The biggest component of Obama's educational speech (given September 28th, 2011) that really jumped out at me was his warm, understanding tone that he set. The very first thing he says is, "Hey!" and he delivers it with a smile. This type of normal diction continued throughout his speech, making it easy for all to understand what he was saying. He then went on to recognized the principle, mayor of Washington D.C., and the secretary of education. This appeal to ethos sets up a humbling character- he IS the president of the Untied States after all, he could have basked in the hoots, hollers, and cheers that welcomed him to the podium but instead he quieted them down and acknowledged others. His confident posture only made the warm welcome and establishment of character more believable and made the audience (or at least me) more willing to listen to what he had to say. After only a few minutes I felt like I was having a conversation with my uncle, not listening to a speech presented by my nation's president.
Next he goes on to the most important part of a speech. He recognized his audience, students, and their struggles in life, like grades, friend groups, sports, marching band, and even the economy. These are all stressful additions in a students life and to make the speech less serious he throws in some humor with the mention of drama on Twitter (a pause before saying "Twitter" gave the humor more effect). He even goes on to display ethos with a personal story about finding school boring at times during his teen years- showing that he connects with his audience. He had bonded with his audience. He had achieved the most important step.
He then (finally) proceeds on to his argument: American students are the future, they need to set their standards high and find interest in always continuing their education so that they can aid our country. A combination of logic and emotionally loaded wording (paired with heightened intonation) develops this argument. Logical appeals such as the statement that 60% of jobs will need more than a high school degree,and examples of successful teenagers show that education IS needed and will help to develop and better our nations. He involves patriotism when he says that America has dropped to 16th in the world (in the case of having the most college graduates) and that action is needed NOW to bring our country back to number one. Students need to "color outside of the lines" to develop new discoveries, they need to "perservere" because they have the chance to let America, "fall behind or race ahead" in education. Throughout the speech "now" is frequently used, and usually accompanied by a finger point and a raised, clear voice, which adds emphasis to his argument that we (the students) cannot just sit around, we need to take action. Finally, he adds another personal experience of parenting in towards the end of his speech, which develops his character, making him more believable because he is a parent and sees students from a parents perspective.
I feel the need to note some additional presentation strategies that Obama uses, since he uses many. He is frequently gesturing, which adds emphasis on the main point of a phrase. In addition, he uses syntax to his advantage, always tossing in short sentences such as, "I dont like being 16th. I like being number one. Thats not good enough." and these sentences not only catch the audiences attention but they pack a punch- they challenge the audience to carry out what he is asking America to do. He also uses intonation to his advantage, making phrases like "Not done [learning]" clear, bold and loud so that the audience pays attention. Also, the minimal use of reading his transcript subliminally builds his ethos, for it makes the audience feel like his speech is coming from his core values and beliefs, not some speech writer's values that hes reciting.
All in all, I felt encouraged by this speech. I felt like I was having a friendly conversation, and that I wanted to carry out Obama's challenge to "Set my standards high" because he had convinced me; he had made it seem appealing. Not because he was forcing it on me with fancy language and charts, graphs, and statistics. I felt like he actually cared about my education, as much as he cared about his own daughters.
To our perseverance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lvn__6VIJ4&feature=fvst
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