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Brittany Smith
February 6th, 2018
Professor Arini
English 102-09

Comparative Rhetorical Analysis Rough Draft

Motivational speakers are very common around the world. Everyone sometimes

feel like they need a bit of a pep talk, so they go towards those who will say what you want to

hear. The speakers use many different devices to lure viewers in and captivate their attention.

Whether it be using hand gestures or taking an emotional approach, all speakers do something.

Two very famous speakers in this field are Tony Robbins and Bruce Lipton. They have been

around for many years and both use some of the same devices to get the viewers’ attention.

Bruce Lipton uses his platform to inform those that the brain is far more powerful than

anyone ever thought. Just changing ones mindset can improve their life tremendously, and he

shows how the cells of the body are affected by the person’s thoughts. After discovering how the

cells of the body and the thoughts are connected, Lipton felt the need to share his findings. That

is when he had his exigency moment and spoke out. Following that moment, he wrote a book

called, The Biology of Belief. Lipton's motivation was to share his findings and help those who

need help improving themselves. His main audience would be everyday people. Most scientists

actually believe he is a little crazy and tend to avoid his finding.

Tony Robbins is one of the most famous motivational speakers out there. He uses his

knowledge of the world and motivates people to strive for their goals. A big belief of his is that,

everyone has everything you need in life to achieve your goals, you just need to do it. Some

believe he is a scam artist just trying to make money by saying what the people want to hear.
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Robbins book, Ultimate Power, is one of the best-selling self-help books out there. Just like

Lipton, his audience is just your everyday folks who want to improve their life, status, money,

etc. and want to do it fast. I believe his exigency moment was him wanting to go out and speak to

help those who feel helpless and need someone to tell them what to do.

Both Lipton and Robbins use rhetorical devices on their YouTube video titles as a way to

lure someone in. Tony titled one of his videos, “Tony Robbins on How to Break Your Negative

Thinking” and Bruce titled one of his, “Program Your Mind While You Sleep.” Both of these

titles draws us in because everyone in the world wants to stop thinking negatively, and people

are curious as to what he means by “program your mind”. Using use certain word choice, like in

the video titles, will drive people in and it works in their favor. They both use this word choice

device.

Bruce Lipton uses logos in his books, videos, texts, etc. because he wants to be a credible

source. With his background of schooling where he got his Ph.D. in science, he is more likely to

be more believable when talking about the subject he studied. Credibility is a huge thing in

motivational speaking, because in the end you could say amazing things, but the audience still

might not believe you.

In Tony Robbins book, Tony Robbins’ Money: Master the Game, he goes into depth on

how to create a good financial stance in your life. The summary of the book says, “Based on

extensive research and interviews with some of the most legendary investors at work today (John

Bogle, Warren Buffett, Paul Tudor Jones, Ray Dalio, Carl Icahn, and many others,) Tony

Robbins has created a 7-step blueprint for securing financial freedom.” (Tony, Paragraph four)

This summary of the book will make customers more likely to purchase it because he worked
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with the “most legendary investors” which will build his credibility in that subject. This uses

logos, just like Bruce, by using his knowledge on the subject of money saving to convince the

readers that he knows what he is talking about.

Tony Robbins interacts with the audience by allowing them to speak in front of the crowd

and ask for advice on some of their problems. In the video, “Tony Robbins Saves a Marriage - 8

Minutes,” he is talking to a man who is contemplating divorce and wants Robbins help on saving

his marriage. He uses empathy and he speaks in a soft tone to make them feel like he cares about

his issues, this could be him using pathos. His word choice is important because while talking to

the husband, he asks questions as if he were in his wives shoes. Robbins makes him see how she

feels and leads him towards the discussion he needs to make.

Just like Robbins, Bruce Lipton interacts with his audience by asking them questions on

what they want from life, then answering how to achieve that. In his talk, “Bruce Lipton, Ph.D.

Epigenetics: The Science of Human Empowerment,” he uses repetition because this causes the

things he says to be drilled into the audience’s brains. He also uses humor to keep the viewers

interested in what he is saying. Lipton uses science as his main points, and without humor or

getting the audience involved the viewers could get bored, due to the subject he is talking about.

Since science can be a hard topic to understand for some people, he uses simpler terms and fully

explains what he is talking about to allow the viewers to follow along. This is him knowing his

audience and thus increasing the number of people who will listen to his talks.

While conducting research on these two speakers, there were many articles to read and a

lot of videos to watch. The things they both said make a lot of sense, and at some points they
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were so well-spoken that they convinced me to believe what they were saying. For example,

while reading an article based on an interview with Bruce Lipton's titled, “Healing Meditation:

How to Heal Your Body With Your Mind,” he said, “Your mind controls your biology. That’s

what the placebo effect is about; the mind believes the pill will work and so it does.” (Lipton,

Paragraph Seventeen) He convinced me this is true due to his background in biology and his

intense study into the human mind. His background made him a credible source, and he used

logos to help him persuade the readers to believe what he is saying.

When it comes to Tony Robbins, his article titled, “Accomplish more daily” persuaded

me to organize my life more than I do. In this article, Robbins shows the advantages of creating

to-do lists and showed the readers how to go about doing that. In his bullet point list of the things

you should do, he added to write down what you accomplished last week that you're proud of.

(Robbins, Page One). If you take the time to write down things you did well then it will cause

you to want to do more of it and create a positive mindset. He persuaded me by taking a credible

source and quoted it, “An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing.” (Carnegie,

Paragraph Two) This convinced me because everyone wants to spend the least amount of time

on things they don't want to do.

Rhetoric devices are used in everything you see, hear and speak. They are great ways to

get your point across to those who need convincing on a topic. Without these devices, there

would be no persuasion or motivational speakers. Learning how these speakers use these devices

to their advantage and how they know what will work is very interesting. Rhetoric is a very

significant part of our daily lives and now I can pinpoint when one of the devices is being used

on me.
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Work Cited

“Accomplish More Daily.” Tonyrobbins.com, 11 Dec. 2018, www.tonyrobbins.com/productivity-

performance/accomplish-more-daily/.

DoctorOz. “Tony Robbins on How to Break Your Negative Thinking.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 Aug.

2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJrcJUV8d20.

Lifestyle, Conscious. “Mind Over Matter: How to Heal Your Body With the Power of Meditation.”

Music and the Brain: How Music Affects & Elevates Your Mood, 26 Jan. 2019,

www.consciouslifestylemag.com/healing-meditation-mind-body/.

Meko, AGF. “Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. Epigenetics: The Science of Human Empowerment.”

22 May 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIg7AhfB9_A&t=286s.

“Self Help Books, Tony Robbins Books.” Tonyrobbins.com, www.tonyrobbins.com/tony-robbins-

books/.

YouTube, YouTube, 27 Oct. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqG5TagD0uU&t=29s.

Training, Robbins-Madness. “Tony Robbins Saves A Marriage - 8 Minutes.” YouTube,