Denzel Washington delivered a very powerful and motivational speech for the students of the University of Pennsylvania. He utilized logos, personal anecdotes and humor to appeal to the audience’s emotions, as well as good organization in order to preview his speech and give the audience an idea of what is to come. He also addressed his audience throughout the speech and invited them to fail through his use of rhetoric. His main point was that failure is necessary in order to learn and succeed.

The one area which Denzel Washington could have improved in was eye contact with the audience. Towards the end of the speech, he read almost directly off of his paper. Otherwise, his speech was very well performed and delivered well overall. He spoke fluidly, and conversationally while using hand gestures to emphasize his main points. He kept his speech extremely engaging and not monotonous at all.

Denzel started his speech by describing famous people who have failed prior to succeeding. He described how Thomas Edison conducted 1000 failed experiments but nobody knows that that because the 1001 experiment created the lightbulb. He talked about how Reggie Jackson struck out 2600 times in his baseball career but nobody remembered the strike-outs. People only remembered the home runs. Denzel then went on to describe how every failure is one step closer to success both in the cases of famous people like Thomas Edison or even his own self.

He appealed to his audience’s emotions extremely well by taking into consideration their age and the point they are at in their lives. As young adults, it is sometimes very hard to wrap your head around the fact that you will fail and that no matter how much training or schooling you have gone through, you will still lose, suck, or embarrass yourself at something. He gave anecdotal evidence of the many times he has failed through his acting career and used a sense of humor to keep the audience members engaged and interested. Denzel also talked about the story of ghosts representing unfulfilled potential, ideas never acted upon and talents never used. He went on and asked the audience members how many ghosts will be around them once their time comes? This was not only a call for action but a way of appealing to their emotions and their hopes for the future. Denzel was ultimately encouraging the recent graduates to always maximize their potential and never give up on anything they are passionate about. He wanted the graduates to do something with their dreams and talents throughout their lives instead of bringing empty aspirations to the graves with them.

Furthermore, Denzel Washington’s preview was very effective in his speech; “You have to take risks and I want to talk to you about why that’s so important. I have three reasons.” He laid out his reasons really clearly throughout his speech and expanded on why he chose those reasons to talk about. By using anecdotal evidence of those reasons, his argument was effective and appealing.