the Best Commencement Speech Ever

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We cannot mention the art of public speaking without mentioning Aristotle. He developed appeals of being a persuasive speaker. Ethos, pathos, and logos are the effective public speaking principles used to capture the attention of an audience. Barrack Obama and Arianna Huffington are some of the greatest speakers around the world. In this paper, we analyze Barrack Obama’s commencement speech at Michigan University and Arianna Huffington’s speech at Smith College, 2013. The two personalities have mastered the art of using language, gestures, authenticity, and their personalities to deliver speeches that have had worldwide impact.
Obama uses concrete and tangible evidence and language. Through this, he is able to kidnap our minds to another. He paints pictures on the audience mind. People always yearn for specifics. Through this transcendence, he is able to establish credibility and rapport with the audience. Huffington develops a rapport with her audience by personalizing the speech. She gets personal by using her life stories. She makes the audience feel she understand their plight. When she talks of “since I have two college-aged daughters myself” (Organization, “Arianna Huffington’s Smith College Commencement Speech…”). She immediately connects with the graduating students. When Obama says the Michigan rallying cry “GO Blue” he immediately connects with his audience by being part of their culture.
Both speakers utilize their voices to maintain the attention of their audience.

Obama is a master of wait for weight technique. He says something, lowers his volume, and his famous pause as he waits for reactions from his audience. Obama also is prone to repeating a phrase at the beginning of successive sentences. Speech writers call this technique anaphora. This is important in emphasizing ideas and makes them memorable. In this particular speech, he repeats the phrase “How will you keep” (Obama, “Read President Obama’s Commencement Address at University of Michigan”) to challenge the audience work together to improve America. Huffington uses her unique accent to catch her audience attention by making humor out of it. As she says “… behind a podium in a funny accent”.
Both speakers have effectively used persuasive techniques in public speaking. Judging by the expression and body language of both audiences, both speakers are able to maintain the interest of the people. The audience is keeping the gaze, nodding, and applauding meaning they are listening to what the speakers are saying.
Works Cited
Obama, Barrack. “Barack Obama at Michigan: Commencement Address Transcript.” Time, Time,2 June 2016, time.com/43400774/Obama-commencement-speech-transcript-university-ofMichigan.
Organization. “Arianna Huffington’s Commencement Speech On “Redefining Success: The ThirdMetric.” HuffPost, HuffPost,28 Oct.2013, m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3299888