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Kaysie Polad

Professor Rogers

Writing 2010

22 January 2019

It Doesn’t Always Take an English Major to use Rhetorical Devices

Too often people find themselves in an argument, struggling to come up with concrete

evidence. Face-to-face conversations, however, are very different from writing speeches, poems,

or articles. Barack Obama was the forty-fourth president of the United States of America. During

his presidency he went around to schools across the United States to give each school

individualized speeches. Many, possibly all, of his speeches were written beforehand by

professionals who took great care when analyzing the meaning of each phrase and sentence.

When identifying specific rhetorical devices in this speech, it works because he connects to the

logical side of the students with facts, approaches the conversation with the hope to connect with

them while also using his past experience and critical thoughts to fully engage his audience

without them losing interest. The message that education is crucial to a successful life is

conveyed clearly and strongly to the students at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School.

Ethos is described as “the fundamental character or spirit of a culture” according to

Dictionary.com. In more simple terms, it can be characterized as an author attempting to

persuade the audience of the author’s credibility. Obama specifically uses his time in the white

house as a credible informant, “When I took office almost eight years ago, we knew that our

education system was falling short when it came to preparing young people like you for that

reality.” He makes himself appear as the top of the top in the tone of this sentence. The length of

eight years in office is great enough to convince the students he knows what he is talking about.
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Comparatively, someone who only served one four-year term as president may not be seen as

credible as the one who served two four-year terms. He “[is] really proud of what [they’ve]

accomplished. [He’s] proud of what the District of Columbia has accomplished.” As the head of

the state, he has allocated a space for him to not directly sound very proud of his

accomplishments, rather those who are working members and students in the District of

Columbia. It clearly states a point of pride but not conceit. Overall, he does an exquisite job of

showing the satisfaction Benjamin Banneker Academic High School.

Pathos can be described as the empathy or an attempt to persuade an opinion from the

author’s emotions. Obama commonly feels the tendency to rely upon pathos to impart his

messages. Humor can be a great way to connect with people and Obama shows it well here. His

ideology is a bit altered to what the average person may consider to be pathos. Sometimes he

even connects with his audience through his humor and engaging language, “We used to actually

have to go up to somebody if we liked them and talk to them. So that may happen to you

someday.” The non-traditional explanation can be seen by his charisma. Charisma also varies

from person to person and Obama uses it extremely well, “more schools across D.C. and across

the country are starting to catch up to what you guys are doing here, at this school.” Once again

his pride shines through and he can use it so well to make his audience always fully engaged. He

doesn’t need to have the most compelling voice or look like he owns three Ferraris cars in order

to be on the same level as the students because he has the pathos to connect with them.

Logic and reason are always applicable in every sort of writing, speech, poem, etc. and

can often be used as a way to bring home an argument. When an argument is backed up with

evidence and statistics there is a much less likely chance that the argument will be lost. That is

why Obama saves his logos for the meat of his speech; it creates a much more substantial
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argument to bring home why education is important. “[They] graduated 100% of [their] seniors

last year,” which is a very significant number and is seen as the ultimate goal for schools around

the nation. This ties in with ethos in the way that Benjamin Banneker students are credible for

their own progress but Obama bringing it up is truly a great assembly point for the logos he’s

using. He grows on his logic about why the graduation rates being so high is astounding for the

United States economy, “just getting a degree from a two-year school, going to a community

college and getting an associate’s degree could earn you more than $300,000 over the course of

your lifetime.” For many people this is something absolutely incredible. $300,000 could buy

roughly 60,000 five dollar pizzas at Little Caesars Pizzeria. The facts are plain and simple here,

this is his best example of selling his speech because when a seventeen or eighteen year old hears

that only two years of college could buy them an entire house, or about 60,000 pizzas, they’re

more likely to jump on board with an associates degree because they are making more money. In

turn this is only helping the U.S. economy and there is not a better way to convey this message

other than logos.

Obama does a wonderful job displaying ethos, pathos, and logos. He clearly discloses all

of his points in such a way that high school upperclassmen will understand. It doesn’t matter

what he is showcasing, he does it exemplary. The revisiting of other rhetorical devices in one

spot can push past the limit of good to great. Not only is he revisiting the rhetorical devices but

he is also returning to other points to back up his current points. Overall it is a wonderful cycle

that Obama has gotten very good at and as an audience member it is enjoyable to listen to or

read.