Comprehensive Rhetorical Analysis: Oprah's Spelman College Speech

This report provides a detailed rhetorical analysis of Oprah Winfrey's speech to the Spelman College graduating class of 2012. The analysis examines the structure of the speech, the intended audience, and the speaker's purpose. The report explores Oprah's use of rhetorical devices, including ethos, pathos, and logos, providing specific examples from the speech to illustrate her persuasive techniques. It also assesses the effectiveness of her appeals to logic and emotion, and how she establishes credibility as a speaker. The report delves into how Oprah addresses key life aspects and issues relevant to young women entering the real world, focusing on her core messages of self-awareness, ethical conduct, and service to others. Furthermore, the analysis considers the impact of Oprah's delivery, including her use of tonal variations, facial expressions, and gestures. The report concludes with an evaluation of the overall impact of the speech and its success in fulfilling the speaker's intentions, making it a valuable resource for understanding effective communication and persuasive speechwriting.

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Analysis of Oprah Winfrey’s Speech to Spelman Graduates on Life
Oprah Winfrey talks up life aspects and issues that face most American youths, especially
girls, in her speech entitled “Life Advice will change your future.” Oprah’s audience consists of
female graduates of Spelman College, class of 2012, parents and tutors, with Oprah’s focus
being on the graduates, given the fact that her speech on life is aimed to benefit the graduates
who are going to venture into the out of class environment of the real world. In her strong speech
that entails employment of all speech modules of pathos, ethos and logos, Oprah Winfrey puts
emphasis on three major points; knowing who you are, always doing the right thing and finding a
way and will to serve. This paper is going to critic Oprah’s speech, how she employs speech
modules in order to get the audience’s attention and enhance an understanding between her and
them.
Oprah is the ideal person to deliver such a speech on life to young groups of people,
given the fact that she is a national icon and a popular television figure, which makes her relate
well with young people. Oprah’s speech is well structured. In her initial stages, she clearly points
out that she is going to touch on only three important life facts, something that augurs well with
the audience. Wang, Shi-yu and Fei Chen (2017) argue that a good speech structure plays an
important speechmaking role since it boosts audience’s understanding of the topic under
discussion.

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Oprah employs ethos, when talking about her stance of always doing right. German,
Kathleen et al. (2017) argue that ethos plays a vital role in the audiences’ reception of the
message being conveyed, given the fact that it bases the story on the credibility or moral stance
of what is being conveyed. Oprah talks up a case earlier in 2010, where she was to interview a
woman who happened to be a Sunday school teacher during the day and a sex worker by night.
Oprah recalls calling the show she was hosting for a break then asking the woman whether she
had a child and the woman responded by saying that she had a ten year old son. Rather than
opting for the show to continue, something that would credit the show with higher ratings and
more audiences in return, she deemed it unethical to continue with the interview, given the
negative implications it would have on the woman’s later life. In as much as the woman’s will to
share her story was for the good, Oprah deemed it as not right, in consideration of the woman’s
son rather than other players in the show.
Employment of logos by Oprah in hers speech is depicted when she talks up about
service. She asserts that by upholding servitude, the chances of one being successful in life are
much higher. Korozhan (2016) asserts that employment of logos gives a speaker’s information
credibility from the audience point of view. Oprah gives examples of successful figures in
different fields. She points out Mark Zuckerbag the founder of Facebook, who through his I.T
intellect, used it to serve masses by establishing Facebook to be an interactive online social hub
where people would share ideas and benefit in return. She eventually turns the audience’s
attention to her personal career success, which she asserts that it was only after attaining her
doctorate back in 1993, that she started using the T.V to serve the people and not vice versa. She
asserts that her later success followed thanks to her change of approach towards how she used
the T.V in service of the people. She asserts that one should have a vision in life, a fact that

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brings about a directional notion. Knowing who you are in reference to Oprah’s speech is
important given the fact that if you are not in control of your life, life itself is going to be in
control of you. Being your own life driver according to Oprah, will enable one evade possible
life pitfalls and ensure that an individual is on the right path towards life success.
To conclude, I think Oprah’s speech was one that can be termed as strong and impactful
on its audience, given the energy it carried all through. Apart from employing speech devices i.e.
ethos pathos and logos, Oprah also employed tonal variations, facial expressions and gestures,
rhetorical devices which according to Binns, Donna (2017) help boost a speaker’s delivery
energy.

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Works Cited
Binns, Donna. "ENG 3001-600: Advanced Composition." (2017).
German, Kathleen M., et al. Principles of public speaking. Routledge, 2017.
Korozhan, M. V. "Rhetoric as a key to successful speech-making." (2016).
"Oprah Winfrey's Life Advice Will Change Your Future | One of the Best Motivational Video
Ever." YouTube, 1 Mar. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLTgnOuYb6o.
Wang, Shi-yu, and Fei Chen. "Phonetic Restoration of Temporally Reversed
Speech." INTERSPEECH. 2017.