The most recent assignment in public speaking class is to create our very own TED talk. A TED talk is a speech that is given to an audience and can vary from 3 minutes to 2 hour. In class, we watched three TED Talks. There are certain aspects of TED talks that make them great. Aspects of a good TED talk include an applicable topic to the audience, humor, visuals, and that it is entertaining to listen to.
To begin with, in a good TED talk, it is important that the topic is relevant and applicable to the audience. One of the TED talks we viewed in class that did a good job of this was a speech on the steps to be successful. The audience can relate to this topic since most everyone wants to be successful in their life. Additionally, it is important that when introducing the topic, you start with a hook. Another one of the TED talks that our class watched, about multipotentialites, had a hook that started the speech by asking questions. This is a good strategy since it engages the audience and gets them involved in the talk.
Secondly, a good TED talk consists of humor. In all of the TED talks that we watched in public speaking class, there was some humor. All of the speeches had punch lines added into the script of their presentation where the speaker thought was necessary. It is good to include humor in a TED talk because it keeps the audiences' attention and makes them more interested in the speech. Who doesn't love some humor and jokes here and there? Humor is a great strategy to tie the whole TED talk together, ensuring that the audience doesn't get bored.
Another part of a good TED talk to keep in mind is that the speech should be entertaining. This is one of the most crucial aspects of a TED talk as the speaker does not want his or her audience to get bored with what he or she is saying. First, make sure the talk is an interesting topic. Next, make sure to have the appropriate length of the speech. It is not good if the speech is too short like the underwater astonishments TED talk we viewed. After watching this TED talk, it left me wanting to hear more things about the sea that I believed was left out. However, it is also not ideal if a TED talk is long. I felt like the TED talk on how appearance isn't everything given by a model was extended more then it should have been. This speech was around twenty minutes long when I felt as if it could have been condensed. Furthermore if the speech is short it is also probably hard for the audience to connect to the purpose of the speech. Or, if the talk is too long then the audience gets bored listening to the same repeated ideas.
Finally, the last important aspect of a good TED talk is the inclusions of visuals. Including visuals in your presentations helps to engage the audience in your talk. It also helps the audience to not get bored with the speech. One of the most common visuals in all of the TED talks that we watched in class were powerpoint presentations. Each speaker talked with a slide from a powerpoint in the background. The slides usually depicted what was being said at the moment in the speech. One of the coolest visuals I thought were the videos included within the TED talk about the astonishing underwater creatures. I enjoyed seeing the bioluminescent animals as well as how different aquatic species can blend into their surrounding environment. For me, these visuals were helpful to understand what was being said in the speech, and kept me more engaged while listening to the TED talk.
Ultimately, there are many important factors of a good TED talk. However, I feel that the most important aspects are that the topic stated is relevant, there is humor, the speech isn't boring, and that there are visuals incorporated into the talk. All of these ideas make up and build the basis of a great TED talk.
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