![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() He explains his introduction to activism through referencing an article he read about the millions of children in third-world countries dying from curable diseases. Gates uses logic and reasoning to bring the graduates’ attention to the glaring inequity in the world, and wraps his pleads for help in fact and rational thought. Although he begins by appealing emotionally, he immediately dives into his true purpose - inspiring the graduates of Harvard to use their privilege and influence to help those who cannot help themselves. Bill Gates took a different approach to his commencement address. It insinuates that struggles and hardships are an integral part to success, and that even a man such as Steve Jobs had to pay his dues. By exposing his struggles, Jobs is establishing a logical connection between him and his audience. He detailed how he would sleep on dorm floors, trade soda cans for five cent deposits, and how he would walk seven miles every Sunday to get a meal from a local Hindu temple. He utilized the lens of trust to express his overarching message for the Stanford graduates to strive to achieve everything they want to.When explaining his own journey to absolute domination over the field of technology, Jobs utilizes logos to express how life “wasn’t all romantic” after dropping out of college. The agenda of Jobs’ speech was to inspire. As graduates of the leading Ivy League university in America, the students were most likely all too familiar with the stressful environment cultivated by students and staff of the college. Furthermore, he spoke of his first dip into the pool of software by pulling all nighters to create a “little extra credit project”. Gates spoke of the “intimidating, discouraging, but always challenging” environment of Harvard and slipped in small widely-known names of dorms and campus locations to relate to the students. By speaking on how he had to experience something that detrimental just as everything was going according to plan, he related to the ups and downs of life that the graduates have surely experienced. He explained his mindset and how he, not only physically, but also mentally beat cancer. To keep a personal connection with the students, Jobs gave them a look into how he battled and overcame a rare form of cancer that he was told was terminal. Without the repeated emotional appeal, the graduates would fall back into a mentality where they couldn’t relate with the words being spoken to them. Both Jobs and Gates imply that by taking the direct route, the graduates have earned their intellectual respect.Īs there is a clear divide between the lives of multi-millionaires and fresh college graduates, both Jobs and Gates had to employ pathos throughout their speeches. Furthermore, although both acknowledge their success and intelligence, they expose a slight vulnerability to not taking the straight and narrow path to success. From the inception of both of their speeches, the tech giants establish a sense of pathos with their audiences, showing that they’re humbled and honored to be speaking at such momentous events. Steve Jobs sets up the content in his speech by labeling Stanford University as “one of the finest universities in the world”, while Bill Gates expresses his excitement to “finally have a college degree” on his resume. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates’s speeches were particularly impactful due to their reliance on the lens of trust, specifically their heavy uses of ethos, pathos, and logos.Īs both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are famously known as college dropouts, they began their commencement speeches by immediately attempting to build trust with their audiences - thousands of college graduates. ![]() Although their speeches are extremely different in terms of content and messages, both speakers employ similar rhetorical strategies to push their messages towards their audiences. Two speeches that particularly stand out are ones spoken by giants in the field of technology - Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Over the years, commencement speeches have gained popularity as platforms for public figures and students, alike, to spread messages of perseverance and to enlighten students on how they can impact the world for the better. Public figures are carefully chosen to speak to America’s future - thousands upon thousands of a university’s graduates excited to begin contributing to society. The task of presenting a commencement speech is not an easy one. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |