You will choose and critique a Ted Talk. Communications & Media Essay

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TED Talk
Speakers often use a variety of rhetorical techniques to make their presentations effective. The use of rhetorical strategies allows speakers to influence the audience with their messages. One speaker that employed a series of rhetorical appeals to communicate effectively with the audience is Emily Esfahani Smith. In her TED Talk presentation titled “There's more to life than being happy,” she uses ethos, pathos, and logos as she talks to the audience about finding meaning in life. This paper examines how Smith uses these rhetoric appeals to deliver her message in the TED Talk presentation and that her usage of these appeal was effective in persuading the audience to accept the message she was passing across.
A key rhetorical strategy that Smith employs in the delivery of her presentation is ethos. Through a series of ethical appeals Smith tries to convince the members of the audience of her credibility as well as that of the sources of her information. According to Verderber, Sellnow, and Verderber, the members of the audience are more likely to be persuaded when they perceive the speaker to be credible and competent (283). At the beginning of her presentation, Smith informs the audience that she decided to go to graduate school for positive psychology to learn about what makes people happy. The speaker, in this case, convinces the audience that she is qualified to talk about happiness. By mentioning that she studied positive psychology, it is deducible that the audience is convinced of her competence and credibility in speaking about happiness. The effectiveness of this ethos is enhanced by the fact that she used it at the beginning of her presentation. In this sense, members of the audience would be convinced of her credibility right from the start.
Further use of ethos is shown when Smith conveys the definition of “meaning” to her audience. She quotes a renowned American psychologist, Martin Seligman, in her definition of the word. The use of evidence from respected sources is a key way of conveying competence and credibility (Verderber, Sellnow and Verderber 283). Smith conveys her competence and credibility also when she points out that she spent five years interviewing hundreds of people and reading thousands of pages of materials to find out how people can live more meaningfully. This was effective in making the audience more attentive because it increased her competence and credibility. Smith also quotes the psychologist Dan McAdams when informing the audience about redemptive story while explaining her fourth pillar of meaningful life. By quoting the psychologist, Smith communicates to the audience that the message she’s conveying is credible. It can be seen, therefore, that Smith used ethos to demonstrate her inherent authority on the subject and also drew on the ethos of others who are experts in the field. Right from the beginning of the speech and throughout her presentation, Smith successfully establishes he authority to speak on the subject.
The speaker also uses logos to make her presentation effective. As the presentation starts, Smith points out that after going to study positive psychology, she found out that data shows that chasing happiness can make people unhappy. The mentioning of data, in this case, indicates the use of logos in her presentation. Another use of logical appeal appears at the beginning of her presentation when she provides statistics about suicide rates. She notes that the suicide rates have been rising around the world and i...