Rita Dove's commencement address

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Jan-19-25	Wording change

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In this excerpt od Rita Dove’s commencement address to the graduating class at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, she uses emotional appeal, anecdotes from her personal life, as well as less formal speech at some point to convey her message to the class more clearly that she wishes them hunger, hard work, and uncertainty.

She starts out by using emotional appeal like when she is talking about how delighted she is to be giving a speech of this nature, and she says “Although I have given commencement speeches before, this one is different; this is personal.” She then goes on to explain why it's personal and in this moment she is pleading with the crowd to stay with her and take what she is saying to heart.

To keep the speech interesting, she during all the wishes for them gives personal anecdotes to not only keep it interesting but to also develop their understanding of what she is saying better. While speaking on her wish for them to hunger, she talks about a conversion with a student in which the student is listing things she wishes she had heard during baccalaureate exercises, “1. Life is short, 2. Don't put yourself in a box, etc.” This gives the reader the ability to relate to her as more of a fellow human and not just somebody speaking. This happens again during her wish for hard work section when she talks about conversations with her dad where he gave her the “You’re going out into the world” talk. And finally a third time during the wish for uncertainty portion, where she gives her own thoughts about how to go about uncertainty and how to take advantage of it. These anecdotal moments really allow the readers/listeners to feel more connected to her and therefore more trusting of her as well as more likely to take her “wishes” to heart.

Paragraph 4 changes

Rita also uses less formal speech at times, to make herself seem more relatable as well as more human. Sometimes in the form of jokes and other times in the form of purely just statements. For example, in the second paragraph, she says “I googled it so it must be true.” This jab at Google lightens the mood a little bit while making her seem more relatable, which is a good way to get people listening to you. In paragraph three when she says; which to me is the ticker,” this immediately makes her seem more human. These six words allow the reader/listener to easily relate to her with ease due to the very informal, comfortable wording. All this allows the reader to understand Rita more fully, and understand why she wants to wish us hunger, hard work, and uncertainty.

Rita also uses less formal speech at times, to make herself seem more relatable as well as more human. Sometimes in the form of jokes and other times in the form of purely just statements. For example, in the second paragraph, she says “I googled it so it must be true.” This jab at Google lightens the mood a little bit while making her seem more relatable, which is a good way to get people listening to you. In paragraph three when she says; which to me is the ticker,” this immediately makes her seem more human. These six words allow the reader/listener to easily relate to her due to the informal, comfortable wording. All this allows the reader to understand Rita more fully, and understand why she wants to wish us hunger, hard work, and uncertainty.

DMU Timestamp: December 23, 2024 22:19