Neil Gaiman Commencement Address

Neil Gaiman’s Commencement Speech

Neil Richard Gaiman is a well-known British author, screenwriter, producer of comic books, and voice actor. He uses his status as a professional who never attended university to pass on the flame of success to the young graduates. A commencement speech, as convention dictates, is often used to mark the start of something new. In this situation, the commencement speaker, who has never attended university, uses his right to address the crowd, as opposed to most formal addresses, to connect with the graduates and convey the desired message.

Neil’s Introduction as a Self-Made Professional

Neil begins his introduction as a self-made professional. He never thought of talking to graduates of higher education since he never set foot at a university. To him, four years of college were stifling thus, chose to “escape” and forge his own path. By doing so, he creates rapport with his audience which is made up of the graduates’ class of 2012 from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He inspires them to make art out of their mistakes. He notes that “Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in friendship and in health and in all other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, Make good art. I’m serious, make good art. Husband run off with a politician? Make good art, Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa? Make good art” In this case, repetition of the punchline “Make good art” is used to emphasize he intended to pass in the address.

Insight into Uncertain Futures

In his well-orchestrated and executed speech, Neil uses his experiences to give the graduates insight into their uncertain futures. Rather than focusing on their academic achievements, he used his flashbacks to pass his commencement speech. As he quotes, “when you start off, you have to deal with the problems of failure. You need to be thick-skinned, to learn that not every project will survive”. He explains the pitfalls that they are likely to encounter but also, he encourages them by advising how to overcome these challenges at the beginning of their careers.

Appealing to Reasoning

To appeal to the reasoning of the audience, he satirically advises them on how to make their work worthy. He shows them a world of possibilities resulting from hard work. Neil applies logos to engage the audience in reasoning together. As denoted “The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not. He reasons with them on matters concerning decision making so that they can achieve their career goals. Logos builds up a concise, clear and logical argument which substantiates the message being relayed.

Appealing to Emotions

To appeal to emotions, he uses necessary information to give them some momentum into making mistakes. ”People who know what they are doing know the rules, and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should not. The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can“. The pathos approach is an efficient way of passing the intended message. It draws the audience into the belief that they are capable of doing the extraordinary irrespective of how ordinary they seem. By Appealing to their emotions, Neil effectively gets them on his side as they receive some daring advice which would lead to success in their career paths. This creates an emotional connection between the speaker and the audience.

Using Status and Credibility

Neil further takes advantage of the power he has due to his status as a great artist. He creates credibility thus calling for respect from the audience. Since he is talking from experience, his words are more from a fair-minded person making his words believable. He tends to pass some valuable knowledge to the audience on the workforce they are about to join. ”I’ve talked to people at the top of the food chain in publishing, in bookselling, in all those areas, and nobody knows what the landscape will look like two years from now, let alone a decade away.“. From this excerpt, he further encourages the graduates to make mistakes because the errors show they are doing something with their lives.

Using Allusion

Neil also uses allusion to support his arguments. ”and I suggested she pretend that she was someone who could do it. Not pretend to do it, but pretend she was someone who could“. This creates imagery which attracts attention and acts as a recommendation to doing some actions.

The Power of Rhetoric

Just like all other persuasive speeches, Neil utilizes the rhetorical aspects of ethos, pathos, and logos to deliver a worthwhile address. He captures the necessary attention required to pass his keynote and ends up influencing the whole world by the speech.

A Speech Worth Remembering

Considering how tough it is to deliver a commencement speech, Neil Gaiman knew how to capture the attention of his audience and pass his message of making good art out of every circumstance. He adequately utilized the Rhetorical Triangle and delivered a speech worth more than what a lecture could have ever yielded.

Works Cited

Gaiman, Neil Richard. Make Good Art. .