Sarah Heward
Period 7
English 1010
Kill It With Kindness
How does a person impact people to change or to make a difference in the world?
Graduating from college is the time to begin a new chapter. Commencement speeches are
supposed to inspire and make graduating college students want to make a change. George
Saunders gave a commencement speech at Syracuse University graduation in 2013. George
Saunders did some things in his speech the traditional way but added a new twist on what is
really important in life and in everyones career. Not only were the students , changed, but also
every person that heard or read the speech felt inspired. George Saunders’ commencement
speech was rhetorically effective in proving that kindness can get you far in life by using
repetition, parallelism, ethos, and rhetorical questions.
When people repeat a certain phrase or a sentence it in a persons brain more often.
Repetition helps people remember what the real message is. Saunders uses repetition as an
advantage. He knows he is talking to an audience that wants to be inspired; by repeating “YOU”
and “million dollar questions”. The audience is reminded, “I can do this” , and how important it
is to be kind. He repeats “YOU” a lot of times and also “the million dollar questions”. By
repeating these phrases it makes the audience feel important. When he uses “YOU” it makes the
audiences feel like George is talking to each audience member individually. He makes the
audience feel important to him and to the world.
Sentences can hurt or break speakers. Speakers can structure their sentences to help the
audience understand the overall message. Saunder’s sentences are structured to help the audience
to remember and ponder what he is talking about and helps get the point across. Parallelism used
in this speech helps the audience visualize what they could be and what could be in their future if
they are more kind. George shows that the audience can become “as doers, as accomplishers, as
Sarah Heward
Period 7
English 1010
Kill It With Kindness
dreamers.” George tells us that everyone needs to start being kind now. He uses phrases like,
“Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now” as a type of motivation. This structure helps the
audience understand how urgent the situation is. Parallelism helps get the message across to start
being kind to others now and how it can change our lives for the better.
A successful speaker needs to be an ethical speaker. George uses ethos to help him
become a stronger speaker. He uses his own stories and experiences to help the audience trust
him and believe that he knows what he is talking about and is credible for what he is saying. He
tells the audiences a story that shows his biggest life regret. The story he tells is about a seventh
grade girl in his class that is bullied for being different. By taking a risk of a personal story, the
audience feels like he trusts them and that they can trust him. In result, they believe what he is
saying to be true. George uses detail in his story to help the audience understand the story better.
A good storyteller always uses good detail. Details help people follow along with the story.
Detail helps the audience feel like they are there with the storyteller going through the story.
Honesty is a big part of being an ethical speaker. If a speaker is lying to their audience,
they are not using ethos. Listening to a speaker, you never know if they are being honest or not.
Stories and examples in the speakers life’s shows that they are an expert on the topic they are
talking about; it shows you that you can trust them. George tells the audience, “What I regret
most in my life are failures of kindness.” Out of many examples he gives, he only regrets this
one, George sharing this statement and the stories he told makes the audience know that he cares
enough to tell them what he knows to be true.
George sharing this story shows his audience that kindness is a great significance to him
and in life. Out of all the topics he could have chosen to share for this commencement speech he
Sarah Heward
Period 7
English 1010
Kill It With Kindness
chose kindness. Why do you think he chose it? He believed it that the audience and people
everywhere should recognize how kindness can change your life. He wanted the audience to
know this. How does that make every listener feel? Every listener feels respected that George
would share something so endearing to him. He genuinely cares about his audience which is true
ethos.
Why do people ask questions? Questions make people think. George uses rhetorical
questions to help the audience to think about what he is talking about and to be engaged on what
he is trying to motivate. One question that George asks is “What’s our problem? Why aren’t we
kinder?” This is effective because it makes the audience think why he is asking this in the first
place. He asked this question to make the audience start thinking about the point he is going to
make later in his speech. The question also makes us ask ourselves the question and try to think
why we aren’t kinder. These simple questions help us recognize how long it is has been since we
have done something kind for someone or how good it felt to be kind. This question makes
people think that they need to work on kindness or keep it up. It reminded others how much they
love to be kind to people and the amazing feeling they get from being kind.
Rhetorical questions can motivate the audience to begin or start something great.
Audience members think about the questions he asked and in result, memories start to flow back
to them. The memories of being kind urges them to start being more kind. He effectively
motivated everyone that listened to his speech to be kinder because they were forced to actively
think about the times they were kind and how it impacts their lives.
“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of
human change. Kindness that catches us by surprise brings out the best in our natures” (Bob
Sarah Heward
Period 7
English 1010
Kill It With Kindness
Kerrey) Everyone loves to be treated kindly and to treat other the same.George Saunders taught
many people that being kind is crucial in life. That kindness can get us far in life. Kindness
changes many lives and also can change the world. George Saunders speech made an impact to
anyone who listened to it. George Saunders motivates his audience to be kinder and teaches his
audience that kindness can get you far in life. He used repetition, parallelism, ethos, and
rhetorical questions to make his audience yearn to make a difference. This speech was very well
written, and it made a change in peoples life to become a better person by being kind.