Your essay should be clearly organized, with a specific thesis, clear topic sentences, and effective transitions between ideas. Information from your TED Talk and any other sources need to be properly integrated into your text, and the sources should be properly cited on a separate Works Cited page that appears as the last page of your final Word file.
The paper should be formatted in Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, and your last name and page number in the upper right-hand corner.
INSTRUCTIONS:
For this essay, you will use the TED Talk assigned to you and thoroughly unpack its use of ethos, logos, and pathos, to persuade its viewer/audience. To do so, you will need to reference rhetorical terms and provide detailed examples by quoting the speaker, discussing those quotations, and providing your analysis of them.
You are “unpacking” this talk to interrogate its effectiveness at persuasion. You are NOT arguing.
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Rhetorical Analysis TED Talk
Persuasion is a method used in both written and spoken communication to help convince the listeners to support certain viewpoints or to participate in actions that promote a specific cause. Writers or speakers often utilize logical arguments, statistics, or emotions in the persuasion process. Additionally, they may use their credibility, character, and authority to further convince their listeners. Pathos, ethos, and logos are the main modes of persuasion where speakers appeal to emotions, ethics, and rationality respectively (Ting 234-235). The purpose of this essay is to analyze the use of pathos, ethos, and logos in the TED Talk about public safety presented by Tracie Keesee. Ethos, pathos, and logos were used in the talk to connect with the audience and present arguments using evidence and facts about the relationship between the police and the community.
Ethos
When using ethos, speakers or writers need to establish their trustworthiness and credibility (Varpio 208). In the talk, Keesee applied ethos by using her credibility to illustrate that she has the authority to speak about the topic. Keesee is both a police officer and an African-American woman hence she has the authority to speak for both sides: the side of law enforcers and the side of African Americans, a community that does not trust law enforcers due to current and historical injustices. Keesee used the concept of similitude which according to Varpio, entails creating a sense of mutual identification using pronouns such as ‘us’ or ‘we’ to illustrate commonality with the audience. The main benefit of similitude is that it helps develop a sense of community and enhances cohesion (207-208). For instance, Keesee stated, “We also have to examine our current policing practices, and we have to set those things aside that no longer serve us” (02:03). In the statement, Keesee aligns herself with the police and the community hence she is part of the individuals responsible for implementing safe policing practices which helps her create a social connection with the audience. Therefore, using similitude, Keesee convinces the audience that she is an authority and the topic she is presenting merits attention.
Apart from similitude, speakers can demonstrate ethos when they deference the works of other individuals (Varpio 208). For example, Keesee stated, “So in the 1970s, Elinor Ostrom came up with this theory, really called coproduction, and this is how it works. You bring people into the space that come with separate expertise, and you also come with new ideas and lived experience, and you produce new knowledge” (02:33). The statement illustrates that Keesee showed respect for Ostrom’s invention by acknowledging the concept of co-production and further illustrating how to use the concept to improve public safety.
Logos
Speakers and writers demonstrate logos when they appeal to rationality using logic and clarity. Logos is based on the reasoning that connects the elements of the arguments presented in a speech together (Varpio 208-209). In the talk, Keesee demonstrates logos by making her arguments easy to understand and ensuring that her arguments are justified using practical reasons and examples. For instance, Keesee introduces the concept of co-production and illustrates strategies that may be used by both the police and the members of the community to promote safety. She described how people in the community can work with the neighborhood coordinating officers to solve problems in the community. Keesee also explained how police officers can improve the co-production process by understanding the power they hold, setting aside harmful historical narratives, and dealing with implicit bias. Moreover, Keesee also described why officers should be supported by leaders and the importance of dealing with social issues such as education and mental health that affect police officers. By describing the role of all stakeholders in the community, Keesee logically illustrates that co-production is all about working together.
Logos also includes ensuring that the audience can follow the reasoning of the speaker and may entail the use of words such as ‘next’, ‘first’, and ‘alternatively’ (Varpio 209). When concluding the talk, Keesee summarized her speech in three points to ensure that the audience understood the speech. She stated:
The first one: There’s no more wallowing in the why. We know why. We must move forward together. There’s no more us versus them. Number two: We must embrace the lived experience and our histories, and we must make sure we never go back to a place where we cannot move forward. And number three: We must also make sure that truth and telling facts are painful. But we also know that no action is no longer acceptable. And agree? (08:43 – 09:25)
Therefore, Keesee was able to summarize her points in a manner that would be easy for the audience to remember.
Pathos
Pathos entails emotional appeal where the speech triggers emotions in the audience and is an effective way of making the message relatable or personal to connect with an audience. Speakers or writers use pathos in various ways including using titles or introductions that grab the audience’s attention and invoke a sense of duty or responsibility (Varpio 209). At the beginning of the speech, Keesee used a picture of people demonstrating justice. The U.S. has a history of policing injustices and there are numerous instances where people have protested against them. The photograph was a perfect way of invoking the audience’s emotions regarding policing, public safety, and justice. Throughout the speech, Keesee also invokes the duty that the members of the community have towards improving public safety. For instance, Keesee stated, “We also have to acknowledge that we have put faith in a system that sometimes is broken, hoping that it would give us solutions for better. But we cannot walk away. Because there is a better way” (7:41-8:11). This statement invokes a sense of duty within the audience by illustrating that it is their role to help create a safe community and that walking away is not a solution. Therefore, by appealing to emotion, Keesee elicits feelings of responsibility in the audience which is necessary for persuasion.
Conclusion
Keesee successfully used ethos, pathos, and logos to connect with the audience and to ensure that they understood her reasoning about the use of coproduction to improve public safety. She utilized ethos by establishing her credibility and trustworthiness to speak on public safety based on her career (police officer) and race (African American). She applied logos by presenting logical arguments supported by examples of how co-production can help improve public safety. She applied pathos by using emotional triggers such as a picture of people demonstrating justice and invoking the audience’s responsibility to participate in improving public safety. Therefore, based on the analysis, Keesee’s talk was very effective at persuasion.
Works Cited
Keesee, Tracie. “How Police And The Public Can Create Safer Neighborhoods Together”. Ted.Com, 2018, https://www.ted.com/talks/tracie_keesee_how_police_and_the_public_can_create_safer_neighborhoods_together.
Ting, Su. “Ethos, Logos, and Pathos in University Students’ Informal Requests”. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, 2018, pp. 234-251. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM Press), https://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2018-1801-14.
Varpio, Lara. “Using Rhetorical Appeals to Credibility, Logic, and Emotions to Increase Your Persuasiveness”. Perspectives on Medical Education, vol. 7, no. 3, 2018, pp. 207-210. Springer Science and Business Media LLC, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-018-0420-2.