Steve Jobs Commencement: Rhetorical Analysis

Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The speech by Steve Jobs titled Commencement was a part of Stanford Universitys graduation ceremony. A commencement ceremony is a traditional part of graduation, where the students get a chance to listen to advice from others, which should help them make better life choices. In his speech, Jobs described several lessons from his life that helped him become successful and overcome failure. This paper aims to analyze the Commencement speech by Jobs and discuss its artistic measures.

Main body

At the time of the speech, Jobs was well-known as one of Apples founders, and he was also the CEO of Pixar and NeXT. The popularity and revolutionary nature of Apples products made Jobs speech well-known. The core theme that he discussed is his life journey and the choices he made that led him to become who he was. For instance, he mentions dropping out of college and how this decision allowed him to attend classes he enjoyed, instead of going to compulsory lectures. The fact that Jobs uses personal examples from his life to persuade the audience is essential because this adds personality and trustworthiness to his words.

Notably, the speech has a defined structure, allowing the audience to understand the message better. Jobs begins with a small introduction and outlines the fact that the following parts will include three stories. Jobs begins each story with a simple message that he repeats afterward. For instance, the first story is about connecting the dots, and he ends this story by saying, you cannot connect the dots looking forward (Youve got to find what you love). He uses a similar strategy for the second and third stories. All the stories share a similar idea despite the difficulties, the fact that he was fired from Apple and his cancer diagnosis, Jobs continued to move on and do the things he loved.

Finally, he ends his speech by mentioning the The Whole Earth Catalog, which seized to exist in the 1970s when a more advanced technology emerged because its final edition ended with the words Stay hungry. Stay foolish. (Youve got to find what you love). This was the message for the audience that suggested the need to always be in the search for something, and Jobs did not merely state this idea. Instead, he used the words that once inspired him. Therefore, the artistic measures that Jobs used in his speech allowed the structure and the arguments to be more persuasive.

Logos in rhetorics is connected to logic and arguments that use facts, such as dates or historical events. In his speech, Jobs mentioned a lot of important dates from his personal life. For instance, he discusses how he dropped out of college at 17. Moreover, Jobs mentioned the history of Apple, from its initiation to the first Macintosh, which made the company successful. Therefore, Jobs does not refer to any general historical fact, and he only uses his example as an appeal to logic. While one can argue that this approach can be biased because it relies on one persons opinion, Jobs mentioned well-known facts, such as the revenue of Apple and the number of employees ten years after the establishment, which helped ensure credibility of his words and create a better connection with the audience.

Ethos refers to the authors persona, in this case, Steve Jobs, and his character as the primary element of persuading the audience. While Jobss persona serves as a credibility instrument itself, because he established a world-famous technology company and went on to work in animation, he also mentioned several other facts that allow enhancing the meaning of his words. For instance, in the beginning, he states that he went to Reed College, which suggests that he is aware of the frustrations and challenges that the graduates may face. He goes on to talk about why he had to go to college in the first place, and the difficulties he had after deciding to quit. Regardless, Job points out that he has no regrets as he did what he believed was right.

Pathos is an element that refers to the use of emotions as the main element that allows one to connect with the audience. Arguably, this is one of the most challenging elements to use, out of the three, because unlike ethos and logos, it requires one to use creativity. Jobs, however, applied this element throughout his speech because it is a collection of stories from his life. As was mentioned, he begins by stating that he had never graduated and explained why it was vital for him to go to college. Through these stories, he can convey the difficulties, sorrow, and happiness he experienced throughout his life.

Conclusion

Overall, the 2005 speech by Steve Jobs is remarkable because it captures the attention of the audience. The author uses rhetorical elements to capture the attention of the audience. Through ethos, he refers to his personal experience and his credibility as a technology company CEO. By using logos, Jobs points out several facts from his biography that were the turning points in his life. Finally, Jobs applies pathos throughout his speech when discussing his life, which helps the audience experience an array of emotions.