Introduction
Looking through the internet, there is no shortage of adjectives that describe one of the most influential people for generations. A visionary, a design genius, and a “tastemaker of modern digital culture” are just some of the few words used to describe the late head of Apple Inc. Given his proven prowess in developing and designing revolutionary technologies and devices, Jobs was tapped by various institutions around the world to inspire and motivate learners besides offering industry-related talks. On the 12th of June 2005, Steve Jobs made the commencement speech for the 114th graduation class at the prestigious Stanford University. Although he was no President Obama or Martin Luther King in terms of oratory skills or charisma, this particular speech at Stanford has been lauded widely by communication experts for precision, brevity, and impact. That speech is the subject of this paper which seeks to demonstrate how the speech attains the hallmarks of persuasion and rhetoric with support from knowledge obtained from this class and relevant literature.
Discussion
First and foremost, it is important to understand the type of communication contained in the speech. Since the graduates were celebrating completing one phase of their lives and preparing to move to another one, they needed some form of motivation and inspiration to push them forward. Thus, speech can be classified as ceremonial communication. Such speeches are meant to celebrate achievements or even mark special dates in a calendar.
Although the chance to deliver a speech honored the speaker, the ceremony was dedicated to the members of the audience who were marking a special day in their lives. The audience included the graduating students, the teaching staff, other guests, and the parents of the graduating students. Although all these categories were important and played a key role in making the event successful, the students were the most important. The ceremony was a recognition of their hard work and achievement. In doing so, a successful guest was suited to motivate them. At the time, Steve Jobs was the CEO of Apple Inc. where he had spearheaded the development of several groundbreaking technologies including the Macintosh, Apple LaserWriter, and also founded Pixar.
As a significantly successful man who never graduated from college, the speaker wished to explain to the audience the secrets of succeeding in life in the face of many challenges. The graduating students could learn a lot from the man on how to succeed in life given that they had an even better starting point than the speaker having already completed their college education. The speaker emphasized his challenges in life as opposed to his success. He talked about his failure in college, his poor background, and his illness to drive the point home that even the most successful men in life faced unique challenges. He condensed his speech and life principles into three stories: connecting the dots in life; learning to love and letting go; living life fully in the face of death.
With the matters of failure, death, and disease dominating the speech, the discourse was both emotional and rational. He tried to rationalize his failure in college and explained how he worked to make the best out of an already bad situation. He talks of living with cancer and staring death in the face every day. It is worth noting that the man mentions the reaction of his wife to the news of his cancer to capture how family and close friends are affected by such sad events in one’s life.
Steve Jobs employed various rhetorical tools to persuade his audience as recommended for speeches intended to sway or convince the listeners. Pathos appeals to the emotions of the audience in any discussion and the speaker targeted them by addressing his failure and disease. He also makes mention of his difficult starting point through his adoption drama. He applied logos by appealing to the audience’s intellect by logically explaining some of his decisions in life. For instance, he explained why he dropped out of college after six months by saying that he realized that the tuition fees were draining his parents’ life savings and the content of the course did not appeal to him.
Other than the basic rhetoric tool employed, the discourse’s rhetorical situation is impressive. Blitzer asserts that events shape the rhetorical discourse as evident in the current case. For Jobs, the graduation ceremony prompted him to talk about his failures. The subject of his speech would likely be different if he was speaking in an industry conference or any other forum. Thus, Job’s choice of discussing his failure in college, his adoption drama, his loss in being kicked out of Apple at one time, and his struggles with cancer were all geared towards motivating the graduates to be ready for life and to appreciate their failures at they all play a critical role in shaping their destiny and beliefs.
To all these narrations, the audience responded appropriately. The responses were mainly through cheering and the ‘oohs’ and ‘aah’ moments. However, the discourse did not demand an immediate response such as answering questions. The change that the speaker and the discourse aspire has more to do with the mindset and planning for the future. That would be impossible to assess in the current scenario. The construction of the discourse sentences and the style of speech inspired much of the response.
Ideally, the choice of words reveals a language scheme that fits the discourse, the event, and the audience, warranting the response. The speaker’s main line of discourse development focused on his background with an emphasis on past events thereby making great use of them to offer direction. For example, in telling his audience what to avoid, he repeatedly used the word “don’t” at the beginning of several consecutive sentences (anaphora) (Jobs 2005, par 6). The subsidiary line of discourse development focused on the idea of ideal situations. Thus, the speaker’s choice of words was relevant and in some repetitive for emphasis. For instance, he said that “So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something” and “have the courage to follow your heart and intuition” (Jobs 2005, par 6).
The speech did not give much attention to tropes. However, the discourse appeals to irony in the speech, the event, and the audience. It was ironic that a college dropout was giving a talk to graduates of a prestigious University on how to succeed in life. He captured this by terming the event as the closest thing he had ever been to graduating from college. The discourse also employed metaphors, though sparingly. For example, be said “looking back” while that is not the literal meaning.
Mentioning his failure to graduate from college reveals the logical assumption behind the discourse. The audience expected to be inspired and motivated to face life. Thus, the discourse gives weight to making changes and living with one’s decisions. The discourse assumed that the students were hopeful of a better future and could assume that a college degree was all that was needed to succeed in life. The speaker was there to deconstruct that myth.
As a result, discourse’s emotional impact on the audience was all about hope. The speaker himself was the personification of the human spirit of endurance and determination. Having faced many odds even before his birth, navigated the path of life with its many hurdles, and emerged successfully, he had the credibility to advise others. Individual situations of the members of the audience could also alter the perceived emotional message. For instance, those who had performed poorly in their studies that they had hoped were encouraged to learn that failure was part and parcel of success and will only make sense in the future and not then.
To match the intended emotional effect, the speaker’s paralanguage was formal and relaxed and fitted the event. The speaker paused where necessary to allow the audience to digest his message. In other instances, he paused to let the audience applaud. He also broke into short giggles to his jokes that elicited similar responses from the audience and set all at ease. The speaker also constantly looked up from the text to make eye contact with his audience.
Most notably, the speaker’s body language made the discourse honest. He openly portrayed his worry in his body language and even wore a forlorn face when addressing sad events in his life such as the cancer diagnosis. Again, sharing sensitive information about his birth, adoption, schooling, and even illness gave the discourse credibility as an honest narration of real-life experiences. Furthermore, the discourse addressed simple and everyday events such as failure, disease, education, and family.
Therefore, in its entirety, the discourse emerged as an honest piece of communication. Most significantly, the speaker chose to make it personal by sharing his life. He did not go for abstract advice on being successful or living life but ostensibly borrowed it from his personal experiences. He talked about his illness, his adoption debacle, and his failure in college. The manner of delivery of the speech and the simple language made it simple to follow and even believable.
Conclusion
All in all, the discourse offers a different angle to make great speeches. While some speakers may choose to impress the audience with their deep knowledge in their relevant profession or industry, some like Steve Jobs opt to go the personal way with the same level of success. This approach made the audience relate better with the speaker as they felt that they had a chance to interact with the speaker at a personal level, which is often closer than a professional relationship. As a budding professional in communications, the author has learned a lot and enjoyed putting into practice learned theory and also examining one of the greatest and influential men in modern times.
References
Jobs, S. (2005). ‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says.