The Speech

Obama builds his ethos by making himself relatable; he presented himself as someone who struggled in school, but ultimately succeeded. His advice for school success is convincing because we see how he has succeeded and become the President through his hard work. He included how his mother made him study at 4 A.M. while he lived in Indonesia. This shows that Obama followed his own advice, to strive for excellence, lending him credibility in his speech. Obama also used careful word choice to make himself more relatable. To show that he is with it, and knows what the kids are into these days, he used words like “X-box” and “IPhone.” This makes his audience, schoolchildren, see his advice as more relevant to their own lives because we know that he fully understands what people our age go through and struggle with. His speech was effective in its medium-advanced level of word choice. Obama understood that with this speech, his audience comprised a wide range of ages and abilities, and so he tried to use words that weren’t too complicated for kindergartners, but still he made sure he wasn’t talking down to high schoolers.