rhetorical analysis on steve jobs commencement speech

Steve Jobs Commencement Speech Analysis

Looking for Steve Jobs commencement speech analysis? Want to understand how Jobs uses ethos, logos, pathos, and figurative language? Take a look at Steve Jobs Stanford speech analysis below.

Introduction

• Speech Analysis
• Rhetorical Appeals Used

Is it necessary to follow passions or reasons while choosing a career? What effects can losses and failures have on a person’s life? In spite of the complex character and deep ethical, philosophical, and psychological meanings hidden in these questions, they are answered completely in Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005.

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, Inc., is known as one of the world-famous and successful entrepreneurs whose unique approaches to business and marketing provoked the great public’s interest. That is why Jobs’ speech on the importance of finding an interesting and loved job drew the attention and gained the recognition of the graduates during the Commencement Day at Stanford University in 2005.

Steve Jobs Stanford Speech Analysis

The goal of Steve Jobs’ speech is to persuade the graduates to find jobs that they can truly love because of their passion for definite activities. Thus, Jobs is successful in achieving his goal because of his exclusive approach to structuring the speech and to blending the rhetoric appeals in order to discuss well-known concepts and ideas of love, loss, and death in a unique form; that is why it is appropriate to examine Jobs’ manipulation of methods of persuasion in detail.

In his speech, Jobs demonstrates the virtuous use of rhetoric appeals in the development and presentation of one of the most persuasive commencement speeches in order to draw the student’s attention to the significant questions which can contribute to changing a person’s life.

Steve Jobs Commencement Speech: Rhetorical Appeals

The strategies used in developing the structure of the speech and the rhetorical strategies are closely connected. Jobs’ speech can be divided into five parts which are the introductory part to evoke the graduates’ interest regarding the topic discussed, the three life anecdotes, and the concluding part, which restates and supports the author’s arguments presented in the main part of the speech.

It is important to note that each of the three stories told by Jobs is also developed according to the definite structure pattern where the first sentences of the stories can be referred to the pathos, the personal experience can be discussed with references to the ethos, and the final parts of the stories are organized as the logical conclusions, using the logos.

The first reference to ethos is observed in the introductory part when Jobs states, “I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation” (Jobs).

The uniqueness of Jobs’ approach is in the use of the reverse variant of the ethos as the rhetorical appeal because Jobs has no credibility to discuss the importance of university education, but he has the credibility to discuss the points necessary for professional success because of stating his position as the co-founder of Apple, Inc., NeXT, and Pixar.

The next three stories presented in the speech are used to develop Jobs’ argument about the necessity of doing what a person loves and the importance of finding these things and activities. This argument is developed with references to the concluding or logical parts of the author’s stories which are also highly emotional in their character. Steve Jobs uses pathos in the first sentences while telling his stories.

Thus, the discussion of the details of the child adoption in the first story, the reflection on the happiness of building the first company, and the mentioning of the main question in life, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”, contribute to the audience’s emotional reaction because of describing the author’s own feelings and emotions (Jobs).

The credibility of Jobs’ considerations depends on the presentation of his own personal and life background and experiences to support his ideas. The use of pathos in the speech is observed when the author concludes with the results of his experience: “If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do” (Jobs).

Discussing the near death experience, the author uses the sentence “About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer,” which combines the ethos and pathos strategies (Jobs). Thus, Jobs can use more than one rhetorical appeal in a sentence.

Nevertheless, Jobs’ goal is to persuade the graduates to act and find the things that they love to do, and the focus on logos is observed in the stories’ concluding sentences when Jobs provides the logical argument: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work” (Jobs). These concluding remarks are based on the logical rethinking of the evidence and facts presented as examples from the author’s experience.

The repetition of such phrases as “Don’t settle” and the final phrase, “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish,” contributes to drawing the audience’s interest in the presented facts and ideas (Jobs). The effectiveness of using rhetorical appeals depends on the author’s style and his use of repetitive structures and imperative sentences, which sound persuasive.

In his speech, Steve Jobs achieves the main goals of the speech by focusing on ethos, logos, and pathos and by using the author’s unique style. Jobs presents his developed vision of his career and passions in life with references to the ideas of love and death and supports considerations with autobiographical facts.

Works Cited

Jobs, Steve. ‘You’ve Got to Find What You Love,’ Jobs Says: Text of the Address . 2005. Web.

Further Study: FAQ

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Rhetorical Analysis of Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech

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Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech: Rhetorical Analysis and Main Points

• by Anastasiya Yakubovska
• 16.08.2022 12.05.2023

The famous commencement speech to Stanford graduates “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” is direct proof that Steve Jobs was a talented public speaker. 

From the article, you will learn what principle this motivational speech is built on and what rhetorical and stylistic devices Steve Jobs used.

Table of Contents

Why did steve jobs give the commencement address at stanford.

• Did you know? 
• Structure of Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech 
• The Tone of Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech 

What Rhetorical Devices (Figures and Tropes) Did Steve Jobs Use in Stanford Commencement Speech

Steve jobs’ commencement speech: 5 key points.

Steve Jobs, like no other, knew what success is. But he also was well aware of how difficult it is to find yourself, your purpose, and your dream job. 

Over the 56 years of his life, Jobs mastered several professions (without graduating from university), founded not one, but three companies – Apple Computer, NeXT, and Pixar Animation Studios.

Absolutely deservedly and rightly so, Steve Jobs was invited to Stanford University, California. Stanford is ranked among the top universities in the world. Therefore, Steve Jobs faced quite a challenge – with his motivational speech to help students make the right choice and to direct them to the right path.

Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address

Photo: stanford.edu

On June 12, 2005, Steve Jobs gave his famous commencement speech “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish!” to Stanford graduates. 

Did you know?

The text of Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement address is hidden in the Apple.txt system file on Mac.

“I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.”

This is how Steve Jobs begins his famous speech : clearly, honestly, and frankly, thus disposing to himself and focusing everyone’s attention.

Of course, Steve Jobs was a gifted public speaker (remember his successful presentations of Apple products). Therefore, like any professional speaker, Jobs used rhetorical devices, figures, and literary tropes in his speeches.

Read more about rhetorical devices in the post “How to Write a Persuasive Essay and Article: Complete Guide”.

Structure of Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech

Steve Jobs’ speech has a classic structure and consists of 3 parts:

• Introduction . 

The introduction includes a greeting and a short preface:

2. The main part.

These are the three stories from Steve Jobs:

“ The first story is about connecting the dots.”

“My second story is about love and loss.” 

“My third story is about death.”

At the end of each story, Steve Jobs draws a conclusion and emphasizes the main idea. For example:

“Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

3. Conclusion:

“On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much.”

The Tone of Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech

The tone of the commencement address and the style of presentation are informal (colloquial) with elements of slang:

“I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.” 

Steve Jobs knows and understands his audience very well, talks about simple but important things: family and studies, friends and love, career, ups and downs, life and death.

Steve Jobs’ speech lasted 15 minutes – the perfect time by all the canons of an oratory.

Rhetorical Analysis of the Commencement Speech: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

Steve Jobs used three modes of persuasion in his Stanford commencement address – ethos, logos, and pathos.

Used ethos to build trust and gain the favor of the public:

“I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.” 

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance.”

Logos is a mode of persuasion using logic, common sense, and reason:

“Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees.”

“But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.”

Steve Jobs used pathos to emotionally amplify his speech and evoke the necessary response from the public:

“ My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.”

“ I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.”

“I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down — that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me.” 

“About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.”

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life.”

In addition to the basic modes of persuasion, Steve Jobs, a brilliant speaker, used several rhetorical devices in his motivational speech. Let’s consider some of them:

• The rule of three is a rhetorical device that involves the expression of thoughts through three words or phrases. 

Of course, the most striking example of the rule of three is the idea of the commencement speech itself – three stories from Steve Jobs’ life. 

More examples of the rule of three (triad):

• “It was beautiful , historical , artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.” 
• “ It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.” 
• “This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters , scissors and Polaroid cameras .” 
• “Because almost everything — all external expectations , all pride , all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

2. Antithesis is the opposition of words, concepts, and images that are interconnected by common features (contrast):

“If I had never dropped out , I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class…” 

“Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward ; you can only connect them looking backward .” 

“The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner.”

“I had been rejected, but I was still in love.”

“because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life… It clears out the old to make way for the new .”

3. A rhetorical question is a question-statement that does not require a direct answer:

• “I really quit. So why did I drop out?” 
• “We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started?” 

4. Anaphora is the repetition of the same initial words or sound combinations:

• “Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” 
• “ No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.”
• “ Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” 
• “And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.” 

5. Lexical repetition is a stylistic figure that consists of the deliberate repetition of the same word or speech construction in a visible section of the text:

• ” Beneath it were the words: “ Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish . And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”
• “Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories .” 
• “about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great .” 
• “But it was very , very clear looking backward 10 years later.”
• “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out , I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.”
• “And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work . And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” 
• “If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle . As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle .”
• ” I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.”
• “Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.”
• “This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades.” 

6. Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonants in several words:

• “I was l ucky — I found what I l oved to do ear l y in l ife.”
• “The heaviness of b eing successful was replaced b y the lightness of b eing a b eginner again, less sure about everything.” 
• “all f ear of embarrassment or f ailure — these things just f all away in the f ace of death…” 

7. Comparison :

“I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down — that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me.” 

8. Metaphor is a hidden comparison, the use of words in a figurative sense based on similarity and analogy with the characteristics of some object or phenomenon (a waterfall of stars, a wall of fire, a pearl of art, a bear of a problem).

Metaphor gives imagery to speech, helps to keep the listener’s attention, and influences their imagination:

• “It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” 
• “the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance.” 
• “Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.”
• “these things just fall away in the face of death…” 
• “This was the closest I’ve been to facing death…” 
• “There is no reason not to follow your heart”. 

9. Parallelism is the identical or the same construction of various words or sentences of the text:  

• “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.”
• ” Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
• “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life… Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”
• “It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.” 

In conclusion, I would like to highlight 5 main points that Steve Jobs wanted to convey to graduates of Stanford University:

• Listen to your heart, do not follow someone else’s advice.
• Sometimes you just need to “go with the flow” – to trust God, fate, intuition, or circumstances. And then, looking back – into the past, you will be able to understand why all these events happened in your life.
• Sometimes the worst thing that happened in your life can lead to the best events and changes in the future.
• Do you want to be happy? Love what you are doing.
• The memory of death cleanses a person of all that is unnecessary. Our time is limited. So always “stay hungry, stay foolish”.

Text of Steve Jobs’ commencement speech

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Travis' RCL Blog

On rhetoric and civic life, rhetorical analysis draft: steve jobs’ speech at stanford’s graduation.

Note:  I don’t think that this flows well.  If you could give me advice on how to connect my thoughts more clearly, I would greatly appreciate it.  It think I have the ideas and points down, but I don’t think I developed them as clearly as I could have.  Thanks!

Throughout time, speeches have been remembered because of how they connected with their audiences:  “Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you.”  “I have a dream…”  The message that was presented to the listeners of these two famous speeches was presented in a rhetorical manner in which it associated with the people and has lasted through time.

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.”  That is a quote that has been taken from Steve Jobs’ speech he gave to Stanford’s graduating class of 2005.  What does that mean exactly?  His rhetoric used must have created some link between his message and the intended audience.  Specifically through his ethos, pathos, and structure of his speech, Jobs’ rhetorically backs his arguments.

In most arguments today, facts are given to support claims; however, in Jobs’ case, he presents only his opinion and history as evidence.  Even though this is all he offers, it creates rhetorical backing in ethos.   Through his stories, he creates a persona for himself.  He makes himself out to be a person who carries on even in the darkest of times and who has overcome many obstacles when things didn’t look good.  When trying to teach the audience that failure can sometimes be good, these are important pieces of his persona to establish.  He is known as a successful man and role model already. Developing this persona allows him to connect with his audience even more.

By describing his life events, he creates a person someone would want to become.  If the fact that he was famous didn’t make the audience listen to him, making himself seem more “human” will. He breaks down the wall of the marginal thinking that successful people have just been lucky and have reached the point they are at in their lives because they were handed things on a silver platter. Developing this persona not only creates an argument of ethos, but allows him to win his audience over.  The audience only knows a successful man standing on that stage, not the humble one that is willing to admit the road has been tough.

Sharing his hardships and developing his persona not only creates a rhetorical backing of ethos, but a rhetorical argument of pathos.  He tells the story of how he was fired from Apple.  This is obviously a story about failure.  Any audience, whether it be Stanford’s graduating class of 2005, or a group of random people at Penn State, everybody can relate to failure.  They remember the emotions he must have felt when he lost the company “that [he] spent most of his adult life building.”  This emotional connection only deepens the relationship he has already built with his audience.  Now, they not only want to strive to become him, but have connected with him emotionally.

He also tells the story of his cancer.  He told the audience how he was diagnosed with cancer.  This creates another argument for pathos.  Most people can relate to cancer.  Either they know someone who has cancer, has had cancer themselves, or has read about cancer somewhere.  This again brings emotion back into the picture; he becomes even more connected with his audience.  When trying to prove a point of why time is precious and death can happen at any time, it is essential that he connects his message emotionally with the audience.  People can relate to cancer and they can understand where he is coming from.

The biggest element of his speech that makes it connective and rhetorically sound is the structure of it.  He sets it up topically by including three stories.  The execution of this allows him to make his points and connect his arguments in an organized and systematic manner.  If he were to just spill his points out in random times and in random moments, there would be no connection between them.  This structure allows him to talk about different and varying points while still connecting them to his overall point of finding “what you love to do.”

Creating this structure connects three stories with three varying messages.  The first is connecting the dots.  He explains how you can’t connect them forward, but looking back everything connects.  His second was about “love and loss.”  He explains how he lost Apple, but found what he really loves to do.  The last story is about death.  He tells the story of how he had a stroke with death when he dealt with his cancer.  Alone, these stories are sound; but together, they create an overall message.  Piecing the individual stories together in separate sections allows the listener to follow them.  Then, when the end comes, he is able to bring them all together to create an “aha!” moment without interrupting the flow of the speech.

Through establishing his arguments with rhetorical backing, such as ethos and pathos, as well as structuring his essay in a way that is logical, Jobs gets his point across.  His speech is only supported through opinionated and personal examples, but in turn this creates arguments of both ethos and pathos.  Also, by splitting the speech into three sections, or stories if you will, he logically ties the knot between all of his individual points and his overall message.

In time, however, it will be interesting to see if these rhetorical devices create even a stronger rhetorical argument.  Even back in 2005, Jobs was known as a very successful man, and the speech was known to many.  Now that he has passed, his true life’s history and genius is known to everybody.  Looking back at this speech from a current 2013 perspective, after seeing Apple emerge as an industrial powerhouse, we can see where it all began and what this man had to go through, making his stories a more deeper.

One thought on “ Rhetorical Analysis Draft: Steve Jobs’ Speech at Stanford’s Graduation ”

I’m writing this as I read, so I can remember everything I think of to advise. I’m going to try to write a little blurb for each paragraph in chronological order, so you can understand my thoughts! I would recommend combining your first two paragraphs to make one introductory paragraph. After the “stay hungry, stay foolish” quote, I would remove the that and just say foolish” is a quote. I also advise removing the must (to sound confident in your belief) and combining your last two sentences for your thesis: “His rhetoric used created some link between his message and the intended audience; specifically through his ethos, pathos, and structure of his speech, Jobs’ rhetorically backs his arguments.” Just an idea of another way to compose your thesis. Maybe add one more concluding sentence to bring it back to the idea of ethos, before starting your next paragraph. I think you could combine the two paragraphs on pathos, but it flows nicely without them joined together as well. If you join them, I would change the last sentence to include failure, maybe something like: People can relate to cancer, just like they can relate to failure, and they can understand where he is coming from. Something is awkward about this wording, ” connective and rhetorically sound,” I don’t know how to fix it. I would again combine the three paragraphs on structure to improve flow. You might want to consider adding a concluding statement on the structure, before going into your conclusion paragraph. Your ending paragraph is really strong, and I like that you bring to view the 2013 perspective. My only recommendation is to check your wording on the first sentence. I really like your paper and I think you include all of the required content, claims/evidence, organization, and style. The only thing I can think of to improve your paper is to add some more quotes from the speech, so we have a better idea of the style of the speech. Great job, I think your final paper will be really great!

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Steve Jobs – Figures of Speech

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Introduction

Steve Jobs uses various different rhetorical measures to create emotional appeals in the audience. Some rhetorical figures and other elements may not be used without direct intention or even by accident. An indirect intentional use would be if a speaker wanted to create a certain effect and choose unconsciously an according action, e.g., a rhetorical figure. In this article we take a closer look on his use of figures of speech in the iPhone Presentation (MacWorld 2007 Keynote).

Jobs uses various rhetorical figures of speech. He applies these figures mostly in parts that appear to be well prepared, an indicator for these parts is is the low frequency of “uh”s and generally the style has a higher level in these areas, e.g., less colloquial language. Steve Jobs used figures of speech in his previous speeches, for an analysis of Steve Jobs Commencement Speech at Stanford University in 2005, take a look at the public speaking blog “Six Minutes” from the coach and public speaker Andrew Dlugan.

Rhetorical figures create certain impressions at the audience, yet these impressions depend on the context. Due to the large number of figures a description of the effects of each figure is omitted. What follows is a brief description of the structure of the applied figures with examples from the keynote in combination with an approximate timestamp. Since many figures are used in combination a note is added in parenthesis, if there is more than one figure present in a word sequence.

Figures of Speech used by Steve Jobs

Here is a list of the used figures with selected examples from the speech; roughly ordered by the frequency of appearances in descending order:

• Interrogatio is a rhetorical question, thus the answer is self-evident from the situation of the speaker.
• “…and I’d love to show it [a new ad] to you now, if you’d like to see it?” ([00:03:39])
• “Isn’t that unbelievable?” ([00:06:26])
• “Isn’t that incredible?” ([00:07:34])
• “Want to see that again?” ([00:41:47])
• “Pretty cool, huh?” ([00:47:30])
• Anaphora is the repetition of a beginning word (sequence) after a comma or colon.
• “As you know, we’ve got the.. the iPod, best music player in the world. We’ve got the iPod nanos, brand new models, colors are back. We’ve got the amazing new iPod Shuffle.” ([0:05:01])
• “We solved it in computers 20 years ago. We solved it with a bit-mapped screen that could display anything we want. Put any user interface up. And a pointing device. We solved it with the mouse. Right? We solved this problem.” ([00:32:27])
• Epiphora is the repetition of a concluding word (sequence) before a comma or colon. Most epiphoras are used in combination with anaphoras, thus they become symplokes.
• “Well, these are their these are their home screens. And again, as you recall, this is iPhone’s home screen. uhm this this is what their contacts look like. This is what iPhone’s contacts look like, and again,” ([01:27:23])
• Symploke is the combination of one or several anaphora(s) with one or several epiphora(s).
• “Our new colleagues at Intel really helped us. Thank you very much. Our thir… Our third-party developers rapidly moving their apps to universal versions to run at native speeds on Intel processors. Thank you very much.” ([00:02:02])
• “In 1984, we introduced the Macintosh, it didn’t just change Apple, it changed the whole computer industry. In 2001, we introduced the first iPod, and… it didn’t just – it didn’t just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry.” ([00:27:12] with parallelism and geminatio)
• “We’re gonna use the best pointing device in the world. We’re gonna use a pointing device that we’re all born with – we’re born with ten of them. We’re gonna use our fingers. We’re gonna touch this with our fingers.” ([00:33:33])
• “The first rich html e-mail on a phone. The first real Web browser on a phone.” ([01:15:35])
• Geminatio is the repetition of a word or word group within one sentence.
• “That’s 58 songs every second of every minute of every hour of every day.” ([00:06:26] with syndeton, parallelism, and climax.)
• “And the problem is that they’re not so smart and they’re not so easy to use, so if you kinda make a… Business School 101 graph of the smart axis and the easy-to-use axis, phones, regular cell phones are kinda right there, they’re not so smart, and they’re – you know – not so easy to use.” ([00:30:28])
• “And so I’ve got voice mail how I wanna listen to it, when I wanna listen to it, in any order I wanna listen to it with visual voice mail.” ([00:56:49] with asyndeton)
• Subiectio is a mock dialogue (thus a monologue) with question and answer, included in the speech to enhance the line of thought.
• “What does this mean? It means you can take one of the computers in your house, and right from iTunes, just like you would set up an iPod, you could set up your Apple TV.” ([0:15:00], with exemplum)
• “Well, how do you solve this? Hmm. It turns out, we have solved it!” ([00:32:27] with exclamatio)
• “And, what’s wrong with their user interfaces? Well, the problem with them is really sort of in the bottom 40 there. It’s, it’s this stuff right here.” ([00:31:33], with the message visually underlined on the slides)
• “How many of you do that? I bet more than a few.” ([00:49:19])
• Apostrophe is the turning away from the normal audience to another audience.
• “Phil, what do you got on your MacBook. You got some content we could watch?” [00:23:31]
• Exclamatio is an exclamation that expresses the emotional affection of the speaker.
• “I just take my unit here, and I turn it landscape mode, oh, look what happens! I’m in cover flow.” ([00:43:43])
• “The killer app is making calls!” ([00:49:04])
• “Wah, whoa, what is this?” ([00:52:30])
• “Oh, look, Apple’s up! That’s great!” ([01:11:13])
• Onomatopoeia is the use or invention a word whose sound imitates that which it names, due to the union of phonetics and semantics.
• “Boom.” (several times)
• Hyperbole is an exaggeration of the characteristics of an object or circumstance.
• “We also have the coolest photo management app uh ever, certainly on a mobile device, but I think maybe ever.” ([00:58:42])
• “It’s the coolest one that we’ve ever seen.” ([01:29:12])
• “Best version of Google Maps on the planet, widgets, and all with Edge and wi-fi networking.” ([01:15:56])
• “It’s the ultimate digital device.” ([01:30:53])
• Simile is an explicit comparison between two things, usually using “as” or “like”.
• “It [multitouch] works like magic.” ([00:33:33])
• “Now, software on mobile phones is like is like baby software.” ([00:34:55])
• “Just like you’d set up an iPod or an Apple TV. And you set up what you want synced to your iPhone. And it’s just like an iPod. Charge and sync. So sync with iTunes.” ([00:37:55])
• “Same as a BlackBerry.” ([01:03:51])
• Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound beginnings, especially of consonants, of at least two successive or neighboring words of a syntactical unit.
• “there was an article recently that said iTunes sales had slowed dramatically.” ([00:06:26])
• “Well, we don’t have data for December yet,” ([00:09:23])
• “It doesn’t work because the buttons and the controls can’t change. They can’t change…” ([00:32:22])
• “Now, we’ve also got some stuff you can’t see.” ([00:39:38])
• “I’ve got a camera here so you can see what I’m doing with my finger for a few seconds.” ([00:41:47])
• “And the third app I wanna show you as part of the phone package is photos.” ([00:58:42])
• “Starbucks, so I’m gonna search for Starbucks, and sure enough, there’s all the Starbucks.” ([01:13:02])
• Aporia is a (feigned) statement of doubt by the speaker and a question to the audience, about how he should act.
• “Now, how are we gonna communicate this? We don’t wanna carry around a mouse, right? So what are we gonna do?” ([00:32:54])
• “Well, how do I scroll through my lists of artists? How do I do this?” ([00:42:29])
• “So what should we price it at? Well, what do these things normally cost?” ([01:30:53])
• “What should we charge for iPhone?” ([01:31:46])
• “So how much more than $499 should we price iPhone?” ( [01:32:15])
• Climax is the increase from a weaker to a stronger expression. Thus, a word (sequence) is arranged in ascending order.
• “But smart phones are definitely a little smarter, but they actually are harder to use. They’re really complicated. Just for the basic stuff a hard time figuring out how to use them.” ([00:30:41])
• “First was the mouse. The second was the click wheel. And now, we’re gonna bring multi-touch to the market.” ([00:34:20])
• “And rather than just give you a WAP version of the New York Times, rather than give you this wrapped version all around, we’re showing you the whole New York Times Web site, and there it is.” ([01:08:00]; also includes a geminatio (”rather than”))
• “Wouldn’t it be great – if you didn’t – if you had six voice mails if you didn’t have to listen to five of them first before you wanted to listen to the sixth? Wouldn’t that be great if you had random access voice mail? Well, we’ve got it.” ([0:49:58] with interrogatio and anaphora)
• Asyndeton is a sequence of words or similar expression without the use of conjunctions.
• “We’ve got movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, photos.” ([00:16:06])
• “But it also syncs a ton of data: Your contacts, your calendars and your photos, which you can get on your iPod today, your notes, your..your bookmarks from your Web browser, your e-mail accounts, your whole e-mail set-up.” ([00:37:19])
• “Thinner than the Q, thinner than the BlackJack, thinner than all of them.” ([00:38:31] with anaphora.)
• “A lot of custom silicon. Tremendous power management. OSX inside a mobile device. Featherweight precision enclosures. Three advanced sensors.” ([01:30:00])
• Anadiplosis is the repetition of the last word of a sentence or sequence that is also the first word of the following sentence or sequence.
• “And they garnered two percent market share. Two percent market share. uh iPod had 62 percent market share, and the rest had 36.” ([00:09:43])
• “And they all have these control buttons that are fixed in plastic and are the same for every application. Well, every application wants a slightly different user interface, a slightly optimized set of buttons, just for it.” ([00:32:07])
• “It doesn’t work because the buttons and the controls can’t change. They can’t change for each application, and they can’t change down the road if you think of another great idea you wanna add to this product.” ([00:32:22])
• Personification is the attribution of human properties towards things or animals. In the following examples “it” refers to the iPhone.
• “It already knows how to power manage.” ([00:35:00])
• “And if there’s a new message it will tell me.” ([00:57:27])
• “Now it knows who Phil is cause he is in my address book.” ([01:25:00])
• Polyptoton is the repetition of the same word but in a different form. In the following cases for verbs:
• “Ok, now, you also can’t think about the Internet without thinking about Yahoo.” ([01:19:51])
• “It automatically pairs with iPhone so you don’t have to worry about pairing.” ([01:29:00])
• Antitheton is the opposition of two facts of contrasting content. The opposite may be expressed in speech by means of single words, word groups, or sentences.
• “They all have these keyboards that are there whether you need them or not to be there.” ([00:31:43], also a geminatio “there”)
• “The kind of things you would find on a typical phone, but in a very untypical way now.” ([00:50:00])
• Euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or non-offensive expression for one whose ordinary meaning might be harsh or unpleasant.
• “We wanted the best web browser in the world on our phone, not a baby web browser or a WAP browser, a real Web browser, and we picked the best one in the world, Safari, and we have Safari running on iPhone.” ([01:02:00])
• Confessio is the confession of an error or weak spot. In its original form it was the confession of an error towards the opposition.
• “… so I’ll probably stumble and call this iTV five times today by mistake. I apologize. So Apple TV.” ([00:12:32])
• “And I didn’t sleep a wink last night.” ([01:44:14])
• “It does error prot uh prevention and correction. Not that I won’t make some, I probably will.” ([00:57:45])
• Distributio is the division of the main concept in sub concepts. Due to expended visualization the main concept gains a greater importance.
• “So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls; a revolutionary mobile phone; and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone … are you getting it? These are not three separate devices, this is one device, and we are calling it iPhone.” ([0:28:44] with parallelism)
• “So, Internet communicator, an iPod and a phone.” ([01:23:20])
• Polysyndeton is the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses.
• “It’s got everything from Cocoa and the graphics and it’s got core animation built in and it’s got the audio and video that OSX is famous for.” ([0:35:43] with geminatio)
• Metaphor is a “comparison made by referring to one thing as another.” Steve Jobs seems to prefer the figure simile to metaphor.
• “A huge, heart transplant to Intel microprocessors.” ([00:01:03])
• “What we wanna do is make a leapfrog product that is way smarter than any mobile device has ever been, and super-easy to use.” ([00:30:53])
• Allusio is an implicit reference to an opus, text, person, etc.
• “He told me this, he said, you had me at scrolling.” ([00:48:45]; is a reference to the movie Jerry Maguire, with the quote “you had me at hello”.)
• Anastrophe is the reversal of the normal sequence of two words in direct succession.
• “… and they all have these plastic little keyboards on them.” (instead of “little plastic”; [00:30:00])
• “And boy, have we patented it.” (instead of “we have”; [00:33:54])
• “… and up pop my favorites , …” ([00:54:30])
• Ambiguity is the polysemy of a word (sequence).
• “And you can guess who our next Target might be.” ([00:06:59]; “Target” is a chain of discount department stores and was selling more music than Apple.)
• Irony is the expression of something by means of a word or sentence that describes the opposite.
• “Oh, a stylus, right? We’re gonna use a stylus.” ([00:33:00])

Distribution and Usage of Figures of Speech in different Parts of the Presentation

The frequency of figures is not constant throughout the keynote. For the upcoming analysis the keynote was separated in five different parts, which are named Beginning, iPhone Intro, iPhone Demo, Summary, and Fade-out. The following analysis relates the frequency of the figures to that of the “uh”s. Here you can find a complete transcript of the iPhone keynote (MacWorld 2007) .

The size of the transcript was used in relationship to the distribution of figures and “uh”s, since it is difficult to use the time as an indicator, because there are various interruptions in form of advertisements, video clips, guest speakers, and other performances. Therefore, the size of the transcript without timestamps is used.

In the first 26 minutes, before the iPhone is presented, there are only a few figures. Also the number of “uh”s is about 55, which is nearly one third of all “uh”s in the whole keynote. The intro takes up about one quarter (23 %) of the transcripted text.

From [00:26:22] to [00:41:08], where Steve Jobs talks about the iPhone before he shows it to the audience, the use of figures is the highest in the keynote. This part takes a little less than 16 % of the whole transcripted text, but only about 2 % of the number of “uh”s. Thus, there is a strong negative correlation between the number of “uh”s and the usage of figures of speech. Additionally, the complexity of the figures of speech is high.

In the part from [0:41:10] to [1:26:56], where the iPhone is presented in detail during various demos, the use of figures is low to moderate, yet most figures are questioning figures like subiecto (self-answered questions) and the interrogatio (rhetorical questions) or simple effects like hyperboles (exaggerations) and onomatopoeia (”boom”). This part takes a little more than 43 % of the whole transcripted text and nearly 58 % of the number of “uh”s. Due to the many tech demos this is not unsurprisingly. The aforementioned figures fit to this purpose, because they are not too elaborate, yet provide aesthetics and certain degree of variation. Additionally, a lot of these figures are seen as the trademark phrases of Steve Jobs.

From [01:27:00] to [01:45:20] Steve Jobs makes a summary about the iPhone, then he continues with the price and the market. In this section of the keynote, the quantity and complexity of the figures is the second largest in the keynote. The “uh”s account for almost 5 % of all “uh”s in the keynote, whereas this part contains about 14 % of the transcripted text. This part uses mainly rhythm and speed figures, like long anaphoras (repetition of the beginning) and asyndetons (no use of conjunctions). Additionally, Steve Jobs used the aporia extensively, when he asked the audience how much Apple should price the iPhone.

The fadeout of the keynote lasts from about [1:45:21] to the end, where Steve Jobs thanks the families and introduces John Mayer. It contains almost 5 % “uh”s, which is the same number as the previous part. Yet, it amounts for only 2.5 % of text.

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Steve Jobs’ Commencement Speech Rhetorical Analysis

Introduction, three instruments of steve jobs’ speech.

Steve Jobs, one of the founders and shareholders of Apple, is famous for introducing unique strategies that tend to evoke general interest to his model of business. One of the major constituents dragging mass attention to Jobs’ success formula is his speech. The three rhetorical components of the man’s speech, such as the introduction, some life stories or anecdotes, and conclusion, usually arrive as the key instruments of convincing the wide audience.

The introduction of Steve Jobs’ speech is the part in which the man establishes trust-based relationships with the people he addresses. The businessman intentionally emphasizes the fact that he never graduated from a higher educational establishment to be closer to regular citizens and turn them into fellow-thinkers (Heracleous and Klaering 34). His key message is that one does not necessarily need a college degree to develop personally and achieve success.

The stories/anecdotes the speaker resorts to are primarily used to bring up the argument that doing what a person prefers to is the most relevant aspect of achieving the mentioned success. Emotionally colored narratives help Steve Jobs to develop the required level of pathos and capture the public’s attention entirely (Heracleous and Klaering 37). Concentrating on the topics of child adoption or terminal diseases contributes to faster delivery of the key message.

Concluding is another instrument the spokesman uses to convince his audience. Jobs’ summarizing remarks are always based on a logical rethinking of the entire content and facts presented in the speech (Heracleous and Klaering 39). The speaker draws listeners to the conclusion that job will take the larger part of one’s life and, therefore, one needs to think through all the pros and cons before choosing the sphere of interest.

Steve Jobs is both a high-profile businessman and a splendid orator who not only shares effective business strategies but possesses the ability to inspire others in the matters of entrepreneurship. The three rhetorical instruments this man uses during public speaking are called introduction, emotionally colored stories, and conclusion. The combination of the three components allows the spokesman to catch and hold public’s attention up to the final accord of his speech.

Heracleous, Loizos, and Laura Alexa Klaering. “The Circle of Life: Rhetoric of Identification in Steve Jobs’ Stanford Speech.” Journal of Business Research, vol. 79, 2017, pp. 31-40.

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Steve Jobs Commencement Speech

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