RCL #8:

My speech is Steve Job’s iPhone introduction speech in 2007.

Steve Jobs uses a variety of techniques and rhetorical strategies on stage when introducing the iPhone. These include but are not limited to humor, compelling visuals, and the challenge of commonplaces the audience held about what a mobile device could be.

Steve Job’s humor is what he started off with. The entire speech is littered with jokes that poke fun at the industry and what people thought his new “advancement” would be. In fact, one of the first photos he showed on stage was this:

It’s hilarious but it also illustrates a point Steve had for his audience. The technology he was about to demo had never been seen before. People really didn’t know what to expect. This allowed him to create this humous moment while building suspense for the actual announcement of this product.

Second, his visuals were compelling. Everything about the presentation said “rehearsed” and “polished.” Steve knew what every single slide was and where it should come up in his presentation. The slides in question never wasted space and most importantly weren’t repetitive to the information that was in Steve’s speech. They only emphasized or added to this point.

Third, Steve challenged the audience’s commonplaces of what a mobile device could be. Steve would often bring up different commonplaces in the industry. E.g. “We’re gonna use a stylus.
No. No. Who wants a stylus?” and “What we gonna do is get rid of all these buttons [keyboards at the bottom of phones] and just make a giant screen.” People didn’t know what to expect from this new phone. Steve challenged existing problems with “smartphones” and then presented a revolutionary solution. By first addressing the commonplaces that people hold about what a mobile phone could be Steve made his “solutions” all the more powerful and impactful.