Graduating from college is the time to begin a new chapter. Commencement speeches are supposed to inspire and make graduating college students want to make a change. George Saunders gave a commencement speech at Syracuse University graduation in 2013. George Saunders did some things in his speech the traditional way but added a new twist on what is really important in life and in everyone’s career. Not only were the students, changed, but also every person that heard or read the speech felt inspired. George Saunders’ commencement speech was rhetorically effective in proving that kindness can get you far in life by using repetition, parallelism, ethos, and rhetorical questions. When people repeat a certain phrase or a sentence it is more memorable
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Speakers can structure their sentences to help the audience understand the overall message. Sounder’s sentences are structured to help the audience to remember and ponder what he is talking about and helps get the point across. Parallelism used in this speech helps the audience visualize what they could be and what could be in their future if they are more kind. George shows that the audience can become “as doers, as accomplishers, as dreamers.” George tells us that everyone needs to start being kind now. He uses phrases like, “Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now” as a type of motivation. This structure helps the audience understand how urgent the situation is. Parallelism helps get the message across to start being kind to others now and how it can change our lives for the …show more content…
One question that George asks is “What’s our problem? Why aren’t we kinder?” This is effective because it makes the audience think why he is asking this in the first place. He asked this question to make the audience start thinking about the point he is going to make later in his speech. The question also makes us ask ourselves the question and try to think why we aren’t kinder. These simple questions help us recognize how long it is has been since we have done something kind for someone or how good it felt to be kind. This question makes people think that they need to work on kindness or keep it up. It reminded others how much they love to be kind to people and the amazing feeling they get from being kind. Rhetorical questions can motivate the audience to begin or start something great. Audience members think about the questions he asked and in result, memories start to flow back to them. The memories of being kind urge them to start being more kind. He effectively motivated everyone that listened to his speech to be kinder because they were forced to actively think about the times they were kind and how it impacts their
Speakers can structure their sentences to help the audience understand the overall message. Sounder’s sentences are structured to help the audience to remember and ponder what he is talking about and helps get the point across. Parallelism used in this speech helps the audience visualize what they could be and what could be in their future if they are more kind. George shows that the audience can become “as doers, as accomplishers, as dreamers.” George tells us that everyone needs to start being kind now. He uses phrases like, “Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now” as a type of motivation. This structure helps the audience understand how urgent the situation is. Parallelism helps get the message across to start being kind to others now and how it can change our lives for the …show more content…
One question that George asks is “What’s our problem? Why aren’t we kinder?” This is effective because it makes the audience think why he is asking this in the first place. He asked this question to make the audience start thinking about the point he is going to make later in his speech. The question also makes us ask ourselves the question and try to think why we aren’t kinder. These simple questions help us recognize how long it is has been since we have done something kind for someone or how good it felt to be kind. This question makes people think that they need to work on kindness or keep it up. It reminded others how much they love to be kind to people and the amazing feeling they get from being kind. Rhetorical questions can motivate the audience to begin or start something great. Audience members think about the questions he asked and in result, memories start to flow back to them. The memories of being kind urge them to start being more kind. He effectively motivated everyone that listened to his speech to be kinder because they were forced to actively think about the times they were kind and how it impacts their