President Obama Speech Analysis

President Obama gave a speech this past Wednesday at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School to encourage students to work hard in school.

He represented his title well with professional attire and good posture (straight back, not slouching). The President had a good-natured demeanor with friendly smiles and natural gestures. At the beginning of his speech, President Obama seems like a warm person because he greets the crowd with a big smile and waves to the crowd. This feeling of genuineness that he gives off makes others feel like they can trust him.

There were several examples of logos in the speech. President Obama uses some facts like how the U.S. is 16th in the world. Other examples of logos are the several students with ground-breaking projects whom he mentions as evidence that succeeding is possible. He also uses the appeal of ethos when he thanks the principle of Banneker, mayor of D.C., and secretary of education. In addition to ethos, he uses pathos when he references the economic troubles that some families might be facing. This provokes emotion from the kids listening who might be affected by the rough economy; it makes them feel like the President understands, so they'll want to listen.

Since it is the back-to-school speech, it is clearly aimed at students in school. However, he acknowledges the audience by using diction that isn't too advance and relates to the age group. He does this by referencing possible obstacles that students face (changing circles of friends & drama, babysitting, and chores around the house) and Facebook and Twitter. In another attempt to 'win them over', he says, "I don't want to be another adult who stands up to lecture you like you're just kids." President Obama wants to make students feel like they're a vital part of the nation. His main purpose of the speech is to encourage students to succeed and to get an advanced education.

Syntax is very evident in the speech; he uses mostly smaller sentences to keep the audiences interested. After some longer sentences, he uses shorter sentences to emphasize his point. This is shown when he said: "If you promise not to tell anyone, I'll let you in on a little secret: I wasn't always the very best student. I didn't love every class I took."

The cadence of the speech goes up and down to give the sound of the speech variation. President Obama also uses a higher pitch to establish a friendly, encouraging tone. The higher pitch gives off a positive feeling, whereas, a lower pitch would be more suited for a somber speech that might be addressing war.

He sounds honest, but although it might have been to others, his speech did not seem that effective to me. But my standards of an effective speech is probably different since I have a Chinese dad who gives my sister and me the same arousing lecture about how he came to America and succeeded every time he comes back home from business trips.