In the spring of 2013, George Saunders, a creative writing teacher at
Syracuse, delivered a brilliant speech that not only entertained, but also advised a
new set of graduates venturing out into the world. Saunders wished to provide
these young minds with advice that stemmed from his own life experience, giving
them something that could help guide them for the rest of their lives. Simply put,
the goal of this speech was to have the graduates leave the ceremony consciously
making an effort to be more kind in their everyday lives to their fellow man. He
wanted to impart to these students that his only regret in life was not being kinder,
and that they too will regret not being kinder later in life. To deliver this message
with skill, Saunders employs the use of the rhetorical triangle, Kairos, Stasis Theory,
as well as direct tone to persuade his audience to believe in his message.

The key for Saunders's speech to have any affect at all is to first make sure
the crowd remains attentive to what he is saying. While a good audience should
have their mind focused on the speaker, at any given graduation ceremony one
could tell that at least half of the attendants are not paying attention; therefore,
Saunders must keep the audience entertained. He does this by maintaining a
lighthearted and direct tone throughout the speech. 'Down through the ages, a
traditional form has evolved for this type of speech, which is: Some old fart, his best
years behind him, who, over the course of his life, has made a series of dreadful mistakes
(that would be me), gives heartfelt advice to a group of shining, energetic young people,
with all of their best years ahead of them (that would be you),'. The direct
nature of his speech allows for his humor to show through. His use of humor,
particularly directed at himself, not only keeps the speech entertaining, but also
keeps the audience focused, and a focused audience will remember the message of a
speech better than an audience who was not listening to begin with. His tone also
has a double purpose: other than allowing him to appear funny to the audience, the
tone also allows the audience to trust the speaker. This is one of the more powerful
tools in writing because it transforms a piece of writing from empty words to one
with meaning. To elaborate, a person would not follow the advice of a stranger; you
would need to trust them to take stock in the words they were saying. Saunders's
tone does just that; it allows the audience to trust him. Establishing a strong center
of trust between the audience and speaker is one of the most effective ways to
convey a message and therefore aids Saunders in convincing the graduates that they
should live lives of kindness. Since his tone and use of humor not only keep the
audience focused but also allow them to trust Saunders, they are effective in helping
to show the graduates how important it is to be kind throughout their lives.

Tone is not Saunders's only means of gaining the audience's trust, though.
Towards the beginning of the speech, the author includes several allusions to
mistakes he made in his early life. Though he did not regret these mistakes, he tells
about them to show he is human and makes mistakes too. Saunders alludes to being
a 'knuckle- 'puller in a slaughter house' skinny dipping in a river in Sumatra'
humiliating himself at a hockey game in front of the girl he liked'. He does this
not only to show the audience that these mistakes are not the regrets a person
should hold at the end of their life, but also to convey that he is a normal person who
makes mistakes. This is most important because, similar to tone, these stories
establish trust between the speaker and audience. In any type of writing where one
wishes to deliver a message to the audience ethos should be the most used corner of
the rhetorical triangle. Saunders realized this and utilized ethos throughout his
speech to gain the trust of the audience. Since the use of the audience's trust allows
him to deliver his message of kindness to the graduates, it is a most effective
strategy. With this newly gained trust, he can begin to explain why not being kind
enough was one of his greatest regrets, but for that he imparted the use of pathos.

Saunders further continued to use the powers of the rhetorical triangle when
he took a good chunk of the speech to allude once again to his youth. He speaks of a
girl who had few to no friends and was teased daily at school. 'So she came to our
taste good?' ' that sort of thing). I could see this hurt her,'. As he tells this story
the audience empathizes with the young girl, feeling her pain and wishing people
had been kinder to her. This bit of emotion pushes the audience over the edge and
readies them to believe what ever he has to say. The use of this story is key because
it makes the audience realize that they do not want a world where there are sad
children who have no friends; they want a kinder world.

From this point in the speech, Saunders advances to give his advice on how
to be kind and how it will benefit not only the soon to be kinder graduates, but also
those around them. Pathos, when used correctly, can be a very useful tool of
persuasion. When a piece of writing, or in this case a speech, can evoke the emotion
school and our neighborhood, and was mostly ignored, occasionally teased ('Your hair
of the audience it will in turn give the writing meaning to them as well. These stories
might have been the most important part of the speech, however, without proper
organization they would have been meaningless. The author's organization of these
stories is fundamental to proving his point. Without them, the audience would not
have trusted Saunders or been at all interested in what he had to say. However, the
way he chose to lay out his stories allowed him to effectively gain the audience's
trust and willingness to change with his message of being kind throughout one's life.
Therefore the use of the rhetorical triangle through the telling and organization of
the stories was a very effective way for the author to prove his message to the
audience.

As one examines Saunders speech to the graduates it also quickly becomes
apparent that he used Stasis theory as a tool to help show the audience that people
should live a life of kindness. He presents the conjecture near the beginning of the
speech saying people do not live lives of kindness. Instead they pursue of lives of self
interest until later in life when they are old and regretful like him. He provides three
reasons as to why people are selfish, '(1) we're central to the universe' (2) we're
separate from the universe' and (3) we're permanent,'. This is a serious problem
that affects every single person on this planet, even though he only speaks to a small
crowd at a graduation the problem is present everywhere: people are not kind enough to
their fellow man. Saunders then closes his Stasis Theory by reasoning with the audience
to lead a life of kindness. All of us are in this life together and all of us get 'our butts
kicked by life' but instead of banding together, people separate. That is the problem.

Saunders also employs the use of Kairos as a final means of trying make the
audience agree with his purpose. All the elements of Kairos are present here. His timing
is excellent and there is a sense of urgency. He gives this speech at a graduation
ceremony in front of a crowd of graduates eager to go on to college and take on the
world. They are taking the first steps to living the rest of their lives and Saunders has
taken the opportunity to give them some direction as to how they should go about it. His
timing is perfect presenting these young minds with an ideal to grasp on to drive them the
rest of their lives. The urgency is present in the sense that time could be running out. 'We
get our butts kicked by real life, and people come to our defense, and help us, and we
learn that we're not separate, and don't want to be. We see people near and dear to us
dropping away, and are gradually convinced that maybe we too will drop away
(someday, a long time from now). Most people, as they age, become less selfish and
more loving,'. He presents his regrets to show that life moves fast and his greatest
regret was not being kinder to people. His use of the rhetorical proofs in prior paragraphs
has set up his Kairos to create even more of a sense of urgency. This further strengthened
his Kairos in a way as he creates more of an urgent atmosphere than the graduating
situation already presented. Even though his audience is young this idea that life moves
fast also implies that life will end. Like a salesman giving a pitch he has created urgency
and now capitalizes on it. This urgency only helps him get his point across to these
graduates because as they realize life is short and it will end they will want to live it
without any regrets. Since Saunders previously stated his greatest regret was not being
kinder to more people the audience will now take hold of the idea that they should live a
life of kindness so as not to repeat his mistakes.

This would have been a very interesting graduation speech to attend,
especially since graduation ceremonies are typically a very droll few hours.
Saunders would have a been a treat to hear give this great speech that so effectively
utilizes many rhetorical strategies including the following: Kairos, Stasis Theory, use
of the rhetorical triangle, and a direct and humorous tone. I am sure this speech led
to a kinder graduating class, but we could all benefit from listening to what
Saunders had to say about kindness. Perhaps if it was one of an old man's only
regret it would be important enough for us all take the time to think about how we
could be kinder and make this world a kinder one as a whole.

