DI View the T.E.D./Mindvalley Talk Title of T.E.D.

./ Mindvalley Talk (+link): Name of Speaker: Date of Talk and Number of Views:
RE (>10min) and complete the
CT following grid. If you run out of ‘WHAT FEAR CAN TEACH US’
space on the grid for any of your Karen Thompson Walker June 2012
IO
NS answers, feel free to continue 2,531,340 views
writing/typing on the back of this
sheet.
What was the speaker’s thesis (main point) of this speech? Describe two things this speaker does well in terms of engaging the audience. Be sure to
“Properly read, our fears can offer us something as include the minute: second mark (ex: 8:49) to denote the two specific moments you discuss
here.
precious as our favourite works of literature: a little
I have to be honest and admit that there aren’t any special and interesting
wisdom, a bit of insight and a version of that most elusive
techniques used by the author. Karen is simply narrating and sometimes
thing – the truth.”
reading her talk without any jokes/special hooks etc.
What group of people would benefit the most from hearing this 1. Intonation. Pauses. Great pronunciation. Karen Thompson Walker is
lecture? writer herself and it is right to say that she is great narrator. The speaker has
I believe that this speech would be useful for someone great intonation, she quite aware of where to emphasize or make a pause. In
who is looking for new ways of finding inspiration. that way her monologue seems neither boring nor dull. We can see it vividly
Also, I reckon that people who are willing to look at especially during parts where she tells a story about a shipwreck. (Ex. 11:08-
their lives from a new perspective would like this lecture 10:15; 7:57-6:39)
as well. 2. Usage of familiar for viewers stories. The speaker uses well known story
about the shipwreck which was used by Herman Melville for his great novel
“Moby Dick.”
I can assume that it could be counted as technique to engage the audience,
because if Karen had used an unknown story as an example, fewer people would
have been interested in.
If you could ask this speaker a question Write two specific things you learned from this presentation. Give one piece of constructive criticism that would
about his/her information or presentation,
what would you ask?
1. Sometimes we need to overlook our fears and improve the presentation.
think about them from the perspective of a First things first I would like to highlight
Does the speaker often use this
scientist. that the speaker was pretty nervous during
technic as inspiration for writing
2. Fears can be a source of inspiration, as we can see her speech, and it was very visible in terms
her own books?
on the examples of Charles Darwin, Charlotte of her trembling voice.
Bronte and Marcel Proust. The next thing that was quite controversial
is her reading during the lecture. Well, I
think that these two factors – her anxiety
 and reading – are connected, because of
her anxiety she couldn’t remember all the
text of her monologue. (0:03; 0:19; 4:17
etc.)
Ethos is a speaker’s ability to build credibility, establish himself/herself as an expert, and/or convince the audience members that the speaker has their best interests at heart. How
does this speaker build ethos? Feel free to also refer to the speaker’s profile information from the ted.com webpage (or other resources) as you build your answer.
Karen Thompson Walker explores the connection between fear and the imagination. It is quite an interesting topic, I personally have
never thought about such a connection, but the speaker made me reason about it. As a specialist she is suitable for this purpose – to tell
us that fears can inspire us, because she is writer herself and has written a book – “The Age of Miracles”.
Karen says such thing about the process of creating her book:
“As a writer, I can tell you that a big part of writing fiction is learning to predict how one event in a story will affect all the other events, and
fear works in that same way. In fear, just like in fiction, one thing always leads to another. When I was writing my first novel, "The Age Of
Miracles," I spent months trying to figure out what would happen if the rotation of the Earth suddenly began to slow down. What would
happen to our days? What would happen to our crops? What would happen to our minds? And then it was only later that I realized how very
similar these questions were to the ones I used to ask myself as a child frightened in the night. If an earthquake strikes tonight, I used to
worry, what will happen to our house? What will happen to my family? And the answer to those questions always took the form of a story.”
(6:02)

She shows on her own experience how does the fear works in terms of inspiration and after such example, the audience can consider their own
fear, and ask similar question, and again try this technique to inspire themselves. (Quotation by Karen: “So if we think of our fears as more than
just fears but as stories, we should think of ourselves as the authors of those stories. But just as importantly, we need to think of ourselves as
the readers of our fears, and how we choose to read our fears can have a profound effect on our lives.” (4:23))

I would like to comment on this quotation:

“I read about a study recently of successful entrepreneurs, and the author found that these people shared a habit that he called "productive
paranoia," which meant that these people, instead of dismissing their fears, these people read them closely, they studied them, and then they
translated that fear into preparation and action. So that way, if their worst fears came true, their businesses were ready.” (7:05)
She mentions the study, but she doesn’t mention any resources of it. In this way, I think, she fails to build persuasion somehow.
Pathos is an appeal to emotions (everything from humor to horror) in order to sway an audience, while logos is the use of data/evidence to prove one’s case. Did this speaker rely
more on pathos or logos in his/her presentation? What argument/point in this presentation did you find the most compelling? Why?
“When I was a child, I lived in California, which is, you know, mostly a very nice place to live, but for me as a child, California could also be a
little scary. I remember how frightening it was to see the chandelier that hung above our dining table swing back and forth during every minor
earthquake, and I sometimes couldn't sleep at night, terrified that the Big One might strike while we were sleeping.” (1:57) – Karen refers to
her own life and experience as a kid to build pathos. But this story about her child’s fear, personally for me, wasn’t equal enough to the story
about the sailors, stuck in the ocean in the middle of nowhere.
“So, most of us have never experienced a situation as frightening as the one in which these sailors found themselves, but we all know what it's
like to be afraid. We know how fear feels, but I'm not sure we spend enough time thinking about what our fears mean.” (0:55) – the author
mentions thing that everyone can associate oneself with – fear. It helps to bring the audience closer as everyone now understand that the speech
is going to be about phenomenon everybody is accustomed to.
In general, I believe that the author refers more to the logos than to the pathos. Because it has more facts, references to science and real
examples of this phenomenon. Even when she tells a horrible story about sailors, she does not try to make the audience and listeners feel
sorry for them, but simply states the facts as such.
Vocabulary (write 10 words/phrases from the speech and explain their meaning)
1. a sperm whale - a very large toothed whale – кашалот.
2. a hull - the main body of a ship or other vessel, including the bottom, sides, and deck but not the masts, superstructure, rigging, engines, and other fittings –
каркас.
3. a swell - a slow, regular movement of the sea in rolling waves that do not break
4. to huddle together - to draw (oneself) together
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Notes:
Type of speech to inform –
Type of persuasion –
Examples of the appeal: