Cultural Rhetoric

The speech starts out with a sad paragraph about the past deaths due to heat waves and other things related to the effects of climate change. He goes on to use quotes and data proving the effects of this, he says that it is hard for most people to explain climate change in a way that the average mind can understand why they should believe. After hearing what he had to say about this topic, I was slightly more informed but i still do not believe it entirely. I still think it’s there and I do want to bring more attention to the issue so we can research how urgent this is. The speaker uses ethos when citing who he is and his scientific background, pathos when giving statistic from other credible scientists, and logos when referencing the deaths caused by climate change.

I actually enjoy watching TEDTalks in my free time, I think they're fascinating. One day I came across a TEDTalks called "what happens when you have a disease doctors cannot diagnose”. It's about a woman named Jennifer Brea, 33, and how she has a disease called chronic fatigue syndrome. She began by speaking about her life five years before that day and how she was a PhD student at Harvard, she loved traveling, and was engaged. One day she had a fever of 104.7. She didn't think anything of it and one day her fever broke, she became so dizzy that she couldn’t even get out of bed or walk to the bathroom. She went to the doctor and he told her nothing was wrong, but it got worse and she lost ability to write certain letters or draw complete circles. Sometimes she couldn't speak or move and she went to multiple specialists for everything you could think of. One day she walked 2 miles home from the neurologist and when she walked in the door she collapsed and her bra...

Steve Jobs has always been of interest to me because of his influence to many people. His work from being the CEO of Apple has really impacted a lot of people. Almost everyone knows who Steve Jobs is and what he has accomplished; being the founder of the world’s largest information technology company by revenue, by total assets, and by phone manufacturing. By 2014, this large-scale company has been the first to be valued at $700 billion. This TED talk that I found is called; “How to live before you die,” and it is a speech given by Steve Jobs. He doesn’t say anything too complicated. In fact, all he does is tell a story. Steve Jobs and his parents were not the wealthy family back in his school days. While unsure of a career, he attended a college in which he couldn’t afford, making him drop out. However, he could attend a class on typography for computers and this interested him. This lead Jobs on to the development of the first Macintosh pc. As Apple soared high for about a ye...

In this debate, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were asked about Roe vs. Wade and late term abortions. Trump takes the stance that abortion should be illegal while Hillary defends women having the right to choose. Trump avoids the speaker’s first question by dancing around his answer about overturning the Roe v Wade agreement while Hillary is very adamant that she strongly supports Roe v Wade. Hillary immediately accuses Trump of using “scare” rhetoric when he describes abortion as “ripping a baby out of its womb”. I believe that personal beliefs should have been set aside and the concerns of society should have been their main focus. There did not seem to be many instances of rhetoric used during this debate as it was more straight forward with the opinions of the opposing sides. Pathos was present slightly on Hillary’s behalf when she gets deeper into the emotional stress the choice of abortion is for women. In conclusion I would agree that Trump did use scare rhetoric but on ...

I remember, quite some time ago I was introduced to a Ted talk titled “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” It is still one of the most popular Ted talks ever published to date, and not without reason. The speech was by a man named Sir Ken Robinson, and he is, quite frankly, one of the most brilliant speakers I’ve heard in my life. He has an uproarious sense of humor, with a large helping of sarcasm, but at the same time, he can communicate a very serious message. His speech, as his title suggests, is about how the school system effectively educates society out of creativity. He walks onto the stage at the very beginning seeming rather awkward, even confused, and begins addressing the conference members about the events prior to his speech. It seems irrelevant at first, but he artfully brings it back to education, the topic of his speech. This seemingly clumsy opening gives a sense of exposure. It gives an impression that he is up-front, and not some genius that we can never live up to. T...

The speech I decided to write about is president John F. Kennedy's Civil Rights Announcement, given June 11, 1963. In this speech, Kennedy speaks about the racial inequality taking place in America at the time for African Americans. He begins with an example of injustice that had taken place at the University of Alabama. Two black residents had to be admitted to the University by the National Guard, even though they undoubtably had the necessary qualifications. The case had to be decided in court. President Kennedy spoke of how this was unfair to the students, who should be permitted to attend whichever school they desire without being escorted by military. He made the point that when our country is in need of troops, we do not ask for only whites, so why do we treat anyone with any less respect because of the color of their skin? The president asked that ever man, no matter what color they are or where they come from, to examine his conscience regarding the matter of racial ine...

For this quarter’s identification of rhetoric, I chose a Ted talk by Gabe Zichermann called, “Gamification”. His argument is that games make children smarter. In the beginning of his speech he goes back in time telling the audience his experience with games as a kid. He also gets the crowd interested by making a quick joke as well. Zichermann owns a company that has to deal with games heavily and he even has his own business going for it. In his argument he mentions these things in which you could arguably say he established some kind of ethos. He then goes on to mention the facts and statistics from different scientist and doctors from colleges. This says that he has done his research on his topic and he must be trustworthy. The use of facts and statistics better established logos more than any other thing in his speech. As a listener you can also tell by the structure he uses logos. He has his opening, body, and conclusion. After doing his own studies, he came to a question. “Is th...

I watched a TED Talk by a man named Daniel Levitin. He talked about a few ways to stay calm for when you know you will be stressed. He started off with a story about how he returned home one night at around midnight. It was freezing cold and he realized he had left his house keys inside on his kitchen table. Stressed and cold he had no other option than to break in. He took a rock, breaking his basement window and crawling in. He expressed how he had an early flight the next morning so when he was headed to the airport, he realized he forgot his passport. He drove back quickly to retrieve it, making it back just in time to board the plane. Even though his seat was given to someone else and he had to sit in the back of the plane on a seat that didn’t recline for eight hours, he began to think about stress and how it affects the body. He goes on to say that he is a neuroscientist and explains how our body releases something called cortisol which is the stress hormone. When this happen...

On February of 2006 in Monterey California, Rick Warren gave a speech at the TED center about “A Life of Purpose”. Warren starts off by introducing himself as the author of  “The Purpose Driven Life” and goes on to say that he is often asked why so many people are still reading the book even several months or so later. The reason he gives is because the world is faced every day with “spiritual emptiness”. This kind of hit me; God is not physically present and often times it is hard to know that He is there. We long for Him and we have this “spiritual emptiness” that needs to be filled because without Him we really do not have a purpose. Rick Warren says that we live day to day saying, “I’m living”, but what happens is we wake up, go to school, come home, do homework, eat dinner, watch tv, and then go to bed. In the end nothing ever changes. What is the point of all that? What do we get in the end? What’s our purpose? There has to be more to life. The truth is, we DO matter, we DO h...

Donovan Livingston graduated from Harvard University in 2016. He was asked to speak at the graduation so he did. Donovan wrote a poem called “Lift Off”. In it he spoke of his life. His ancestors and slavery. He spoke of a new hope. A hope that kids can have to reach for the stars and to be up with them. He spoke of how each and every person has the ability to succeed and to exceed any expectations set for them. In his closing line, Livingston said “They say that the sky's the limit, but it is only the beginning. Lift off.” His speech was one of power and he used many rhetorical devices. Livingston was a Harvard graduate and to establish himself more as a speaker he talked about how he had given a similar type of speech at his high school graduation. He used pathos when talking about his life. About what he was like in school and how his teacher used his energy to make him a great speaker. The logos used was that he was one of the top members in his class and so he knew what he ...

P.W. Singer in his Ted Talk discussed robotics in warfare and the repercussions that robotics could have on warfare and the perception of war. He presents his reasoning for what he says and it’s either based in history, like his point of there being no permanent first maneuver advantage or it being based in what is presently going on in the field of military robotics, like several projects handling aspects of fully autonomous weapon systems. He also keeps the audience interested with the occasional joke such as the a certain actor that was a governor showing up at your door. He is a military analyst and as such is an expert on how various things impact warfare. He speaks somewhat informally and uses hand gestures to highlight some of his important points. He makes heavy use of visual aids to really show that some of this stuff is real and currently in use. Overall he warns of the dangers that this leap in technology could bring, such as a decrease in the consequences of war. He also...

In March of 2015, Laura Schulz spoke for a TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her subject of discussion: babies. Maybe some would be confused by this, seeing how TED is a foundation all about ideas, innovation and advancement. How could a baby, the very beginning of human life, the kind of person least aware of or concerned with cultural development, relate to any of those pillars? Schulz explains that young children are actually just as involved, if not more so, in growth, understanding and developing minds. It is apparent that children begin to comprehend things at an astonishingly high rate after they are born. However, this TED talk further reveals that babies as young as 15-months are already capable of matching what adult scientists attempt to do each day. That is, babies are fully able to draw plausible conclusions from small amounts of data before they can even speak their own names. Schulz’s speech was very informative, well organized, and thoroughly supported ...

This quarter I watched a Ted Talk done by Aimee Mullins. Aimee Mullins is a double amputee who doesn't have the bottom parts of both her legs. She was born without fibulas in both her legs. She did a talk on how she overcame that obstacle in her path and went to the Paralympics. She started out by telling the audience about her academic scholarship to Georgetown, this was the path which took her straight to the Paralympics. When she was at Georgetown she became interested in Track and Field, being an athletic girl she excelled in the sport. The coach of the team took time to train her personally, and she was blessed with the gift of new running legs. With the help of her coach, she made it to the Paralympics within a year of beginning to run competitively. She faced many struggles in races, but she never let that stop her. Her story is inspiring many today who are either paralegals or amputees. This was a very encouraging speech and has shined a new light for me on the subject...

I was going through YouTube, try to find a video of a speech or a debate. And I thought that it would be good to watch TED Talks, because we watched several to talk during rhetoric class. So I saw this playlist that says, “10 funniest TED Talks.” I clicked on it and it played the first video. A woman named Maysoon Zayid started the speech with jokes. She was born disabled with palsy, and the doctor said she won’t be able to walk. She has 4 sisters, so when the sisters went to a public school, she also went to the public school instead of going to special school. Her parents taught her how to walk when she was 5. Her parents didn’t give up on her. They treated her like a normal person. She told about her life story, chasing her dream being actress. But after she became famous, the social media brought her down, just because she has palsy, in other words, she was disabled. And at the end, she said she is here standing up, achieved her goal, even though the doctor said she will not be a...

This past Tuesday, February 28th, Donald Trump gave his first address to congress. Trump’s speech was considered by most as a massive success for any President, let only one that has historically low approval ratings. In fact, the approval rating for his speech, at seventy percent, is almost double his actual approval rating at forty-three percent. The speech mainly consisted of Trump elaborating on his vague presidential platform. He urged congress to replace Obamacare, support his new government agency V.O.I.C.E. ( Victims of Immigration Crime Enforcement office), and spend one trillion dollars on infrastructure. The reason Trump’s speech was so successfully was because it was the first time that he seemed presidential. The speech, which was mostly scripted, kept Trump from saying any outrageous statements, similar to the ones that got him elected. Trump’s speech was full or rhetorical examples, which is unusual for someone that speaks so exhaustingly without giving much thought...

In this Ted Talk, Wanis Kabbaj describes a world where there are no traffic jams and how beneficial it could be. He begins his speech with pictures of cities with different scenarios, which is a good way to grab the audience’s attention. He continues to use pictures throughout his speech to help portray what he is saying. Wanis brings up the idea of flying cars and how a company known as “Air Bus” has been successful in creating urban flying taxis. Although flying cars could solve traffic jams, he points out a better way to eliminate traffic. He compares transportation with the vascular system and informs the audience that red blood cells use up all the space they can without creating jams. This is the way he thought transportation should look like. Wanis thinks that it is possible to create vehicles that combine the convenience of cars with the efficiency that trains and buses possess. He designed a train in his head that is made up of several wagons. The wagons can detach dynamical...

Last night, i watched on youtube a very unusual video for me. I watched a Ted talk, called “Why you should talk to strangers,” by Kio Stark. She talked about how in many western societies, we are told from a very young age, that strangers are people to avoid. That strangers can hurt us, and are just non desirables, in a sense. But her argument was that talking to strangers, can actually have a very different effect than we think it does, or should. She attempted to persuade her listeners to realize that talking to strangers, can make you feel understood, in a different way than a friend or even family member can. She talked about how just starting a fleeting conversation with a random person on your street, can make you feel accepted as a person, and feel like someone understands you. She pointed out that even though you only talk to strangers for usually a few minutes, those few minutes can feel very pleasing, and important. Her argument seemed very reasonable, since she shared pers...

On Tuesday February 28th President Trump gave what was called the most important speech his young presidency. This speech was his Address to Congress and he used it to address the nation on what he has been working on and will be continuing to work on in the coming months. This speech was quite well received and far from Trump’s usual laughable rhetoric. His speech was much more presidential than normal and mainly stayed away from his campaign propaganda, although he did mention “Make America Great Again” one time. He very effectively used ethos, pathos, and logos in his speech and these were very easy to notice. His speech included ethos when the politicians in the room would stand and applaud after Trump would state one of his goals. The Vice President, Mike Pence, and Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, both made it clear that they would give a standing ovation to every point that Trump made and appear as supportive as possible. All the Republican representatives would do the same...

The speech I watched was a Ted Talk presented by one of my favorite music artists, who just so happens to be a Christian rapper.  This rapper’s name is Lecrae Moore, but he just goes by Lecrae.  Over the past five years or so, Lecrae has been able to break out of the small box that Christian music and Christian rap have been put in, and he has been able to get his music out to all types of crowds.  So I was actually pretty excited when I saw that he had spoken at a Ted Talk in Nashville.  The speech he delivered was titled, “Heroes and Villains: Is Hip-Hop a Cancer or a Cure?”  In this speech Lecrae talked about how it is easy to look at certain people in history and label them as heroes or villains, but he talks about how not everyone views historical figures the same.  Lecrae started off by defining where we get the words, “Hero” and “Villain”.  Knowing the origin of these words really gave good context for what came to follow.  He then went o...

The debate I watched was a Ted Talk about nuclear energy. It was a debate between 3 different people. The debate started by taking a vote to see how much of the audience supported nuclear energy and how much of the audience despised it. One of the speakers has a use of ethos, by telling about his background to make him seem much more smart and credible. They also used pathos to effect the audience's emotion by telling of all of the negative side effects of nuclear energy. They used a lot of data charts to show that what they were talking about which helped a lot. I personally think that we should try to be more eco-friendly with our energy. Nuclear energy is extremely harmful to the environment. I think that we should switch to wind energy, or even solar energy. Wind energy may take up a lot of space, and solar energy may be expensive but they would both be so much better for the environment. At the end of the video they asked people to raise their hands if they changed their mi...