Some of you may have heard of Randy Pausch. He was a beloved professor at Carnegie Mellon University that passed away in 2008. Roughly one year before his death he delivered his Last Lecture. This is a speaking opportunity that a professor is honored with, usually upon his retirement. For Dr. Pausch he was retiring because he was gravely ill. This speech he delivered is about one hour and fifteen minutes long and has been viewed over 19 million times. It has been studied by rhetoricians (social scientists who study famous speeches), published in academic journals, and even turned into a book.

This speech is regarded as one of the best and most moving speeches ever given and Dr. Pausch has been noted as an incredibly gifted speaker and communicator.

The assignment:

Watch The Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo … then using the material you learned this semester write a minimum of a two page paper describing what you think made Dr. Pausch such a good communicator. Discuss bits from the speech you found especially moving and explain what makes the entire speech appealing to over 19 million people. Why is it still being studied? What is it about Dr. Pausch’s message that has led to it reaching so many people?  Incorporate as many ideas and concepts covered in class as possible.  For example, did you see examples of his use of language, body language, or emotion to reach his audience?

This paper is your opportunity to stretch your intellectual legs, so to speak. I want to see what you learned so far in this course, and how you can apply it to a wildly famous speech. I want to see you answer more than just the questions I asked above.

 -If I suspect that you only watched the first few minutes of the speech I will not accept the paper. I expect to see a comprehensive understanding of his speech.

The technical parts:

– An absolute minimum of two full pages of text (I recommend you type a couple of lines onto page three just to be safe)

– 12 point font, Times new roman, double space, 1 inch margins

– edit, edit, edit…it must be a clean copy, free of grammatical errors. If it looks like a rough draft I will treat it as such.

– A title page – do not type your name at the top of the first page of text as an attempt to take up space.

– No references are required, but if you consult any outside sources (other than your textbook) you must credit your sources by citing them both within the text of your essay and on a separate references page.