Admiral William H. Mcraven addressed the 2014 graduating class at the University of Austin, Texas with more than eight thousand students in attendance. Adm. Mcraven’s address touched the hearts of millions all around the world with his inspirational message of how one person can change the world by following a simple set of rules. I chose this speech for my rhetorical analysis because of the important message it portrays, by how helping a few can eventually help many. Adm. Mcraven’s address was especially effective for his audience, much due to how he relates to the students by reminiscing of the day he graduated from UT while providing advice to his audience of college graduates preparing to begin their adult lives. Adm. William …show more content…
If you hope to complete the swim, you will have to deal with them.” Not only is Ethos and Pathos used effectively in the speech, Logos is as well. Though the use of Logos is used much more indirectly than either of the latter, it is still an important component of the speech. Adm. Mcraven uses Logos by providing support for his statements and lessons taught throughout the speech. For example, Adm. Mcraven explained how one individual could ultimately change the lives of eight-hundred million people by only changing the lives of ten in their lifetime. He supports this claim with mathematical reasoning and evidence, “Ask.Com says that the average American will meet 10,000 people in their lifetime. That's a lot of folks. But, if every one of you changed the lives of just 10 people — and each one of those folks changed the lives of another 10 people — just 10 — then in five generations — 125 years — the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people.” Though Adm. Mcraven did use much more Ethos and Pathos than Logos, the way in which he used them was near textbook. By using a combination of all three components he was able to express emotion, logic, and give credibility to himself and his stories. Perhaps the most evident usage of persuasion was the stories he told and the lessons given after them. Doing this, Adm. Mcraven was able to give valuable life advice to his audience in a simple, well composed statement that the audience was able to relate
Then, I will discuss logos and how it is used in my speech. This speech is persuasive and logical because everyone goes through tough times especially his father. Rocky Jr. was given this speech because he was going through hard times at work and life in general. His mother died years back, he was struggling at work, and he was also facing hate from his father’s decisions. At this point, he felt hopeless. He was letting everything that was happening in the world bring him down and make him lose faith in himself. The speech was meant to lift his spirits and help him gain his faith and confidence back. Rocky hated seeing his son struggle in life, which no father likes seeing their child struggle.
John Stossel doesn’t rely solely on the Logos method, however. Traces of Pathos can also be found throughout Stossel’s article, particularly his addition of Tom Palmers quote, “You can call the Police if you want, and they’ll get there, and they’ll take a picture of your dead body. But they can’t get there in time to save your life. The first line of defense is you” (NYSun.com) Stossel makes sure to include that quote in order to reach out to readers by the use of Pathos. He
“I have a dream.” One of the greatest quoted phrases recited from Martin Luther King Jr. that transformed America forever. Martin Luther King Jr. was an extraordinarily famous public speaker that inspired immeasurable amounts of people to stick up for equal rights. His speeches were so powerful, that it persuaded the minds of millions. He accomplished this using rhetorical language, including pathos, logos, and ethos.
Lincoln uses pathos, ethos, and logos in order to persuade his audience. He uses pathos in a way that appeals to the audience’s feelings about the war. Lincoln also uses logos to show facts and details, an example would be “one eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the union, but localized in the southern part of it. Then Lincoln uses ethos for credibility to give people an even better reason to listen to him, and his credibility is that he is the president.
Ethos is the appeal to ethics, pathos is the appeal to emotion, and logos is the appeal to logic (“examples.yourdictionary.com”). Reagan uses a lot of pathos in his speech to the veterans to show importance. As an example, “All of these men were part of a roll call of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore..” (American Rhetoric). The appeal of pathos is used in this speech a lot to express strong emotion. Reagan uses this device to capture the audience’s attention like when he said, ”The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon.” Finally, Reagan includes logos to state facts about events that happened on the day of June 6th, 1944. He explains, “And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer..” (American
Now logos, which are basically logic, makes the people think about what is happening and not focus on the small things, but on the big things. For example, he talked about how “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience.” He is trying to tell the people that he already been down this road once and he knows where it leads. He is saying that war cannot be avoided even if that take measures to avoid it. Another example he wants them to think about is how “Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and army’s.
Before getting into his account of the lessons he learned while in basic SEAL training, McRaven recalls his own graduation day and humors the audience when he said “But of all the things I remember, I don’t have a clue who the commencement speaker was that evening and I certainly don’t remember anything they said.” (1). Without making a speech funny and relatable, the audience would grow bored and might not remember the commencement speaker or what was said in their speech, just like how McRaven did not. He also uses humor when explaining the “sugar cookie” effect. McRaven talks about how the trainees who failed the uniform inspection “had to run, fully clothed into the surfzone and then, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every part of your body was covered with sand… [and] you stayed in that uniform the rest of the day—cold, wet and sandy.” (5). He then elaborates on the purpose of the drill and explains that sometimes in life, you’ll do everything you can to succeed at something and it still won’t be good enough. Therefore, “if you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward” (McRaven 5) and never stop getting up even if you’ve been knocked down more times than you can count. Admiral McRaven also uses pathos when trying to convince the audience that they all have a chance at changing the world. McRaven explains how
An example that Martin Luther King Jr. had a more effective way when using pathos rather than logos is when it came to how slow we were at gaining equality and true independence. “When we discovered that the commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run off, we decided again to postpone action until the run off so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues,” (King, page. 273). Martin Luther King Jr. used proof and past experiences to show his point, but it didn’t really deeply affect anyone, just informed them. “The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward
Corker uses Logos in this speech when talking about the passing of bills, a recent Congress vote, and what the Department of Treasury has been dealing with. A specific example of Logos was when Corker gave the example of a Congress vote dealing with taxes, “Congress on a vote of ninety-eight to two in the United States Senate, which is rare, pushed for this.” Pathos was used in this excerpt when Corker reassures the audience that the initial steps being taken are, “very good,” and that he wants to see things happen, “on behalf of the American people.” He also emphasizes Pathos by using phrases similar to, “like you,” when speaking to his
Congressman, Robert H. Clancy, in his speech, An “Un-American Bill”: A Congressman Denounces Immigration Quotas, discusses the discrimination of immigrants in America. He stands up for many immigrants and people of immigrant descent in his speech, trying to explain why the congressmen shouldn’t be against them. He uses a passionate, heartfelt tone to appeal to the congressmen’s thoughts. Clancy of An “Un-American Bill”: A Congressman Denounces Immigration Quotas addresses the situation of racial discrimination in America by using personal anecdotes, background research, and concrete facts to back up his argument.
He mentions a charter school called Kipp saying that, “Kipp students will have doubled their math and science scores by the time they graduate.” Using this rhetoric device persuades the audience to agree with the speaker’s point because it states irrefutable facts that support his argument. Another example of logos occurred when the author states that there is a direct correlation between students dropping out of high school and students that go to prison. This appeals to logos because it gives facts to emphasize the fact that going to a good high school has a big impact on your
As a new president, Kirkman needed to impress the nation and show strength after the tragic attack, while encouraging Americans to move forward in rebuilding the democracy. President Kirkman’s speech was successful in sending a touching message to encourage voting. Kirkman appealed to pathos by featuring a quote from Mindy Hessler’s daughter. Revealing his plans to attend a polling place to vote made him relatable; a successful strategy for a president. President Kirkman’s speech contributed a sense of patriotism while inspiring people to vote and improve the fragile democracy (ABC
Logos is defined as an appeal to logic. I feel like he uses this the most out of all of the other ones because this speech is meant to appeal to logic because it is reasons on why we need to end the war. The first time he uses logos is when he starts talking about why we are in need of peace. In the speech he says “We entered this war because violations of our right had occured…” (1). I feel like this is a logical explanation as to why people go to war and why this war had begun. Therefore, it appeals to your logic.
Logos means reason. Martin Luther King Jr. uses logos to show why he is delivering this speech and why he wants things to change. He is delivering this speech to show how many blacks and other races, that weren’t being treated equally, really didn’t have freedom like they should. “It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro.” (King, M. L. Jr. (1963, Aug.28) Para 6) “Instead of honoring the sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’” (King, M. L. Jr. (1963, Aug.28) Para 5) These quotes are just a couple of the logos quotes Martin Luther King said in his speech.
Logos can be facts that are used to persuade someone (Ethos). Mark Antony uses many facts throughout his speech. One of the key facts in his speech is; “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept”(Shakespeare). To use this is extremely intelligent by Mark Antony since most of the people that he is trying to persuade aren’t the richest people in Rome. Therefor, when he uses “poor” as the type of people that Caesar cried for, the crowd thinks that it is wrong to brutally murder someone who cared so much for them that they opened their eyes to Mark Antony and really took in what he was saying by thinking that Caesar was the best thing for them (Shakespeare).