What Makes a Good Ted Talk

Ted Talks are videos of people who give speeches through an organization called Ted. These videos and speeches are called Ted Talks. Many famous people have done Ted Talks such as Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and Stephen Hawking. The point of a Ted Talk is to convey a message or bring awareness to certain topic. There are many characteristics that make up a good Ted Talk and these points are crucial to creating a good, well written Ted Talk.

First, the speaker must be very passionate about what he or she is talking about. This person usually has prior knowledge on the topic. If someone is passionate about their topic it will result in a better speech, the person’s attitude throughout the speech will be cheerful and positive. When a speaker has a captivating attitude during a speech, the viewers will stay engaged and will believe that you really know what you are talking about.

Second, going along with what I stated above about how the speaker will want to do a speech on something they have prior knowledge on, the speaker will want to have credibility. This credibility could come from research or the speaker may have done or worked on something relating to their topic. These examples can come in forms of ethos. For example, one  Ted Talk we watched there was a man who did 7 years of research and interviewed 500 people. When he stated this he established credibility, credibility will reassure your viewers that what you are saying is reliable and it is not just your single opinion. This is why when giving a speech you do not want to sound bias. If you sound bias then you will lose credibility.

Thirdly, the topic needs to be relevant. A topic that is not very relevant will not be as effective as something that is very relevant today. An example of this is in the speech where the lady talked about how asking kids “what do you want to be when you grow up?” This, she says, conforms them and their thoughts on what they can be when they grow up. This is a relevant topic because kids are the future and we should not limit kid’s abilities to be anything they want to be.

Fourthly, a good Ted Talk needs to have visual aids. It is hard for any human to sit for 18 minutes and watch someone speak. Visual aid grabs the audience’s attention and by doing this maintains a tentative audience. In one ted talk about the ocean a man does not have very strong talking points and that is because his visual aids pretty much said his speech for him. He had tons of underwater videos of how sea animals camouflage themselves to survive and how they actually look exactly like their surroundings. Within his speech you could hear gasps of amazement and that shows that the audience was intrigued and entertained throughout the story.

These things are essential to a good ted talk. The speaker must be passionate about their topic, they must establish credibility, the topic must be relevant, and visual aids are necessary.

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