A Burkean Analysis Of Steve Jobs's Persuasiveness In 2007 Keynote Speech

Persuasiveness is common feature of business discourse. The business discourses delivered by transnational corporations and their corporate leaders are consistently persuasive,possessing increasing discourse power worldwide. Analyzing their persuasive skill could lead to a better understanding of the language trend and business discourse construction.Adopting a qualitative methodology, this thesis creatively utilizes Burke's Dramatism Theory,analyzes the 2007 keynote speech of Apple CEO Steve Jobs and draws conclusions in Dramatistic and Identification aspect. In the dramatistic analysis, Jobs's emphasis on Act in his speech and the appropriate manipulation of other four dramatistic elements is found. In the identification analysis, the thesis uncovers the consistent usage of identification through ambiguity and the utilization of other two identification skills: identification through antithesis and common ground.