Rhetorical Analysis Of Michelle Obama's Speech

The purpose of this essay is to analyze what the speaker or writer is saying critically. The speech that I analyzed was Michelle Obama’s speech on gun violence. Her speech was persuasively successful because of the fact that Michelle used logos and ethos in her speech. The way she was credible throughout her speech and stated her examples made the speech successful. The reason why Michelle Obama’s speech was effective because of the use of arguments about cause and effects, arguments from analogy, and bandwagon techniques. I will be explaining why cause and effects, parallel cases and bandwagon techniques made her speech strong. The first persuasive strategy that I noticed was effective was the use of arguments about cause and effects. According to YourDictionary, “Cause and effect is a relationship between events or things, where one is the result of the other or others. This is a combination of action and reaction.” (par. 1). This is used in the speech when Michelle Obama states, “...the …show more content…
According to Nelson, Titsworth and Peterson (2014) “With this fallacy, the speaker encourages the listener to do something because “everyone” in the same valued group is doing it.” (251). Michelle Obama uses a bandwagon technique in her speech when she states, “Because we know that every single child in this city has boundless promise no matter where they live.” (par. 27). The reason why this is a bandwagon technique is the fact that she uses “every single child” and later saying that the all children have “boundless promise”. This is effective as she inspiring and influencing kids into thinking that if I work hard and continue on the successful path that I’m on, no matter where I live in the city, I will be successful in the future. It gives kids, optimism, which the kids need to hear in times of hardship and destruction around them. Now let’s recap about the effective persuasive