several valleys he endured on his road to success. Jobs immediately made it clear he never graduated college and began taking classes of his own interest. He applied the new knowledge to his work on the Mac, but was soon fired from Apple. This gave him the chance to advance in Pixar and meet his wife. Jobs ended his speech with the terrifying experience of when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (“Steve Jobs’ 2005...”). Jobs, although very successful, did not receive his success due to the obtainment of a stable family and financial standing. In fact, Jobs’ childhood was far from perfect. He was put up for adoption by his biological mother and was later adopted by parents, neither of which who attended college. He faced economic issues while pursuing what he adored, yet he expressed his struggles in a more positive manner. Jobs continued to use the valleys he described to connect his speech to following one’s dreams no matter the bumps in the road (Ivanov).

Former President, Barack Obama, in his speech “Obama’s Commencement Address at Arizona State University”, the purpose is to convey the ideas that there is always more to do, always more to learn, and always more to achieve. His rhetoric is so successful because of his effective use of pathos, kairos, and structure matters.

Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, addressed a speech at the Commencement at Stanford University. “You’ve got to find what you love,” he said to point out the main reason for his speech. Jobs was addressing to the students at Stanford, but he is really addressing to students at every colleges and universities. He point out three different stories to engage the listeners/readers. The three stories are the major points of his life. He was addressing them to show his listeners/readers that there is a way for anything even if you are struggling. It is effective, because as a reader; I find Jobs’ speech incredibly inspiring. Jobs uses three different stories that have a huge impact in his life. These three stories point out the strategies that he used to gain the listener/reader’s attention.

Steve Jobs is a household name, at least in most parts of America. He was both the head of one of the most influential companies in the emerging computer field, while also pushing for innovation in both Apple, and Pixar. He starts his speech by saying that he has “three stories from my life”, then goes on to tell the story of how he dropped out of college. By utilizing the technique of ethos, he influences the audience to be able to both trust and respect him.

A Rhetorical Analysis of Steve Jobs Commencement Speech for Stanford University's Graduating Class of 2005: Jobs titled his speech "You've got to find what you love." Steve Jobs is best known as an American entrepreneur, inventor and industrial designer. He was the cofounder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. and founder, CEO and chairman of Pixar Animation Studios. Jobs and cofounder of Apple Inc. Steve Wozniak are wildly recognized as pioneers of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s.

Jobs’ appeal to ethos in his anecdotes is not just limited to the fact that he is a celebrity. He also chose parts of his stories not only to give lesson but also to speak for his own manner. He didn’t tell us stories about how he smartly crushed competitions or how he obtains a monopoly on the tech market. He chose stories where he is basically the “good guy”. He didn’t even talk about how he got fired from Apple in the first place. He just passes it saying, “Our vision of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.” In addition to his status, during his stories, he successfully builds the argument that he is a “self-made man” not lucky, he was faithful, not arrogant and he is smart. These are behaviors the audience value and consider very useful. This makes the audience value him and his speech more.

Steve Jobs chooses to present his commencement speech at Stanford in 2005 with an unpretentious, humble tone stating this is the closest he has ever gotten to his actual college graduation. This tone of unpretention and humility makes it clear the speech will not be filled with hyperbole or "when I was your age" platitudes. Instead the humor and humility and set the foundation for a blatantly honest journey through his life and the need to concentrate on ones' passions and beliefs above all else. He takes the audience through his own academic journey, making sure to show them it was highly nonconformist in structure yet directly aligned to what mattered most to him. He said these years at Reed College helped to understand typography, which led to the development of proportionally-spaced fonts on the Apple Macintosh, a technological first. He can't resist taking a jab at Microsoft during this stage of the speech, staying like many other Apple innovations, Windows also stole this aspect of font design. The students loved it and erupt in applause and laughter. He's clearly connected with the audience and allowed them into his life. He then progresses to discuss what death means to him, in poignant terms, prescient of his own untimely passing. He wraps up the speech by telling the audience to "stay young, stay foolish" and never to take anyone else's expectations as your own limits to reality. As one of the

It may seem quite peculiar that the 2007 “Harvard Commencement Speech” was delivered by an individual who once dropped out of the university. However, once it is established that this very individual is “Harvard's most successful dropout,” as well as founder of microsoft computers; Bill Gates certainly constitutes as qualified for the deliverance of this speech. Bill Gates “Harvard Commencement Speech” encourages the new graduates that “humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries— but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.” Gates asserts this claim by following it with specific examples, such as delivering medicine to countries in poverty. In order to reduce the world’s hardships, Gates poses the question “how can we do the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have.” He addresses the graduating class of Harvard using emotional appeal to ignite compassion within the graduates, logic and reasoning to provide attainable solutions to reduce the world's inequities, and strives to establish his personal credibility in order to support the claim that the purpose of discoveries is not for personal knowledge or self improvement, but rather for the world’s betterment.