Commentary on Education until Eighteen

Education until Eighteen was a speech that our class was required to write on the topic of Education. I chose to write mine on the fact that it is now compulsory to stay in education until you are eighteen years old. The aim of the task was to practice writing with persuasive techniques.

I chose to have my audience be mainly the generation that have to stay until they are eighteen this year and to any one that it will then apply to. My audience needed to be this demographic, because it was where I would acquire the most response. If the audience was any older then the subject matter wouldn’t apply. Because this was my chosen audience I used the synthetic pronoun ‘you’ – this also gives it a more personal feel, to give the effect that I am talking directly to them.

My starting sentences begin with ‘Eighteen years’ this is to put emphasis on the length of time that we are to stay in education. It also reiterates the point getting it stuck in the minds of the readers, because it is also directly what I’m talking about it introduces the audience to the topic and what to expect for the rest of the speech.

I address the audience with ‘some of you’ this is identifying with a certain group of people; again it is a way of personalising the speech with a way of indirect address. It also doesn’t apply to all people, but even for those it doesn’t apply to it makes them interested to hear about a different perspective, which is something that I repeat later on in the speech. (Talking to the different kinds of learners that will be affected either in a positive or negative way by the change of the age that you can leave education.)

In an attempt to grasp the audience’s attention I have tried to use humour – this can be done through the pauses and the emphasis on certain points. My use of ellipsis; “French is now compulsory to get into university…oh wait; no it isn’t.” has been used to accentuate the change in mind of the government.

“Our future is in the lives of these grown-ups that have decided, by seemingly some divine right, that they know better than we do about how we learn.” This shows use of hyperbole to gain the support of the audience. This is effective because by exaggerating the circumstances it invokes a more passionate response from the audience.

Whereas throughout the speech I have tried to appeal to many different groups of students, in the final paragraph I give my personal view, by building up the support of the audience throughout the length of my speech, the ending where I share my opinion is more likely to be received with support. Essentially I have appealed to the audiences, by doing so, making the audience think that my opinion is important. Not necessarily the right one, but one that deserves to be heard.