Commencement speech is a distinct type of public speaking.It has attracted the attention of scholars in the field of linguistics for a long time.Studies on commencement speeches has a strong enlightenment and appreciation value in terms of language and education.Previous scholars have analyzed commencement speeches from the perspectives of stylistics，pragmatics，appraisal theory and system functional grammar.However，they have rarely studied commencement speeches from the rhetorical perspective.Using Madeleine Albright's commencement speech at Mount Holyoke College in 1997 as an example，this paper analyze the choices Albright makes to convey her message to the audience from the perspective of rhetoric.