In President Obama's annual back-to-school speech, his audience is represented by the students of America. However because the topic is being a successful student and impacting the country, his audience is specifically high school students. He is speaking at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in front of a student body and is introduced by a student president. To connect with his audience he uses diction that is not politically complicated as his normal speeches might be for normal students. He also makes pop culture references to things such as facebook to further connect with his audience.
The general appearance of Obama is typical of a U.S. President. He is wearing a suit and tie to appear and credit him as being professional at what he is doing. His posture also reiterated his credentials because he was standing upright with hand gestures to emphasize a point. He gave the audience an impression that he knew what he was talking about and he was very confident about it.
Obama's argument of the speech is that the students of America need to know that they are the future, and the country relies on them. "You're not just kids. You're this country's future," he said. When he said this he kept it short and understandable to the audience. He connects by using pathos, emotion appeal when he mentions that teachers understand they are the future. He states that teachers are doing their jobs not for self benefit, but for the benefit of the country, so students should be compelled to do the same.
Obama also uses statistic evidence to provide logos in his speech, while contributing to his argument. He mentions that 60% of jobs will require more than a high school degree, and that the United States needs to be number 1 in college graduates.
In addition to pathos, and logos; Obama used ethos to round his argument and make it complete. The fact he is the President of the United States already gives him ethos, but he mentioned how he was a student and didn't earn the best grades he could have. This connected to students who are in the same boat, and might give them hope that if they step it up they can impact their country to the point of becoming president.
To make his argument more presentable, Obama uses the right mix of tone, cadence, and intonation. His tone is similar to a parents, he does not want to be disappointed and is giving advice on how to accomplish the goals he wants from the students. When he is speaking he uses the right amount of cadence and intonation to not sound monotone and emphasize crucial points.
Overall, Obama's speech is very well rounded and successful. He connects to the audience and gets his argument across in a way they can understand.
To make his argument come across clearly, Obama uses cadence and intonation
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