TEDxTalk Analysis

Buildingtrue allies: Nikki Silvestri at TEDx Manhattanis a 12 minutes 45 seconds speech that was delivered by NikkiSilvestri. The delivery of the speech was done during a TEDx event inwhich the speaker got an opportunity to promote her ideology andappeal to the audience to support her course. Nikki, a formerExecutive Director at People’s Grocery in Oakland, is the currentExecutive Director of Green for All.

Havinglistened keenly to the speaker, I would like to point out that theBuildingtrue allies: Nikki Silvestri at TEDxManhattanis a good speech. It was delivered using excellent communicationskills. Nikki used this opportunity to demonstrate her prowess as agood speaker who has knowledge on how to pass her message and appealto the audience. Nikki used her skills to establish a good rapportwith her audience. The first thing I noticed in the speech is thatthe speaker knew the kind of audience she was addressing. Besides,she took the necessary measures to appeal to them using the ethos,pathos, and logos modes of persuasion.

Inher appeal, the speaker applied the principle of ethos to help inappealing to the audience’s ethics and convince them to haveconfidence in her credibility. Nikki managed to achieve this appealbecause she is a reputable authority in the field of charity. Beforeshe became the Executive Director of Green for All, she served in asimilar capacity at the Oakland-based People’s Grocery. This is aclear proof that the speaker is a credible personality whose messagecannot be doubted but readily accepted by all her audience. The factthat Nikki has such a profile made her a dependable speaker. Hermessage would appeal to the audience since she was talking about whatshe understands.

Thespeaker used pathos to appeal to her audience. Pathos simply meansthat the speaker invoked emotion to help in convincing her audienceto accept her message of attaining food security in the society. Todo this, Nikki had to use many examples on how the society has beenaffected by the problem. Therefore, to be part of the solution, thespeaker felt that she should have told her audience to feel the painsinvolved and associated with it. Lastly, the speaker made good use oflogos. Here, she used reason to appeal to her audience (Monaghan,Goodman and Robinson 72). When explaining her points, she decided todo it in a manner that elicits critical thought of her audience. Thisis how she made sure that all her points were accepted by heraudience because they were reasonable and relevant in solving theproblem at hand.

Nikkiis an effective speaker because she knows how to adapt to heraudience. Because she knew the kind of audience she was addressing,Nikki took all the necessary measures to ensure that she establishesand maintains a good rapport with her listeners. The first waythrough which Nikki achieved this, is through the use of a simple andclear language that could be understood by the audience without manystruggles. Besides, the speaker used a clear voice, pitch, andvolume. All the points could be heard because the speaker was audibleand thus could be heard. At the same time, the speaker made sure thather points reached the audience because of her rate of articulation.

Theother notable attribute of the speaker is that she made a careful andwell-calculated use of non-verbal signs. A careful observation of thespeaker revealed that she used gestures, hand expressions, and facialexpressions. Each of these strategies was properly used right fromthe beginning up to the very end of the speech. Better still thegesture was applied whenever the speaker felt that she was passing amessage that needed adequate explanation (Monaghan, Goodman andRobinson 39). This was a commendable thing to do because it helped innarrowing the gap between the speaker and her audience. It made themessage to be easily accepted by the audience who was thrilled tolisten to her and learn something from the speech.

Withall these highlighted, it is important to acknowledge that Nikki dida marvelous job. The way in which she conducted herself in the podiumis clear proof that Nikki was adequately prepared for the task ofdelivering the message to her intended audience. The speaker made aproper choice of the kind of message to pass to her audience. Thespeech was tailored to suit the context in which it was delivered.This implies that the message was relevant and helpful to theaudience. TEDx is a serious event organized to deliver a specifiedmessage for the benefit of the community. Everything done by thespeaker demonstrates that she is a professional who is endowed withexcellent communication skills. Nikki gave a powerful speech thatsuits the policy makers, food retailers, farmers, and any otherstakeholders who are involved in food issues in the society.

WorkCited

Monaghan,L., Goodman, J.E. and Robinson, J.M. Acultural approach to interpersonal communication: Essentialreadings.New York: John Wiley &amp Sons, 2012. Print.