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5 TED Talks that will make you smarter and more persuasive: 'Conventional wisdom' for winning arguments is 'wrong'

Winning an argument may boil down to one simple tactic: Getting people to listen to you.

That's according to five TED Talk speakers, whose backgrounds — from business and law to journalism and academia — helped them become more persuasive. Some conventional persuasion tactics do work, they say: You can speak more slowly or lower your voice to draw listeners in.

You also need to think beyond what you say and how you say it. One of the most effective ways to change people's minds is by listening to what other people say and finding common ground, multiple of the speakers say.

"The conventional wisdom is that you [should] speak with confidence ... I think that's wrong," Neal Katyal, a former U.S. Acting Solicitor General who's argued multiple cases in front of the federal Supreme Court, added in a TED2020 lecture. "I think confidence is the enemy of persuasion. Persuasion is about empathy."

Watch these five TED Talks from Katyal and others to get smarter at winning arguments — and better at changing people's minds with your voice.

'How to speak so that people want to listen'

Key takeaway: Avoid gossip and embrace silence.

What you say affects how people listen to you. How you say it matters too, said communication and sound design expert Julian Treasure. His advice: Don't gossip, judge or speak too quickly. Lower your voice and embrace the silence in otherwise awkward pauses.

'The counterintuitive way to be more persuasive'

Key takeaway: Don't add too many points to your argument.

Many people assume having as much evidence as possible will strengthen their argument. Not so, according to Niro Sivanathan, an organizational behavior professor at the London Business School. Overly complex arguments often "dilute" their own effectiveness, he said.

'Let's try emotional correctness'

Key takeaway: Listen and form connections through shared experiences.

Before Sally Kohn made regular appearances on CNN and MSNBC, she was a left-wing "progressive" commentator on Fox News. She found that the channel's conservative viewers — who typically disagreed with her — were more receptive to her arguments if she acknowledged their perspectives and connected them back to the topic at hand.

'How to win an argument (at the U.S. Supreme Court, or anywhere)'

Key takeaway: Root your argument in compassion.

All successful arguments rely on human connection, empathy and conviction in your ideas, said Katyal, who has experience both winning and losing in front of the Supreme Court. And if you initially lose an argument, you might want to pursue it again with a fresh perspective later.

'How to disagree productively and find common ground'

Key takeaway: Be willing to change your own mind.

Most people enter arguments hoping to persuade other people. For the conversation to be productive, you need to be willing to be persuaded yourself said behavioral economist and strategic policy advisor Julia Dahr. Another common mistake, she added: attacking your opponent's identity instead of their idea.

Disclosure: MSNBC and CNBC are divisions of NBCUniversal.

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by TED Masterclass Team • August 11, 2021

You can’t always get what you want, but there is a way to increase your chances of a “yes.” We’re talking: persuasion.

Also known as the art of rhetoric, it’s a centuries-old practice that is still relevant today. TED-Ed’s video about rhetoric , written by Camille Langston, shows that this practice is present in many well-known speeches, including those of powerful politicians, such as Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill, and activists like Martin Luther King Jr. While it takes a certain amount of chutzpah to convey our ideas — and persuade others of them — using rhetoric isn’t a skill or a secret reserved only for oratory luminaries. You can master the language of persuasion, too. And it’s not as complicated as you might think (we promise!).

The three components of rhetoric

Langston simplifies the art of persuasion to three main components which are present in all persuasive endeavors: ethos, pathos, and logos. While ethos is important in presenting yourself as an authority of the point you wish to convey, pathos and logos center around the audience. Pathos works to tug at your audience’s heartstrings, whereas logos appeals to the analytical left side of the brain. This isn’t to say, though, that you should resort to smoke and mirrors to play with others’ emotions. Too often, people equate rhetoric to manipulation , which isn’t the aim of the craft.

In any rhetorical situation, it’s important to stick to the truth, even when you want to state an unpopular opinion. While this leaves your ideas at the whims of your audience’s different backgrounds and thought processes, using rhetoric can help you make a good case for your argument and perhaps convince others to see things in a new light. And if you aren’t successful, what might arise is an opportunity for conversation, in which you and your audience can arrive at an understanding.

Putting rhetoric into practice

All that said, how can you actually use rhetoric? Here are five tips on ways you can apply rhetoric, verbally or in writing, to level up your skills. With practice, you can present your point successfully and, maybe even get what you want.

• Introduce yourself. It’s crucial that your audience know why you are sharing your viewpoint. Are you a respected authority with the credentials to prove it? Or if you’re unable to quantify your experience, you can share personal stories, struggles or insights that contextualize why you arrived at your idea. This will not only lend you an air of expertise, but also show your audience that you’ve taken careful consideration of the matter at hand.
• Unlearn your prejudices. Whether you’re just beginning the process of preparing a presentation or applying the finishing touches, keep in mind that there are always multiple sides to a story. Try to pinpoint any blindspots you might have. It helps to put yourself in the shoes of people who might have opposing viewpoints and think about why they might believe something different as truth. You might also want to conduct research, or consult someone who can give you another perspective.
• Make your audience a top priority. The main intention of persuasion may be to get what you want, but it should never be at the expense of anyone else. While it might be difficult to please everyone, it’s important to consider how your viewpoint might affect your audience. Could your viewpoint give rise to any unwanted consequences? Or even convince people to believe that something harmful is true? Alternatively, ask yourself what’s in it for your audience when stating your opinion.
• Support your statement. There are many nuances to what might be considered as fact. But, in any case, ensure you have the data to support your claims. Use reliable statistics, figures, or charts, and avoid any jargon that might muddle your statement. Remember, your audience is a top priority, so you want to present your points with the utmost clarity. Otherwise, this might alienate your audience’s views from your own — which doesn’t make a good case for what you’re trying to say either.
• Leave room for compromise. Not all disagreements are bad, and if any arise from your statement, that’s okay. There’s always room for healthy discourse. That said, it’s important to create an atmosphere of safety, where your audience can air out concerns or questions that might’ve arised. And if you’re open to hearing other perspectives, even if they don’t necessarily conform to your own, you may actually come to a better conclusion in the end.

Whether you’re looking to persuade your colleagues, friends, or family, rhetoric will come in handy. Like any skill, though, it requires time and practice to master.

If you want to learn more, visit TED Masterclass . There, you can learn all the most important information about the art of rhetoric, among other communication tips.

© 2024 TED Conferences, LLC. All rights reserved. Please note that the TED Talks Usage policy does not apply to this content and is not subject to our creative commons license.

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13 All-Time Best TED Talks

Jim Peterson has over 20 years experience on speech writing. He wrote over 300 free speech topic ideas and how-to guides for any kind of public speaking and speech writing assignments at My Speech Class.

Hello and welcome to my TED talk.

You probably know what TED is already – one of the most popular conferences worldwide , offering inspirational lectures on a broad range of topics… does that ring any bells?

While some associate conferences with dull, stale and business-y individuals talking about boring things on stage, TED is as far from that as you can get. It has a charming heart, fueled by passion and made up of exceptional individuals who strive to make a positive change in the world. With so much content produced by TED, though, which of these are the best TED talks?

As a religious follower of TED over the past few years, I decided to dig a bit deeper into the topic and lay them out for you. Chances are these will inspire your next great idea and convince you that nothing is impossible – given you approach something in the right way.

By the end of this article you will know:

• What are the best TED talks?
• What are the best TED talks of 2020?
• What is TED conference?
• Are TED talks worth it?
• What does the acronym TED stand for?
• And much more curiosities

In this article:

Which are the most influential TED Talks?

1. do schools kill creativity, 2. this is what happens when you reply to spam email, 3. your body language may shape who you are, 4. how great leaders inspire action, 5. the power of vulnerability, 6. how to speak so that people want to listen, 7. inside the mind of a master procrastinator, 8. the next outbreak we’re not ready, 9. my philosophy for a happy life, 10. looks aren’t everything. believe me, i’m a model., 11. what makes a good life lessons from the longest study on happiness, 12. why people believe they can’t draw, 13. 10 things you didn’t know about orgasm, 1. how we must respond to the coronavirus pandemic, 2. why covid-19 is hitting us now — and how to prepare for the next outbreak, 3. what coronavirus means for the global economy, 4. it’s ok to feel overwhelmed. here’s what to do next, 5. how the pandemic will shape the near future, 6. the perks of being a pirate, some final words.

As I dove deep into uncharted Internet territory, looking far and wide to answer this question, I stumbled upon some curiosities regarding TED. There is a chance that you, like myself, are interested in whimsical trivia and statistics, so I will share some with you:

• TED was established in February 1984 , but became an annual conference from 1990 .
• An average TED talk is 18 minutes or under 18 minutes long – which is backed by strategy and neuroscience.
• The conference covers a broad spectrum of topics – from tech, business and innovation, to culture, feminism and spirituality.
• It produces content in more than 100 languages .
• TED.com currently hosts over 2,400 talks , with new additions daily.
• There are 3,400 Youtube TED talks on the official TED channel.
• The TedX Youtube channel hosts over 90,000 videos , with new additions daily.
• Hans Rosling, a Swedish physician, holds the record for the most TED talks given by a single person – a whopping 8 .
• There are more than 10,000 TedX events given out as of 2020.

Now that was refreshing, wasn’t it? With so many dazzling and insightfully good TED talks to pick from, one can get crosseyed and confused easily. This is why I took it upon myself to look into the creme de la creme of the best TED talks ever.

Ready? Hold your breath, because we are diving in.

13 Best TED Talks of All Time

TED talks are built on delivering fresh ideas, by original thinkers and writers, which aim to leave behind a better world. So out of all these inspiring talks, it is very difficult to compile a list of the best of the best. This is why I have focused on view count as a metric – the talks with the most audience surely have something in them that makes them stand out.

Speaker: Sir Ken Robinson Views: 65.9M Category: best TED talks for middle school parents

All kids have tremendous talent. This is the main point that TED speaker Sir Ken Robinson argues for in one of the best TED talks ever made. In his eyes, however, education systems around the world are ruthlessly squandering that talent, which leads to its eventual death. Robinson is firm in his belief that creativity nowadays is just as important as literacy in the context of education, and should be cultivated the same way.

It’s no secret that math, science and literacy have been the focus of schools worldwide for the past who-knows-how-many-years. Children are discouraged from doing dance, art or theatre because “the money is not there”. But should this continue to be this way? If you ask Robinson – definitely not.

Through anecdotes and personal stories, the author and educationalist beautifully states that creativity is the freedom to willingly make mistakes, try out new things and be brave – which are all qualities that children possess. Children don’t lack creativity, but rather grow out of it, are educated out of it, he preaches with his soothing British accent. For me, this is the greatest speech on TED ever.

Speaker: James Veitch Views: 60.2M Category: best short TED talks

Do you know how much gold you’d need if you want to start running an illegal distribution business? 2kg? 9kg? How about 25kg? This, of course, is if witty comedian James Veitch and his alleged communication with the scammer Solomon is to be believed. Even if it’s not, this TED talk is cleverly funny and is bound to make your day a bit brighter.

That being said, spam makes up 45% of our emails . Of course, you rarely click on spam, unless you are above a certain age and want to check out that cool offer you got sent, only to find out that your laptop is now infected with viruses. Yes, I am talking about my dad. On average, spammers receive 1 response to every 12.500.000 emails . People often bash them, but at the end of the day, spamming is a tough and ungrateful job.

Curiously enough, this one is among the most popular TED talks, even though it’s entirely built on humour.

Fun fact – using emojis in online negotiations can bring you more value. That is, if you know how to use them. 😉

Social psychologist Amy Cuddy uses this peculiar fact to introduce the broader topic of the importance of body language to the audience. According to her, our body language doesn’t only influence other people – it influences us as well. In fact, communication consists of 7% spoken words, 38% tone of voice, and 55% body language .

Cuddy’s experiment with low and high power body poses can be positively implemented in many fields – including tough job interviews. She has a “fake it till you make it approach”, which can impress others and give you the needed confidence to see difficult situations through. Cuddy also talks a lot about the connection between hormones, body language, and the importance of presence. This is a great TED talk for teens, who may be struggling with showing their confidence to the world.

Speaker: Simon Sinek Views: 50.8M Category: Best TED talks on leadership

Apple, Martin Luther King, the Wright brothers – what do these seemingly unrelated subjects have in common? It’s easy, they don’t think like you and I. They are innovators – they don’t get discouraged and have strong beliefs. They have dreams and the passion to see their dreams become a reality.

They start with Why?

Starting with Why? is the key component of the Golden Circle , a concept defined by leadership expert Simon Sinnek. It’s also the name of his bestselling book. The Golden Circle consists of three seemingly simple questions – Why? How? and What?, and is integral to making a company stand out from the rest. Everyone knows what they do, some know how they do it, very few know why they do it. And as it turns out, this is key. Sinnek explains all of this in one of the best TED talks for business there is.

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. People are drawn to purpose, cause, and belief. To inspiration. That is why you have to show them why you get out of bed in the morning and why they should care about that.

Speaker: Brené Brown Views: 48.9M Category: most inspiring TED talks

Brene Brown delivers an extremely touching and human TED talk which explores the importance of human connection. From a neurobiological standpoint (Brown is a researcher-storyteller), this is the meaning of human life.

Brown defines shame as the fear of disconnection. It is the question that each of us has asked ourselves at one time or another – is there something about me that other people will see that will make me not worthy of connection?

Some, however, don’t perceive vulnerability as a flaw, but rather as a necessity. Being vulnerable is the personification of strength and the ultimate courage to love with our whole hearts, even though there is no guarantee that we will receive anything in return. To call your doctor, to tell her you love her first, to surrender – and see what’s on the other side, head held high.

One of the best motivational TED talks of all time, you wouldn’t want to miss out on this one.

Speaker: Julian Treasure Views: 42.8M Category: best audio TED talks

Ever felt like you are speaking logically and soundly, but no one seems to listen? Julian Treasure is here to lend a helping hand and explain why that might be. In this brisk and practical talk, he outlines 7 habits to try and stay away from, if you want to have meaningful conversations , where you have people’s attention. He also pinpoints 4 powerful cornerstones that can enhance our speech further . They spell out the word HAIL – can you guess what each letter stands for?

Finally, Treasure opens the toolbox of our voice and offers some good ideas on keeping track of our register, timbre, prosody, pace, pitch, and volume. This is one of the most famous TED talks because of how practical and easy to implement it is.

Speaker: Tim Urban Views: 40.1M Category: best TED talks for college students

Master procrastinator Tim Urban tells a tale of laughter and woe – in what is one of the funniest TED talks out there. He introduces the audience to the deities living in his brain – the Rational-Decision Maker, who tries to sail the ship and achieve goals within a set timeframe, by spreading out the workload evenly. And the Instant Gratification Monkey, which solely exists to have fun and take the easy way out. Naturally, these two are in a constant struggle, with the Monkey prevailing most of the time, which kind of works… occasionally.

Luckily, procrastinators have a guardian angel – the Panic Monster, which keeps the procrastinator out of trouble and allows for them to do a substantial amount of work in very little time.

Procrastination is a serious issue – according to some surveys, 85-95% of students have problems associated with it . This is why this talk can be deemed among the best TED talks for students. Urban thinks that everyone is a procrastinator, as we are all procrastinating something. However, we should see the bigger picture, since before we know it, we might have procrastinated our lives away.

Speaker: Bill Gates Views: 36.3M Category: best prophetic TED talk

Bill Gates should consider scratching a lottery ticket, because apparently he can predict the future. In this 2015 TED Talk he talks about how the next big thing that humanity should be scared about isn’t nuclear war – it’s influenza. Here, he is talking in the context of Ebola, which was a big thing in 2015 – it had a 50% fatality rate .

This is one of the greatest TED talks, as it shows how credible the organization really is. Apparently, Bill was very well aware of what would happen in 2020, because in his prophetic talk he warns us that the world isn’t prepared to handle an outbreak such as this, and we should be wary. Turns out governments shouldn’t have skipped this great talk, as his words, more or less, came true.

Speaker: Sam Berns Views: 35.1M Category: best motivational TED talks

In this touching and inspiring talk, then 17-year-old Sam Berns shares his philosophy for leading a happy life. Sam is the star of the HBO documentary “Life According to Sam”, which was considered to be nominated in the Documentary Feature category of the 86th Oscars .

Berns suffers from progeria, an extremely rare autosomal dominant genetic disorder, but he doesn’t let it dictate his life. Of course, there are some limitations to what he can and can’t do, but ultimately he chooses what to focus on, preferring to look at the bright side of things, rather than the grim one.

Unfortunately, Sam passed away in 2014 due to complications of his illness, but he delivered one of the most inspirational ted talks to this date. His simple philosophy can inspire people everywhere – being brave isn’t supposed to be easy.

Speaker: Cameron Russell Views: 34.7M Category: best TED talks for women

Cameron Russell, a Victoria’s Secret model, is here to share that being superficial often yields nothing good. She answers some of the most asked questions she gets about her modeling career and builds up to the conclusion that even though models seem perfect on the outside, they are often some of the most insecure people on the planet.

58% of college-aged girls feel pressured to be a certain weight . This presentation is especially good for them to hear, as Cameron talks with conviction and passion, hoping that her message comes across as intended. No wonder this is one of the most viewed TED talks of all time – women and body image have a complicated relationship and social pressure isn’t doing them good – even though Russell says that all the images we see in magazines are simply a skillful construct.

Speaker: Robert Waldinger Views: 34.1M Category: best psychology TED talks

What is the key ingredient to keeping us healthy and happy as we move through life? Many say that fame and fortune are the things that will greatly contribute to their happiness – but psychiatrist Robert Waldinger disagrees. In what is one of the most inspirational TED talks of all time, he explains the findings of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which lasted for 75 years and tracked the lives of 724 men.

As it turns out, the secret to living a long and happy life is quite simple – maintaining good relationships. Quality close relationships make us thrive, and it has been discovered that loneliness kills. Waldinger shares some insight on how to best implement the study findings in our own lives and ensure that we are living mindfully and rich – metaphorically speaking.

Speaker: Graham Shaw Views: 32.6M Category: highest rated TED talks

Many people believe they can’t draw – I am guilty of that myself. Graham Shaw, however, doesn’t agree and argues that that has to do more with your limiting beliefs than your actual skills. He proceeds to show several easy cartoons that anyone can replicate and that the technique for each gets coded within our memory for future use.

This is the best example of what a TED talk stands for – it’s positive, easy to replicate immediately in our lives, and inspires people to keep an open mind.

Speaker: Mary Roach Views: 31.4M Category: best curious TED talk

It’s a bit curious how this is one of the most watched TED talks of all time – but then again, who isn’t guilty of being curious about the mysterious orgasm? Mary Roach treads through the matter effortlessly with her signature wit and humorous nature – and it makes for an informative listen.

It’s a bit funny how this one made it into the top TED talks of all time, but who am I to judge? People like what they like and there is no shame about it. Be sure to watch this fascinating talk for some fresh ideas and funny stories.

5 Most popular TED Talks of 2020 (+ a bonus)

It should come as no surprise that the best TED lectures this year are dedicated to COVID-19. A speaker who appeared in the above list appears not once, but two whole times – can you guess who this influencer is?

And since this whole COVID talk is making us globally anxious, I included a small bonus at the end of the list, which is something different but still communicates valid and important points.

So, without further ado – let’s see which the Best TED talks 2020 are.

Speaker: Bill Gates Views: 7.3M

Bill Gates is one of the most Famous TED talk speakers when it comes to viruses, and no, I don’t mean computer ones. Here he gives his insights into the COVID-19 pandemic and argues why self-isolation and testing are of the utmost importance. He also discusses which medical advancements are promising, and what the world has to do to end this crisis.

Speaker: Alanna Shaikh Views: 3.1M

One of the great TED talks regarding COVID gives a brief rundown on the virus – where did it come from, how did it spread so fast, and most importantly – what’s next? Global health expert Alanna Shaikh talks about all this and follows the spread of the virus, discussing why it’s not effective to restrict travel and highlights the much needed medical reforms worldwide to prepare for what’s coming. “We need to make sure that every country in the world has the capacity to identify new diseases and treat them,” she says.

Speaker: Ray Dalio Views: 2.1M

Another one of the top TED talks of 2020 is corona-related. Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, offers wide-spectrum insights on the best ways to recover from the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic – and use the opportunity to reconstruct the systems that help cultivate our economies. “I’m a capitalist. I believe in the system. I believe you can increase the size of the pie and you could divide it well,” he says.

Speaker: Elizabeth Gilbert Views: 1.7M

Fear and anxiety are common shared feelings amidst the pandemic. Author Elizabeth Gilbert offers a safe haven of understanding and hope by reflecting on how to stay present in the moment, accept negative emotions, and trust in the endurance of the human spirit. This is one of the more recent TED talks, and takes a different angle on the COVID-19 pandemic. “Resilience is our shared genetic inheritance,” Gilbert says.

Speaker: Bill Gates Views: 1M

Bill Gates is at it again with one of the hottest TED talks topics of the year, discussing the best and worst scenarios that COVID-19 could cause in the months ahead. He further explains what the challenges are to reducing virus transmission, speaks about promising vaccine candidates, and even takes a second to consider conspiracy theories revolving around himself. He also makes an appeal to fellow philanthropists, whose action is needed now more than ever.

Speaker: Tom Nash Views: 2M

Harrr. I am so glad this one made it into the top TED talks of the year. DJ and self-proclaimed pirate Tom Nash is here to bushwack our hearts with his charm and humor, while pondering on how facing adversity due to disability welcomed pragmatism, patience and ambition into his life in enlightening ways. “We all have unique weaknesses,” he says. “If we’re honest about what they are, we can learn how to best take advantage of them.” One of the most popular TED talks of the year (which isn’t centered around COVID) will make you smile and reminisce a bit about life.

The staggering combined view count of the best TED talks listed above is more than 550 million. I find it exhilarating that so many people are curious about the world that surrounds them and want to learn more and to feed new information into their brains. Knowledge is seductive and powerful, and in today’s day and age anyone can easily access it on the Internet. So make it count.

Which were your favorite TED talks from the list? Let us know!

Q: What is the best TED talk ever?

A: If you ask me, Sir Ken Robinson’s “Do schools kill creativity?” is absolutely awe-inspiring and deservedly stands on top of the most watched TED talks of all time. If you want to watch something different, you can always check out this playlist – TED actually have quite a few handy playlists that collect videos on similar topics. It’s useful if you don’t know where to start, or have very specific interests.

Q: What TED talk should I watch?

A: Any pick from this list should be a good place to start. The talks listed here are among the best TED talks of all time, the ones which people found great worth and inspiration in. After you get acquainted with the different topics that TED showcases, you can browse here to find more personalized content, suited to your taste.

Q: Are TED talks worth watching?

A: Definitely. TED’s entire philosophy is based on delivering innovative and inspirational content that is meant to ignite creative minds and spark a flame in their hearts. There are so many TED talks topics that it is virtually impossible to not find something you like – you can start with the ones listed in the article, as they are the most viewed TED talks of all time. Furthermore, TED talk science states that 18 minutes is the optimal time to assimilate new knowledge – and you’d be lying if you say you don’t have 18 minutes to spend in your day.

Q: What is TED short for in TED talks?

A: TED stands for: T echnology, E ntertainment and D esign. The conference’s early focus was mainly on technology and design, which was consistent with its Silicon Valley origins. However, given the conference’s 34-year lifespan, it has evolved and now welcomes a broad range of TED talk categories, including science, politics, culture and academia.

Q: What is a TEDx Talk?

A: TEDx talks are independent TED events which can be organized by anyone who obtains a licence from TED. As of October 2017, the TEDx archive surpassed 100,000 talks . TEDx events are quite versatile and can include films and live presentations as well. Understandably, TEDx talks 2020 are all held online.

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The counterintuitive way to be more persuasive - niro sivanathan.

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What's the best way to make a good point? Organizational psychologist Niro Sivanathan offers a fascinating lesson on the "dilution effect," a cognitive quirk that weakens our strongest cases — and reveals why brevity is the true soul of persuasion.

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Top 5 Ted Talks to Teach Persuasive Writing

Have you ever watched a ted talk and been so profoundly moved by a speaker, that you decide to immediately act on the topic of discussion i watched my first ted talk 6 years ago, not knowing it’s purpose, and walked away feeling moved and inspired. as educators, we look for ways every day to inspire our students to have an impact on the world for the greater good. i felt that incorporating ted talks into my teaching would not only show my students how others have made a positive contribution to society, but also how important it was to share their message with the world. what better way to teach students how to use persuasive writing in the world, than through a ted talk, when planning my persuasive writing unit last year, i decided that rather than simply giving my students topics to write about, i would show them a ted talk video about each topic instead. i was excited to find that there were many similarities between the structures of a ted talk and the persuasive writing form of writing and i could use these videos as an engaging tool to teach students i had a graphic organizer for each aspect of persuasive writing: (including a good hook in the introduction, tailoring your argument to a specific audience, addressing possible counter-arguments, including statistics or research to support your view, appealing to the audience’s emotions and providing a strong conclusion) and these aspects were all included in a ted talk check out the graphic organizers i used for a closer look, my students really appreciated seeing the connection that persuasive writing had to real life examples found in ted talks. it provided them with a ‘purpose’ for their writing and this motivated students to produce their very best pieces, here are the 5 best ted talks to teach persuasive writing to kids if you’d like to learn more about how to incorporate ted talks with persuasive writing, you can find it in my persuasive writing unit .  follow my blog for more useful teacher tips and my inspire to learn store for some useful teaching resources, 1.    kids need recess – simon link, https://youtu.be/kh9gbyuga1y, 2.    homework overload – mikel garmendia, https://youtu.be/d_qmpv9v9to, 3.    what adults can learn from kids – adora svitek, https://youtu.be/v-bjojzb7ly, 4.    individualization, failure and fun – cordell steiner, https://youtu.be/p-djw4uj7ri, 5.    kindness – orly wahba, https://youtu.be/yn9vxuplc5g, share this:.

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A Comprehensive Guide to Writing a Persuasive Speech

Hrideep barot.

• Speech Writing

The term Persuasion means the efforts to change the attitudes or opinions of others through various means.

It is present everywhere: election campaigns, salesmen trying to sell goods by giving offers, public health campaigns to quit smoking or to wear masks in the public spaces, or even at the workplace; when an employee tries to persuade others to agree to their point in a meeting.

How do they manage to convince us so subtly? You guessed it right! They engage in what is called Persuasive Speech.

Persuasive Speech is a category of speech that attempts to influence the listener’s beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, and ultimately, behavior.

They are used in all contexts and situations . It can be informal , a teenager attempting to convince his or her parents for a sleepover at a friend’s house.

It can also be formal , President or Prime Minister urging the citizens to abide by the new norms.

But not to confuse these with informative speeches! These also aim to inform the audience about a particular topic or event, but they lack any attempt at persuasion.

The most typical setting where this kind of speech is practiced is in schools and colleges.

An effective speech combines both the features of an informative and persuasive speech for a better takeaway from an audience’s point of view.

However, writing and giving a persuasive speech are different in the sense that you as a speaker have limited time to call people to action.

Also, according to the context or situation, you may not be able to meet your audience several times, unlike TV ads, which the audience sees repeatedly and hence believes the credibility of the product.

So, how to write and deliver an effective persuasive speech?

How to start a persuasive speech? What are the steps of writing a persuasive speech? What are some of the tricks and tips of persuasion?

Read along till the end to explore the different dimensions and avenues of the science of giving a persuasive speech.

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND BEFORE WRITING A PERSUASIVE SPEECH

1. get your topic right, passion and genuine interest in your topic.

It is very important that you as a speaker are interested in the chosen topic and in the subsequent arguments you are about to put forward. If you are not interested in what you are saying, then how will the audience feel the same?

Passion towards the topic is one of the key requirements for a successful speech as your audience will see how passionate and concerned you are towards the issue and will infer you as a genuine and credible person.

The audience too will get in the mood and connect to you on an emotional level, empathizing with you; as a result of which will understand your point of view and are likely to agree to your argument.

Consider this example: your friend is overflowing with joy- is happy, smiling, and bubbling with enthusiasm.

Before even asking the reason behind being so happy, you “catch the mood”; i.e., you notice that your mood has been boosted as a result of seeing your friend happy.

Why does it happen so? The reason is that we are influenced by other people’s moods and emotions.

It also means that our mood affects people around us, which is the reason why speaking with emotions and passion is used by many successful public speakers.

Another reason is that other’s emotions give an insight into how one should feel and react. We interpret other’s reactions as a source of information about how we should feel.

So, if someone shows a lot of anxiety or excitement while speaking, we conclude that the issue is very important and we should do something about it, and end up feeling similar reactions.

Meaningful and thought-provoking

Choose a topic that is meaningful to you and your audience. It should be thought-provoking and leave the audience thinking about the points put forward in your speech.

Topics that are personally or nationally relevant and are in the talks at the moment are good subjects to start with.

If you choose a controversial topic like “should euthanasia be legalized?”, or” is our nation democratic?”, it will leave a dramatic impact on your audience.

However, be considerate in choosing a sensitive topic, since it can leave a negative impression on your listeners. But if worded in a neutral and unbiased manner, it can work wonders.

Also, refrain from choosing sensitive topics like the reality of religion, sexuality, etc.

2. Research your topic thoroughly

Research on persuasion conducted by Hovland, Janis, and Kelley states that credible communicators are more persuasive than those who are seen as lacking expertise.

Even if you are not an expert in the field of your topic, mentioning information that is backed by research or stating an expert’s opinion on the issue will make you appear as a knowledgeable and credible person.

How to go about researching? Many people think that just googling about a topic and inferring 2-3 articles will be enough. But this is not so.

For writing and giving an effective speech, thorough research is crucial for you as a speaker to be prepared and confident.

Try to find as many relevant points as possible, even if it is against your viewpoint. If you can explain why the opposite viewpoint is not correct, it will give the audience both sides to an argument and will make decision-making easier.

Also, give credit to the source of your points during your speech, by mentioning the original site, author, or expert, so the audience will know that these are reliable points and not just your opinion, and will be more ready to believe them since they come from an authority.

Other sources for obtaining data for research are libraries and bookstores, magazines, newspapers, google scholar, research journals, etc.

Analyze your audience

Know who comprises your audience so that you can alter your speech to meet their requirements.

Demographics like age group, gender ratio, the language with which they are comfortable, their knowledge about the topic, the region and community to which they belong; are all important factors to be considered before writing your speech.

Ask yourself these questions before sitting down to write:

Is the topic of argument significant to them? Why is it significant? Would it make sense to them? Is it even relevant to them?

In the end, the speech is about the audience and not you. Hence, make efforts to know your audience.

This can be done by surveying your audience way before the day of giving your speech. Short polls and registration forms are an effective way to know your audience.

They ensure confidentiality and maintain anonymity, eliminating social desirability bias on part of the audience, and will likely receive honest answers.

OUTLINE OF A PERSUASIVE SPEECH

Most speeches follow the pattern of Introduction, Body and Conclusion.

However, persuasive speeches have a slightly different pathway.

INTRODUCTION

BODY OR SUPPORTING STATEMENTS( ATLEAST 3 ARGUMENTS)

CONCLUSION OR A CALL TO ACTION

1. INTRODUCTION

Grab attention of your audience.

The first few lines spoken by a speaker are the deciding factor that can make or break a speech.

Hence, if you nail the introduction, half of the task has already been done, and you can rest assured.

No one likes to be silent unless you are an introvert. But the audience expects that the speaker will go on stage and speak. But what if the speaker just goes and remains silent?

Chances are high that the audience will be in anticipation of what you are about to speak and their sole focus will be on you.

This sets the stage.

Use quotes that are relevant and provocative to set the tone of your speech. It will determine the mood of your audience and get them ready to receive information.

An example can be “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin” and then state who gave it, in this case, Tony Robbins, an American author.

Use what-if scenarios

Another way to start your speech is by using what-if scenarios and phrases like “suppose if your home submerges in water one day due to global warming…”.

This will make them the center of attention and at the same time grabbing their attention.

Use personal anecdotes

Same works with personal experiences and stories.

Everyone loves listening to first-hand experiences or a good and interesting story. If you are not a great storyteller, visual images and videos will come to your rescue.

After you have successfully grabbed and hooked your audience, the next and last step of the introduction is introducing your thesis statement.

What is a thesis statement?

It introduces the topic to your audience and is one of the central elements of any persuasive speech.

It is usually brief, not more than 3 sentences, and gives the crux of your speech outline.

How to make a thesis statement?

Firstly, research all possible opinions and views about your topic. See which opinion you connect with, and try to summarize them.

After you do this, you will get a clear idea of what side you are on and this will become your thesis statement.

However, the thesis should answer the question “why” and “how”.

So, for instance, if you choose to speak on the topic of the necessity of higher education, your thesis statement could be something like this:

Although attending university and getting a degree is essential for overall development, not every student must be pushed to join immediately after graduating from school.

And then you can structure your speech containing the reasons why every student should not be rushed into joining a university.

3. BODY OF THE SPEECH

The body contains the actual reasons to support your thesis.

Ideally, the body should contain at least 3 reasons to support your argument.

So, for the above-mentioned thesis, you can support it with possible alternatives, which will become your supporting statements.

The option of a gap year to relax and decide future goals, gaining work experience and then joining the university for financial reasons, or even joining college after 25 or 35 years.

These become your supporting reasons and answers the question “why”.

Each reason has to be resourcefully elaborated, with explaining why you support and why the other or anti-thesis is not practical.

At this point, you have the option of targeting your audience’s ethos, pathos, or logos.

Ethos is the ethical side of the argument. It targets morals and puts forth the right thing or should be.

This technique is highly used in the advertising industry.

Ever wondered why celebrities, experts, and renowned personalities are usually cast as brand ambassadors.?

The reason: they are liked by the masses and exhibit credibility and trust.

Advertisers endorse their products via a celebrity to try to show that the product is reliable and ethical.

The same scenario is seen in persuasive speeches. If the speaker is well-informed and provides information that is backed by research, chances are high that the audience will follow it.

Pathos targets the emotional feelings of the audience.

This is usually done by narrating a tragic or horrifying anecdote and leaves the listener moved by using an emotional appeal to call people to action.

The common emotions targeted by the speaker include the feeling of joy, love, sadness, anger, pity, and loneliness.

All these emotions are best expressed in stories or personal experiences.

Stories give life to your argument, making the audience more involved in the matter and arousing sympathy and empathy.

Visuals and documentaries are other mediums through which a speaker can attract the audience’s emotions.

What was your reaction after watching an emotional documentary? Did you not want to do something about the problem right away?

Emotions have the power to move people to action.

The last technique is using logos, i.e., logic. This includes giving facts and practical aspects of why this is to be done or why such a thing is the most practical.

It is also called the “logical appeal”.

This can be done by giving inductive or deductive reasoning.

Inductive reasoning involves the speaker taking a specific example or case study and then generalizing or drawing conclusions from it.

For instance, a speaker tells a case study of a student who went into depression as the child wasn’t able to cope with back-to-back stress.

This problem will be generalized and concluded that gap year is crucial for any child to cope with and be ready for the challenges in a university.

On the other hand, deductive reasoning involves analyzing general assumptions and theories and then arriving at a logical conclusion.

So, in this case, the speaker can give statistics of the percentage of university students feeling drained due to past exams and how many felt that they needed a break.

This general data will then be personalized to conclude how there is a need for every student to have a leisure break to refresh their mind and avoid having burned out.

Using any of these 3 techniques, coupled with elaborate anecdotes and supporting evidence, at the same time encountering counterarguments will make the body of your speech more effective.

4. CONCLUSION

Make sure to spend some time thinking through your conclusion, as this is the part that your audience will remember the most and is hence, the key takeaway of your entire speech.

Keep it brief, and avoid being too repetitive.

It should provide the audience with a summary of the points put across in the body, at the same time calling people to action or suggesting a possible solution and the next step to be taken.

Remember that this is your last chance to convince, hence make sure to make it impactful.

 Include one to two relevant power or motivational quotes, and end by thanking the audience for being patient and listening till the end.

Watch this clip for a better understanding.

TIPS AND TRICKS OF PERSUASION

Start strong.

A general pattern among influential speeches is this: all start with a powerful and impactful example, be it statistics about the issue, using influential and meaning statements and quotes, or asking a rhetorical question at the beginning of their speech.

Why do they do this? It demonstrates credibility and creates a good impression- increasing their chance of persuading the audience.

Hence, start in such a manner that will hook the audience to your speech and people would be curious to know what you are about to say or how will you end it.

Keep your introduction short

Keep your introduction short, and not more than 10-15% of your speech.

If your speech is 2000 words, then your introduction should be a maximum of 200-250 words.

Or if you are presenting for 10 minutes, your introduction should be a maximum of 2 minutes. This will give you time to state your main points and help you manage your time effectively.

Be clear and concise

Use the correct vocabulary to fit in, at the same time making sure to state them clearly, without beating around the bush.

This will make the message efficient and impactful.

Answer the question “why”

Answer the question “why” before giving solutions or “how”.

Tell them why is there a need to change. Then give them all sides of the point.

It is important to state what is wrong and not just what ought to be or what is right, in an unopinionated tone.

Unless and until people don’t know the other side of things, they simply will not change.

Suggest solutions

Once you have stated the problem, you imply or hint at the solution.

Never state solutions, suggest them; leaving the decision up to the audience.

You can hint at solutions: “don’t you think it is a good idea to…?” or “is it wrong to say that…?”, instead of just stating solutions.

Use power phrases

Certain power-phrases come in handy, which can make the audience take action.

Using the power phrase “because” is very impactful in winning and convincing others.

This phrase justifies the action associated with it and gives us an understanding of why is it correct.

For instance, the phrase “can you give me a bite of your food?” does not imply attitude change.

But using “may I have a bite of your food because I haven’t eaten breakfast?” is more impactful and the person will likely end up sharing food if you use this power- phrase, because it is justifying your request.

Another power-phrase is “I understand, but…”.

This involves you agreeing with the opposite side of the argument and then stating your side or your point of view.

This will encourage your audience to think from the other side of the spectrum and are likely to consider your argument put forth in the speech.

Use power words

Use power words like ‘incredible’, ‘fascinating’, ‘unquestionable’, ‘most important’, ‘strongly recommend’ in your speech to provoke your audience into awe.

Watch this video of some of the common but effective words that can be used in a persuasive speech.

Give an emotional appeal

Like mentioned earlier as one of the techniques of persuasion called pathos, targeting emotions like joy, surprise, fear, anticipation, anger, sadness, or disgust gives your speech an emotional appeal, and more feel to your content, rather than just neutrally stating facts and reasons.

Hence, to keep your audience engaged and not get bored, use emotions while speaking.

Make use of the non=verbal elements

Actions speak louder than words, and they create a huge difference if used effectively.

There is so much else to a speech than just words.

Non-verbal elements include everything apart from your words.

Maintaining eye contact, matching your body language with your words for effective transmission of the message including how you express your emotions, making use of the visual signs and symbols via a PPT are all important parts of any speech.

Check your paralanguage i.e., your voice intonation, pitch, speed, effective pauses, stressing on certain words to create an impact.

Doing all of these will make your speech more real and effective, and will persuade your audience into taking action.

Give real-life examples

Speak facts and avoid giving opinions.

However, just mentioning hard statistical facts will take you nowhere, as there is a chance that people may not believe the data, based on the possibility of them recollecting exceptions.                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Hence, back up your statistics with real-life examples of situations.

Also, consider using precise numerical data.

For example, using “5487 people die due to road accidents every day”, instead of “approximately 5500 people”.

Have no personal stake

You can lose credibility if the audience feels that you have a personal stake in it.

Suppose that you are speaking for the idea of using reusable plastic products, and you say that you are from a company that sells those goods.

People are likely to perceive your argument as promoting self-interest and will not be ready to change their opinion about reusable plastic products.

Consequently, if you argue against your self-interest, your audience will see you as the most credible. 

So, if you say that you are working in a plastics manufacturing company and have a statistical record of the pollution caused by it; and then promote reusable plastic as an alternative to stop pollution and save the environment, people are likely to accept your point of argument.

The you attitude

Shift your focus to the audience, and chances are high that they are likely to relate the issue to themselves and are most likely to change.

Hence, use the “you attitude” i.e., shifting focus to the listener and giving them what they want to hear and then making subtle additions to what you want them to hear.

Make a good first impression

The first impression is indeed the last. This is the reason why image consultancy is such a growing sector.

A good first impression works wonders on the people around you, including the audience, and makes your work of convincing a lot easier.

Avoid appearing shabby, ill-mannered, and refrain from using uncourteous and biased language.

Doing these will reverse the effect you want from the audience and will drive them away from your opinion.

HOW TO MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION?

If you are the type who gets nervous easily and have fear of public speaking, practice till you excel in your task.

I used to dread speaking in front of people, and partly still do.

Earlier, unless and until someone called my name to state my opinion or start with the presentation, I didn’t even raise my hand to say that I have an opinion or I am left to present on the topic.

I had to do something about this problem. So, I made a plan.

2 weeks before the presentation, I wrote the script and read it over and over again.

After reading multiple times, I imagined my room to be the classroom and practiced in front of a mirror.

The main thing I was concerned about was keeping my head clear on the day of my presentation. And that’s what happened.

Since my mind was clear and relaxed, and I had practiced my speech over and over again, presenting came more naturally and confidently.

You might ask what is the purpose of impression management?

Impressions are used for Ingratiation i.e., getting others to like us so that they will be more than willing to accept or agree to your point.

If you like someone, you are drawn towards them and are likely to agree on what they agree or say.

TIP- Try to come early to the venue, and dress appropriately to the needs of the occasion. And don’t forget to smile!

PERSUASIVE SPEECH EXAMPLES

1. wendy troxel – why school should start later for teens.

Almost all the important elements of a persuasive speech are found in this TED talk by Wendy Troxel.

Take a closer look at how she starts her introduction in the form of a real-life personal story, and how she makes it relevant to the audience.

Humor is used to hook the audience’s attention and in turn their interest.

She is also likely to be perceived as credible, as she introduces herself as a sleep researcher, and is speaking on the topic of sleep.

Thesis of how early school timings deprive teenagers of their sleep and its effects is introduced subtly.

The speaker supports her statements with facts, answers the question “why” and most importantly, presents both sides of an argument; effects of less to lack of sleep and its consequences and the effects of appropriate and more sleep on teenagers.

The use of non-verbal elements throughout the speech adds value and richness to the speech, making it more engaging.

The use of Pathos as a persuasive technique appeals to the audience’s emotions; at the same time backing the argument with Logos, by giving scientific reasons and research findings to support the argument.

Lastly, the speech is meaningful, relevant, and thought-provoking to the audience, who are mostly parents and teenagers.

2. Crystal Robello- Being an introvert is a good thing

In this example, Crystal Robello starts by giving personal experiences of being an introvert and the prejudices faced.

Notice how even without much statistics the speech is made persuasive by using Ethos as a technique; and how credibility is achieved by mentioning leaders who are introverts.

3. Greta Thunberg- School strike for climate

One of my favorite speeches is the above speech by Greta Thunberg.

She uses all the techniques; pathos, ethos and logos.

Also notice how the speaker speaks with emotions, and uses body and paralanguage efficiently to create a dramatic impact on the audience.

Her genuine interest is clearly reflected in the speech, which makes the audience listen with a level of concern towards the topic, climate change.

To sum up, we looked at the things to keep in mind before writing a speech and also became familiar with the general outline or the structure of a persuasive speech.

We also looked at some of the tips and tricks of persuasion, and lastly, got introduced to 3 amazing persuasive speech examples.

So, now that you know everything about persuasion, rest assured and keep the above-mentioned things in mind before starting your next speech!

Also, check out related posts:

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Professional Speech vs TED Talk

We often confuse the difference between a professional speech and a TED Talk. Below I outline the nuances that make a TED Talk unique.

• Time Professional Speech : 45 minutes or more TED Talk : 18 minutes or less
• Content Professional Speech : 3 or more points TED Talk : 1 idea
• Style Professional Speech : Performance TED Talk : Conversationa l
• Delivery Professional Speech : Highly gestural TED Talk : Natural movement
• Outcome Professional Speech : The outcome is multi-purpose: informative, inspirational; persuasive, entertaining, or motivational TED Talk : idea implementation
• Ownership Professional Speech : The speaker owns the content TED Talk : The content is free to download, share or republish under the creative commons license
• Method Professional Speech : Give a speech TED Talk : Deliver a talk

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Words Of Persuasion: Best Adjectives For Persuasive Ted Talks

As communication is a bridge connecting peoples in motivating changes, delivering ideas, influencing decision and create bonding; it is crucial to explore on the keywords that could help in persuading one’s listener to accept the speaker ideas. The goal of this paper is to build a persuasive words framework that could identify most frequent adjectives used by the TED Talk speaker to make a public speaking to be persuasive. The proposed solution consists of four steps, namely Data Collection (Dataset Extraction), Data Preparation (Pre-Process & Cleaning), Text Processing (Tokenize, Lemmatization, POS Tagging, Stop Word filter, Adjective Only Filter) and finally Extraction & Visualization of the words set. Case study on four different themes of talks: Technology, Global Issue, Science and Business were conducted based on the proposed model. Evaluation was carried out in two phases: internal validation and expert feedbacks were conducted to test the validity of the output. The output produced by the framework comprising of Word Cloud and Frequency Histogram that best describe each category of talk theme used in the evaluations. Lastly, discussions of each theme were carried out to further justify the findings and challenges of the generated output. Keywords: Text analytics persuasive keywords text extraction ted talk

Introduction

As public speaking is an important skill to have in either business or public relations arena, the skill of persuasion during the speak is the key to let the speaker to win over the crowd. The power of persuasion can carry everyone far in influencing decision, motivate changes and even forming strong bonds and connections for a person within the community. As it is commonly known that how persuasive a session of speech would be affected by tone, emotional influences and language fluency of the speaker, the persuasiveness of a speech is also closely depending on the context of the transcript. While there exist approach that leverage Deep Learning in analysing speakers’ facial expression with their speech successiveness ( Chollet, Wörtwein, Morency, & Scherer, 2016 ) and using advanced multimodal sensing as the assessment of speakers’ public speaking ability ( Fuyuno, Komiya, & Saitoh, 2018 ), there exist less supportive approaches that analyse the context of speaker’s transcript in assessing their public speaking successiveness. In this paper, a series of text analysis processes are implemented to the famous speeches from well-known public speaking platform ‘Ted Talk’ to identify the most frequent adjectives used by the TED Talk speaker to make the speech to be persuasive.

Problem Statement

Communication is the backbone of our society. The quality of a communication could directly affect a person in forming connections, influencing decisions and motivate changes with their listeners. Public speaking is one the most important and most common form of communication that often needed either during a meeting, a report presentation or a speech giving session. The main purpose of public speaking is to deliver some important messages and motivate changes, as such, how effective the message to be delivered to the listeners is closely depends on the context of the transcript by the speaker. As such, the elements and characteristic of having a quality transcript is crucial to be identified in order to make the speech to be persuasive and able to bring up sympathetic response by the listener. According to studies ( Ebaid, 2018 ), adjectives are defined as the integral elements in linguistic structures as it served as the main component to describe, identify and modify the noun, whereby the ubiquitous use of adjective would be a highly effective persuasive tool to a successive speech. Meanwhile, a recent work ( Temple, 2018 ) has proposed a technique combining Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to evaluate and identify the emotions of transcript’s content and predicting the persuasiveness rating of ‘Ted Talk’ speech. The implementation of such methodology could identify the emotion created by the speaker to make their speech persuasive, however the author does not extract the influencing words that persuade the audience.

Research Questions

The study carried out in this paper will address: the following research questions.

Can text processing pipeline be used to obtain the insights of Persuasive Words in the transcript of famous Ted Talks?

Can the illustration and visualization of Persuasive Words usage help to identify the usefulness of such keywords among different Ted Talks categories?

Purpose of the Study

TED Talk served as a showcase for speakers in presenting great yet well-formed ideas in globally and tend to emerge more and more quality talks that are impressive and persuasive every year. These quality talks if analysed deeply, interesting insights could be extracted and served as the evaluation criteria in making a speech to be persuasive. Therefore, the conducted analysis is aimed to explore and identify on the commonly used adjective elements by the persuasive speech and less persuasive speech across different category of speech type using Text Analytics approaches.

Research Methods

Figure 1 shows the overview of the proposed persuasive words framework used by to analyse the insights of Ted Talks. The framework consists of four steps: Data Collection (Dataset Extraction), Data Preparation (Pre-Process & Cleaning), Text Processing (Tokenize, Lemmatization, POS Tagging, Stop Word filter, Adjective Only Filter) and finally Visualization of extracted word sets and elements. Each of these steps is described in the subsequent section.

Data Collection

The dataset is retrieved from Data World database by OwenTemple’s Project, containing a complete listing of all TED Talks from official events posted in TED.com. The dataset includes the URL where video can be viewed, full English transcript URL, speaker name, headline, description, month and year filmed, event, duration, date published, topic tags and extended with abstract variables that describe the ratings of the talks, which is ‘persuasive’, ‘inspiring’ and ‘unconvincing’. The rating variables are gathered by TED.com from their users who had voted for a particular talk using TED.com’s ratings tool.

Data Pre-Processing and Data Cleaning

As the gathered dataset consist of too many irrelevant attributes, the first step of this section is to redefine a new dataframe with only relevant attributes: Transcript, Tag, Persuasive and ViewCounts. A complete data cleaning approaches (Fill NaN values, fix attribute types) is performed to make sure the data is cleaned.

Considering that the number of views over time since the talk posted might create a misleading data in ‘Persuasive’ attribute, a normalized attribute should be derived to better representing the persuasiveness of each talks. To normalize the rating to account for the number of views for each session, a new variable ‘norm_persuasive’ is extracted through dividing the count of persuasive votes by the number of times the talks had been viewed, which can be also defined as Persuasive votes per View of Talk (Figure 2 ).

Meanwhile, each transcript is originally tagged with multiple topic category that best describe what the talks about. However, each title has multiple tags that used to describe the talks. To better segregate the speech type according to each tag allocated to each talk, each list of tags is first split into multiple rows attached with only single tag.

As the main objective of current work is to extract on the frequent words used in both persuasive and less persuasive talks, the instances are separated into persuasive (Norm_Persuasive >= 250) and less persuasive (Norm_Persuasive > 250) and categorized into top 4 tag category (Technology, Global Issue, Science and Business). The final dataset used is reduced to only the English transcript, tag, Normalized Persuasive Rating attributes.

Text Processing

After the cleaning process, each instance is tokenized using NLTK tokenizer ( Bird, Klein, & Loper, 2009 ) into unigram bag of words. The reason of only applying unigram to the transcript is because we believed that a persuasive transcript might contain some ‘Convincing Adjectives’ that might better bring resonance across the listeners to the speaker. In such a way, unigram could be better in identifying the ‘Adjectives’ in POS tagging section at later.

During the tokenization of the transcript, a stop word filter is first applied to remove the commonly used word that does not contributes to later process. Each word is applied to retain only lower case before going into lemmatization process to further reduce the inflectional forms and derivationally related forms of a word to a common base form.

After applying lemmatization to the tokens, each word is classified into their parts of speech and labelling them accordingly to their lexical category using NLTK part-of-speech tagger. The motivations behind such steps is to identify the adjectives and retain only them for later uses. The tokens extracted to be only consisted of tags: ‘JJ – Adjective’, ‘JJR – Comparative Adjective’ and ‘JJS – Superlative Adjective’. The frequency of each words is calculated using NLTK FreqDist to further validate the processed bag of words. Afterall, the same techniques and approaches are applied to both persuasive talks and less persuasive talks and ready to be further extraction of insights from the context.

Word Cloud and Frequency Histogram

After each word are processed and engineered to be fit into the wordcloud analysis, the cleaned data is loaded into Word Cloud and plotted with the frequency distribution histogram. The key steps in current section is to prepare a better and presentable visualization of data from the cleaned dataset, in another word is to prepare the bag of words illustrated informatic wordcloud and bar plot. Each set of instances (persuasive and less persuasive) is implemented with same methods to finally output their Word Cloud board and Frequent Word histogram. The most frequent words that contributes to a persuasive speech is then identified.

Evaluation Criteria

To further test and validate the suitability of the Word Cloud and Frequency Histogram, a set of formal evaluation and informal evaluation approach is conducted to evaluate the current model.

First session is to validate again the output of model (WordCloud and Frequency Histogram) through internal testing (Alpha test) on the retrieved bag of words. The challenge here is to recap the actual suitable words that appeared in the top 50 adjectives and fine tune the word tokens structure. The initial output is tending to have a lot of irrelevant nouns and adverb that particularly not making any sense. A process of choosing different part of speech tag in Penn Treebank tag set is iterated until the best word cloud that contains only adjective is generated.

Second session is to gather feedback from public speaking enthusiast and regular listeners using google doc survey form. The involved participants are explained with the motivations behind the project and required to comment and rate for the suitability of the WordCloud generated. Each participant is showed with different WordCloud according to different tag category (Technology, Global Issue, Science and Business) and let them rates on how helpful the output could be. The results show positive feedback experience as most participants give positive ratings to the output. Figure 03 shows the overview of expert feedback’s results depicted in pie chart.

In this paper, four different themes of talks: Technology, Global Issue, Science and Business were analysed with proposed framework. The generated output is WordCloud and Histogram illustration of top 50 frequent words according to their category. The tokens used is well filtered to only contain adjectives that the speaker used during their talks that being rated as Persuasive by user of TED.com. Sections below depicts output of different categories and wrapped up with a discussions.

Technology Talk

The generated Word Cloud of Persuasive Technology is surprisingly containing more information than expected. As depicted in Figure 4 , the top words used by the persuasive transcript is ‘Antiangiogenic’, ‘Intergalactic’, ‘Cooperative’, ‘Testable’, ‘Recyclable’. The relevant topics that might be related to the words extracted is impressed, where adjective Anti angiogenic is used to describe the drugs that used in treatment to stop tumours from growing own blood vessels, Intergalactic is used to describe the travel between galaxies in science fiction and speculation, Recyclable is used to describe the waste that could be reuse or recycle. It is clearly describe that people are more convincing if the technology related stuff is related to these keywords’ main purpose. While words like ‘headtailhead’, ‘readwrite’ could be categorized as irrelevant words as they do not provide much information.

For Less Persuasive transcript (Figure 5 ), there appeared to have some commonly used adjectives, such as Litte, many, first, different, much, good, great, able, big and so on. The insights here showcase that these adjectives are tended to be less persuasive when used in a technology talk.

Global Issues Talk

Meanwhile, the global issue talks transcript contained lesser information than expected and only certain relevant keywords is managed to be extracted. However, it is still visible that if adjective that related to ethical behaviour is being used, it has better chance to persuade the listener, for example Moral, Rational, Serious, Nonviolent and Liberal. Word Cloud of global issue talks transcript containing more irrelevant words (such as adverb) compared to technology talks, it is assumed that global issues topic might require more adverb style of adjective in supporting their emotional persuading techniques (Figure 6 ). While the less persuasive speech again showcases the commonly used adjectives just like technology, which can be assumed that the speech will be less persuasive if such keywords is being used during the talk (Figure 7 ).

Science Talk

For the science talk, the retrieved top adjective used in persuasive talk is surprisingly have some common words compared with Technology talk. Some adjective like Intergalactic, Antiangiogenic is again raised in the transcript, which again proof that these keywords could actually help in persuading their listeners and could be comprehended that these issues is more concerned by the listener. Key adjective that could raise resonance is Financial, Agnostic and Irrational (Figure 8 ) while the less persuasive transcript is again containing the commonly used adjectives (Figure 9 ).

Business Talk

For business talks, it is surprisingly that the keywords extracted is more descriptive than being expected. The worth pinpoint extracted top words in persuasive transcript is varied across different categories, such as Moral, Copyright, Nuclear, Intangible, Tangible, Risky, Civil, Intrinsic and many more (Figure 10 ). Across these words, we could make assumption on a persuasive talk is tended to be rich in descriptive adjectives and more intense adjective. The less persuasive talks again contained the commonly used adjective that is less intense and does not makes them be convincing enough to persuade the listener (Figure 11 ).

Discussions

From the work conducted, multiple text processing processes are performed to final generate a suitable model to better visualize on the frequent word used in persuasive speech and less persuasive speech. In the design stage, each process is compared with several similar techniques. Only suitable technique to was chosen in the design of the framework. In this section, we provide the discussions of each process and justify the selection of the selected techniques.

One challenge revealed during stop word filtering is the removal of punctuation of each word tokens. Although a list of stop words is used to filter the token list, but there still exist unwanted punctuation such as ‘100-year-old’, ‘low-power’ and more. Such a case is less efficient when plug into Word Cloud, where the word cloud module will separate the tokens into ‘100’, ‘year’, ‘old’ and provide an inaccurate output. To further fix this, the punctuation is manually removed with panda library function is left only word without ‘100yearold’, so each token is correctly used in word counting in Word Cloud module.

Besides, the tokens that will be filtered to contain only adjective might have different type adjective, such as superlative adjective and comparative adjective. To further reduce the inflectional forms and derivationally related forms of a word to a common base form, Lemmatization is applied. From there, the bag of words is then tagged with part of speech category and filtered to leave only the adjective for evaluation.

Lastly, as there appeared to have overlapped words set appeared in both persuasive and less persuasive transcript, we discovered that there is a need to segregate only the unique words that makes that particular speech to be persuasive. Considering the fact that some commonly used adjective would appear in both persuasive and less persuasive transcript, we compare both set bag of words and remove the duplicated word set, leaving only the unique word tokens to be our final data model for output generation.

As a conclusion, this work has successfully developed and applied the proposed framework on both persuasive talk and less persuasive talks based on different talk themes. From the results of extracted key adjectives, we could conclude that for people are more convinced if the Technology talks contains the usage of adjectives in topics like treatment for tumour , travelling between galaxies and recyclable products . While for Global Issue talk, people are more convinced if the speaker stressed on emotional influencing adjectives. Listener in Science talk on the other hand is more persuadable if the speaker tends to link their speech to technologies describing adjectives. If the speaker wanted to persuade their listener better in a Business talk, they will have to include more intense and descriptive adjectives that could motivates and inspired the listener. Finally, for any topics of talk given, it is not recommended to only include the commonly used adjective, as these adjectives could lead to a less persuasive speech.

Acknowledgments

This research is supported by Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) under the project code, FRGS/1/2018/ICT02/USM/02/9 and title, Automated Big Data Annotation for Training Semi-Supervised Deep Learning Model in Sentiment Classification.

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• Ebaid, H. A. (2018). Adjectives as Persuasive Tools: The Case of Product Naming. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 8, 262-293.
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• Temple, O. (2018). Words of Persuasion: Text predictors of Persuasive TED Talks. Retrieved from https://data.world/owentemple/text-and-content-features-of-most-persuasive-ted-talks

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30 March 2020

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https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.03.03.53

978-1-80296-080-8

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Business, innovation, sustainability, development studies

Cite this article as:

Heng, L. Z., Hoon, G. K., & Samsudin, N. H. (2020). Words Of Persuasion: Best Adjectives For Persuasive Ted Talks. In N. Baba Rahim (Ed.), Multidisciplinary Research as Agent of Change for Industrial Revolution 4.0, vol 81. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 450-460). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.03.03.53

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