In his 2006 TED talk about whether the school system kills creativity, Ken Robinson utilizes various techniques to increase his audience engagement. Some of these techniques include referencing common experiences and opinions, signaling core statements, storytelling, using humor, and applying rhetorical questions. Robinson’s speech revolves around the usefulness of the education system in promoting the creativity of children. This paper analyzes these techniques and the implementation of logos, ethos, and pathos in the speech.
Basing a speech on values or opinions shared with the audience helps an individual make the speech more understandable while also enhancing the ethos (credibility). This enhancement of the ethos or credibility is because the audience is able to relate with the individual making the speech as they have been through an experience together. Robinson references shared experience beliefs throughout his speech. For example, at the start of the speech, Robinson references the topics that had been addressed in the conference while highlighting the TED event that he was a part of. He also emphasizes the four days of the conference to show the audience that he, too, was listening to the presenters at the TED event. With these examples, Robinson is able to tightly bind this common experience to the points he tries to communicate.
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Robinson also signals key statements within his speech, which prepare the audience to pay more attention during these periods. For example, he states that “my content is, all kids have tremendous talents” (02:16). In the statement, the use of the phrase “and my content is” indicates that the words that follow are important. Robinson also devotes a considerable section of his speech to include a variety of stories, which increases the interest of the audience in his main message through the use of these stories and the application of illustrative examples. One of these stories is the story of a little girl who drew a picture of God while in class and his transition to Los Angeles with his family. Pathos or emotional appeal involves the persuasion of an audience by appealing to their emotions, and Robinson uses pathos by applying lessons concerning children. Robinson emphasizes that children will take a chance and outlines the lack of preparation in adults. The use of the story about his son is also used to emotionally appeal to his audience.
In his speech, Robinson uses humor to constantly grab the attention of his audience throughout his speech. He constantly provokes laughter from the audience from the start to the end of his speech. The use of humor places to improve the mood of his audience, especially since most of them have spent a better part of the last four days listening to lectures; he makes them more inclined to believe his ideas. Lastly, Robinson constantly uses rhetorical questions to further engage his audience. Robinson does this in a highly patterned way by following declarative statements with short rhetorical questions. For instance, “…everybody has an interest in education. Don't you?” (01:33). The use of quick rhetorical questions makes the audience consider his declarative statements and become highly convinced by them. In this particular section, we can observe the application of logos to engage his audience. Robinson convinces his audience by using logic or reason. The use of logic is evident as he explains the invention of education in the 19 th century to meet the needs of industrialism. By explaining the background of the education system, Robinson is able to convince his audience that education was only structured to meet the academic abilities of individuals.
References
“Do Schools Kill Creativity?” YouTube, uploaded by TED, February, 2006, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY&list=PL70DEC2B0568B5469
