- In Margaret Herffernan’s TedTalk, The Human Skills We Need in an Unpredictable World, she engages the audience by starting with a story. Her story details a problem with the current world in its unpredictability. She describes how in our current setup we have a problem in that it is difficult to plan ahead in these circumstances. Again, she begins her speech detailing a problem. She sets it up so the audience believes this is a real problem in the world, and then follows by explaining how she has the answer to it, and that is what her speech is about. By setting the speech up in this way she not only draws her audience in, but she gains credibility. Now that the audience is aware of this problem, they want to know how to solve it, as knowing about the problem makes it theirs.
She continues through the body to explain her answer to the problem, tying in are evidence. She uses evidence of people successfully using her answer to the problem, to show more credibility to the audience that her solution works. Again, she has the audience roped in from the start, because she convinced them from the get that this was a problem worth caring about in their lives. Now they are glued to the speaker until the end of the speech so they know how to combat it. She ends in the same way she started, by addressing the unpredictability of the world and raising a feeling of hopelessness. She responds again, with a “but,” and summarizes her methods for combating the problem. By the end of the speech, she has convinced the audience there is a problem they should worry about, has them worried, reveals and answer to the problem, how they can use it, and convinces the audience they will be fine as long as they use her solution.
2. In Margaret Herffernan’s TedTalk, The Human Skills We Need in an Unpredictable World, she utilizes evidence throughout her speech to back up her points. Her evidence adds to her credibility as a speaker and appeals to the audience’s logic. She begins using evidence from the very beginning of her speech by starting with a story. She uses an example of a company to explain how it is disastrous when the world is unpredictable and people aren’t prepared. This evidence helps the audience believe in the problem she sets up in order to answer it herself. She then goes into her solution, outlining everything about it. Then, throughout the body she pieces evidence back in to add credibility to her solution. She provides examples of countries, corporations and more who use her solution successfully. This helps add to her claim that the solution is the right one to the problem she introduces at the beginning.
She uses this method of introducing problems with answers to follow throughout her speech, which illustrates to the audience that she is the person with all the answers. It shows she is knowledgable on the topic, and by following each claim with evidence by way of examples, she adds to her credibility and keeps the audience glued to her. She becomes responsible for solving the problem she planted in her audience’ heads, and in turn becomes valuable to listen to.