Wellesley High School Commencement Speech By David Mccullough Jr.

541 Words2 Pages

Wellesley High School Commencement Address David McCullough Jr., delivered the commencement at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts on June 1st 2012 to staff, the 2012 graduates, and their family and friends. The speech was straightforward and supplied valuable information for their future. . McCullough’s speech at times felt harsh, offensive, and insulting. His words and examples were given to achieve insight, knowledge, and awareness for each student’s future. The commencement expressed a great deal of achievement, but conveyed that there was more work to be done. His speech was effective and appreciated through humor parallelism, repetition, and anaphora. His point of view has obtained respect and determination by all those that have been challenged and have heard his words. McCullough’s speech had many aspects that not only made it interesting, but caused it to be effective. Right from the beginning he used humor which related to the entire group there. It help to open the mood and allow each individual to relax and start with an open mind. His speech is filled with examples and phrases that get you thinking, which is the part of his purpose for the speech. One of the most remembered phrases used by McCullough is “You’re not Special”. This phrase put this speech on the map, but also open the …show more content…

This is what McCullough convey in his speech to each student. He stated that “it was a level playing field” and used the phrase “You’re not Special”. The use of logos in this phrase transmits a person of no concern for the student that he is speaking to, but in fact it’s the opposite. This phrase along with the entire speech was to encourage each student in their future. His main focus was to help each student see that no matter where you come from or how you got to this point, from this day forward it was up to you, where you

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