Elegant Arguments of Barrak Obama

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Bijal Patel Eng 103, Orr 7:40 Essay #1 07/01/2010 Elegant Arguments of Barack Obama “It is not an end but a beginning,” is commonly said in many of the speeches given at graduation ceremonies. President Barack Obama delivered similar sentiments to the graduating Class of 2010 at the University of Michigan, and at the Hampton College on May 1, 2010 and May 9, 2010 respectively. The main argument of the speech given at University of Michigan was that working together is the key to keep a democracy moving forward, whereas, at Hampton College he argued how important education is because it opens many doors for those who achieve it. How effective was Obama, in his attempt to persuade his audiences? In both of the speeches Obama get his message across to his audience by using influential logical arguments, establishing his credibility, keeping their patriotism for America and other shared values in mind, and effectively using the setting at each event as a plus on his side. The most efficient technique that Obama uses to persuade his audiences is making logical arguments and backing up those arguments by providing evidence. In these speeches, Obama claims that educated citizens can fortify the nation as whole. He asks his audience to “…learn what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes and in the process…make this democracy work,” at University of Michigan (5). He states something similar at Hampton College as well. He supports this claim by saying that the graduates’ minds are broadened because they were exposed to many different types of people and ideas in their college years. This enables them to work with all sorts of people with many different values and beliefs other than their own. Eventually, working together will allow them to expand their knowledge by learning from each other, and then using that knowledge to find a way forward

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