Anatomy of a commencement speech

We combed through dozens of inspirational, funny, and memorable commencement speeches and found the best ones follow a surprisingly similar pattern comprising eight distinct parts. Listen to the anatomy of a graduation address above and click on the links below to watch any of the speeches in full.

• Will Ferrell at University of Southern California, 2017
• Stephen Colbert at Northwestern University, 2011
• Jon Stewart at the College of William & Mary, 2004
• Kerry Washington at George Washington University, 2013
• Conan O'Brien at Dartmouth College, 2011
• Jim Carrey at Maharishi University of Management, 2014
• Toni Morrison at Wellesley College, 2004
• Peter Dinklage at Bennington College, 2012
• Shonda Rhimes at Dartmouth College, 2014
• Steve Jobs at Stanford University, 2005
• Natalie Portman at Harvard University, 2015
• David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College, 2005
• Ellen DeGeneres at Tulane University, 2009