One rubric, applied consistently
How the speech works
- Opening
- Honor and non-graduate self-disclosure, then three-story roadmap.
- Story specificity
- Adoption, calligraphy class, firing, and pancreatic diagnosis give concrete scenes.
- Humor target
- Self; mild competitive jab at Windows.
- Pause and delivery
- Not verified from prepared text.
- Emotional turn
- Career loss becomes renewal; mortality sharpens choice.
- Honoree or partner inclusion
- Names collaborators, parents, Laurene and children.
- Callback
- Return to beginning anew; repeated final wish.
- Closing
- Catalog-derived wish addressed to graduates.
- Audience response
- Not marked in prepared text.