Analyse af Michelle Obamas 'Commencement Address'

A strong society is built on an educated population. Education gives the individual the means to develop personal goals and achieve them. Advancing personal goals helps the single person contribute to society. However, education’s history also has a darker side. The education system has often been segregated in races and related to discrimination. This is one of the main themes that Michelle Obama brings up in her speech “Commencement Address” which she held at a graduation ceremony at Bowie State University in 2013.

In 2013 Michelle Obama was the First Lady of the United States. The main recipient of the speech is the graduates at Bowie University, but the message is wider than and is directed towards young people, who come from a minority group or family. Michelle Obama uses several different strategies to keep the attention from the audience.

At first, she uses lingual instruments to make the speech more laid back and like a conversation, she adds little initiates like: “Yes, indeed” (ll. 9) and “So, yes…” (ll. 196) This makes her language seem more natural and like she is leading a conversation on the same level as the students. She also uses very informal phrasing like: “folks” (ll. 5) and “shake them up” (ll. 242) This way of speaking makes it seem like Obama really cares about the topic and makes the speech more interesting for the audience.