Assignment on Steve Jobs Speech

Running Head: STEVE JOBS SPEECH
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STEVE JOBS SPEECH
AUTHORS NAME
UNIVERSITY OF AFFILIATION

STEVE JOBS SPEECH
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Introduction
Steve Jobs the founder of Apple, Next, Pixar Animation, was acknowledged widely for
transforming electronic consumer fields and personal computers world. Steve jobs perseverance
has led to enormous growth and development that has an impact on every one of us. The
innovations brought forth by Steve jobs has brought about significant change in the world. The
innovations comprise of, Macintosh computers, iPhones, and iPods. Steve Jobs are recognized
for his brilliant speaking abilities apart from being known for his significant impact in
technology world. Contrasting other authors and speakers, Steve jobs incorporated a plenty of
rhetorical aspects into his presentation and speech.
Steve job was invited at Stanford University to give a commencement speech to graduates of
2005.throughouth the speech; Steve Jobs uses rhetorical figures of speech that enable him to
connect with the audience, through his life reflection and personal experience. He appeals to
logos, pathos, and ethos of his listeners to support his argument and inspire listeners to go after
their dreams. He urges his listeners to do what they love and what pleases them although, times it
does not always go as planned. Various rhetorical measures have been used by Steve Jobs to
create an emotional appeal in the audience during his speech at Stanford University graduation
ceremony. Rhetorical figures generate an impression of a certain degree to the audience, while
the context is dependent on this impression (European-rhetoric.com, 2017).
Ethos
Jobs establish ethos for him, he talks about his second story by explaining, he grew Apple into a
two billion company from a garage with four thousand employees with his friend. Steve presents
an idea of failure and success, with the aim of making the audience understand what it takes to
be successful and procedures for achieving. Steve makes use of metaphor with the intention of
evoking pity from the audience when he talks about being fired from Apple the company that he
started. He says that, “I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down –that I
had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce
and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought
about was running away from the valley,”(77,81).Steve talks about overcoming this difficulty;
he says he even thought of running away but decided to stay and do what he loved doing. He

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talks about his perseverance and starting again rather than quitting. Steve started two new big
companies NeXT and Pixar, after several years he was back to his position of chief executive
officer at Apple. He inspires the audience by saying, “the only way to do great work is to love
what you do” (102,103).
He developed ethos when he explains the hardship he faced during his sickness. Steve brings the
idea through explaining to the graduates, that they should try to live their own lives, rather than
those of others since life is too short. And they should make the most out of it. Steve explained to
the graduates that even though the doctors had warned him that he had three to six months to
live; he was able to extend his life through conquering challenges that attacked him.
Pathos
At the start of his speech, he begins by complementing the listeners: “I am honored to be with
you at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated
from college”(6,7). Admitting the he never graduated from university shows humility and makes
the audience have a great feeling about them. These are strong opening remarks by Steve jobs
increased the receptivity of the message he has for the audience by the audience. In the
beginning comments, he makes it clear to the audience what his message is all about. He lays the
groundwork for his message by saying that he has three important words for his audience. Strong
opening during a speech increases the connectivity of the audience to the speaker by making
them more comfortable. Steve establishes pathos in the speech h through showing humility and
making the listeners feel accomplished. Creating of pathos helps the speaker and audience feel
comfortable during the speech as it releases the tension between them.
After the effective, although brief introduction, Steve discusses the three stories of his life that all
the audience can relate. Steve establishes a simple structure that during his speech. He is very
concise of sentence structure. The structure of his statement is based on three main points. Steve
begins the first part of his remarks based on his background story through stating that, “my
biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up
for adopting option”( 14,15).He discussed about how he grew up and how he dropped out of
college after six months of admission. However he introduces the twist that is very surprising to