Commencement speech

In her 1983 commencement address, “A Left-Handed Commencement Speech,” Ursula K Le Guin offers a very straightforward yet motivational message to graduates of Mills College, an all female school. She states that women are foreigners in an extremely male-dominated society full of aggression and power and emphasizes her argument that women are peaceful compared to men, thus highlighting the difference between the two genders. She encourages her audience to live and succeed on their own terms…

delivered the commencement speech to the Harvard graduating class of 2008. Her speech was meant to enlighten the graduates about life after college by focusing on the benefits of failure and the importance of imagination. The commencement speech followed a topical pattern, thus she centered her speech around life after college and the equal importance of failure and imagination by utilizing her own life experiences as a mere twenty-year-old to explain her main points. Not only was the speech…

Using generic criticism in analyzing commencement speeches has also been done. In her thesis, The Development of a Genre: Commencement Addresses Delivered by Popular Cultural Icons, Gault (2008) examined the genre of commencement rhetoric and utilized commencement speeches to determine the significant characteristics of the genre. Establishing the commonalities within the genre of commencement addresses gives the speaker a structure to which he can pattern his speech. For the audience, genres…

refers to the influence of this type of fear in his 2011 Yale Commencement address, "Fear twists facts into fictions that become indistinguishable from ignorance"…

graduation, or commencement, is a ceremony where institutions attempt to express the symbolic meaning to students through a notable guest speaker. A pattern of characteristics inside commencement speeches offer future advice, review of educational experiences, and reflection of memories. This type of event is reoccurring and takes on a similar style, substance and purpose, therefore, it is considered a genre (cite). Communication scholar, Lloyd Bitzer, would argue that this genre of speech is…

Act A commencement address is an opening speech that given to graduating students and their family members when they obtain the degree. The person given such a speech is known as a commencement speaker, who is often a famous and elite person as well as would like to share their life experience, values and advice during the speech. This is a platform for speaker to say amazing and unlimited things to attract audiences. Bill Gates has stated at a positive and inspirational college commencement…

What are the points of a commencement speech or graduation speech by the valedictorian? Their main objective is to give credit to the people that helped him or her and his or her class reach the point they are at now, deliver the speech with emotion and feeling, while keeping it simple enough to show the logic in what that class and person has done in their years at their respected school. Jake Tapper spoke at his commencement speech on behalf of the class of 2017 at Dartmouth University. He…

presented a commencement speech at Stanford University that captured the hearts of many people through his use of emotion and rhetoric. By breaking down his speech into three parts he was able to develop one overlying theme, never give up until you find something you love. The three stories he decided to share included connecting the dots, love and loss, and death. His use of appropriate delivery and language, coupled with his established credibility as an innovator allowed for a commencement…

For this week’s assignment I chose to watch the commencement address delivered by CLA graduate Mike Paulbeck in 2015. I thought his speech tied in very well to the “laying a foundation for the future” theme. Matt Paulbeck in his speech talked a lot about how the University of Minnesota will prepare you for what comes next in life. I thought this was a profound statement because it shows the importance of the University of Minnesota when making decisions that will impact the rest of your life. In…

choose the write my rhetorical speech analysis on Ellen DeGeneres commencement speech, In the year of 2009, at Tulane University in New Orleans. The speech was given little after hurricane Katrina, one of the most destructive disasters. The American comedian/ television host delivered a persuading speech reminding the graduating class of students the follow your passion. Her purpose was to define the truth outside of college/ life. DeGeneres would present an outstanding speech, that was…