Full Speech Transcript: https://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/
This is the 2005 speech of Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple. The rhetorical situation is Jobs doing a speech at Stanford University. He is discussing to the graduates about his journey to becoming a famous ceo. The purpose for his speech is to inspire the graduates to have perseverance and think independently.
Rhetorical Elements: Audience, Appeals, Claim, and Medium
The elements he applies is a focus on his audience, which are primarily the graduates. They are young adults going into the working world. He uses his ethos of his life story as the main medium for his life lessons. A life story is also more relatable and easier to understand. Another element he focuses on is claim of success , which he has shown as his reputation as being the famous ceo of Apple and the creator of the Ipod. People already knew who he was before coming onto stage. Jobs uses his fame to inspire the audience to think different and or “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish”.
Five Canons: Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, and Delivery.
For invention, he uses a life story or a biography of his life and the hardships he went through created endurance. Jobs wanted to relate that idea into the speech and tell the student how to take the steps to achieve their goals.
The arrangement, was in the order of a biography of his life. It started with his genetic mother giving him up for adoption because she was a uneducated mother. Then he discusses the journey of being adopted by working class parents and his dropping out of said college. Then comes his journey into creating Apple and what inspired him to do so.
Job’s rhetorical style is less of a professional rhetor and more of a inspirational speaker. He focuses more on his paper than looking at the audience in some ways he wanted less of appearances and more on the message. Which is a simple, but effective depending on the message itself.
The speech does not apply memory in any of the speaking. He did not memorize the speech, he read the whole thing. Jobs looked at his audience a few times, but it is unprofessional behavior in the world of rhetoric. The only application is when he wrote the speech. He used memory to create the biography, which will later be used in his actual published biography in 2011.
Like his rhetorical style his delivery is less professional and more common. He stares at the paper more and can be very distracting. His message is well thought, however it feels like he could have improved by memorizing the speech and looked at his audience more. There was also a hint of nervousness in his voice. If you look at the presentations he did on stage in those days, he was more confident and energetic. Here it feels like he is scared of his audience.
Overall, despite his delivery is unprofessional, this message is a timeless speech that everyone could learn from. I personally love this speech. Ever since I first learned it in my community college English class, I like to look at this as my inspiration.