Rhetorical Analysis: The CEO Of Apple Computer And Pixar Animation Studios

The CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios, Steve Jobs, delivered the Commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Stanford on June 12, 2005. In his speech, he addressed life lessons he had learned that kept him going through hard times and inspired him to succeed. The purpose of his speech was to excite and inspire fresh college graduates about their world and futures. His first piece of advice is to trust in something in order to keep going. His second is that the only way to do great work is to love what you do, and to never settle. His third piece of advice is that because we are all human and our time is limited, we should always do the best that we can do and what makes us happy. We should not have to live anyone else’s lives. He convinces his audience, the students and parents at the ceremony, though his effective credibility and his manipulation of pathos. As if his credibility was impressive enough, CEO Steve Jobs tells three stories which capture the audience’s attention and emotions with his character and ethos. The first story he talks about his life, immediately explaining his …show more content…
This is to create a stronger connection with the audience opposed to stiff, formal speech that may make the speech boring. He also uses very simple structure with both sentences and the organization of his entire speech. It is the very classic intro, three stories, conclusion form of speech. He also uses simple sentences such as “Today I want to tell you three stories” and “My third story is about death.” He also pauses and times things perfectly to receive a specific emotion or response from the audience. For example, after he tells the story with the Robert Frost poem reference, he has a six second pause. This is because he wanted the audience to digest certain feelings and emotions when he told stories or brought up details of his life such as his love life and his battle with