A Rhetorical Analysis Of Joe Smith's Ideas

Joe Smith went on TED talks and presented a speech called “How To Use Paper Towels” on April 2012. He explains how to save trees by using only one paper towel every time someone washes their hands. Smith says, people can do this by using a method called “Shake and Fold.” All they have to do is shake their hands and then fold the paper towel and dry their hands. If this continues to happen people can save 571,250,000 pounds if paper towels. Smith explains the shake and fold method through a couple of examples by using his own ideas and logic and repetition through words to be able to convey a deeper meaning from it.

Joe Smith is a logical method man who was able to state out facts from his speech. Facts are convincing an audience by the use

of logic or reaction. He stated “If we could reduce the usage of paper towels, one paper towel per person per day, 571,230,000 pounds of paper not used...” (Smith 1). He chose this to be able to give a bigger impact on the audience to show them how much pounds the audience is able to save by using one paper towel every time they are to pash their hands. Smith was able to develop this mode of logic by stating in the beginning how or what happens if people were to use only one paper towel. Then he gets the audience to come in and have them instruct him on what to do, then he repeats at the end of his speech his information again on what could happen if people use only one paper towel each time they were to wash their hands.
Joe smith used words or repetition, and was able to convey a particular meaning through them. Smith used plenty of repetition in his speech, For example, Smith would say “Fold”, “Shake”, and the number 12. He was able to use formal language towards the audience because of the choices of words he used. For example he used the word apostles, which shows him that he knows what it is and know what religion he might be. Also in his speech he would explain some examples of dispensers that people used, like the Tri-fold. Joe Smith used this type of vocabulary to be able to convince the audience to participate and engage it into them and have them remember what to do every time they use a paper towel.
Smith was able to arrange his ideas by stating the most important, then going to the least important, and coming back to the most important again like an hourglass.

The arrangement of Smith’s ideas was able to create a bigger impact onto the audience because he was able to give logic to give people a bigger perspective to what could happen with the paper towels. The information was able to show the audience on what they could do and then go on to what could happen. The author used simple sentences in his speech, the effectiveness of this is that it is short and simple and it goes straight to the point. There are some run-on sentences in Smith’s speech, for example, he was explaining why he shakes his hands 12 times, because there are 12 tribes, 12 months, 12 zodiac signs, or because it is the biggest number with one syllable. Smith was able to use syntax but he was also able to give a nice tone throughout his

speech.
Smith’s attitude towards this speech ranged from a serious tone to a more funny one. He was able to go off from a certain topic and talk about something similar. For example, he was demonstrating towards the audience his method, but after he put his hands in water he shaked them 12 times and then he goes off to explain why he shakes them 12 times. He was going off a serious topic then he went to a more funny tone, and after so he got back to the serious topic. Towards the audience they thought it was funny, and it got them to be a bit more awake and more engaging in his speech and participation. Joe Smith came off as a knowledgeable person, and with this effect, he was able to get more attention from the audience and more participation from it because if you do not seem like a knowledgeable person then no many people will listen to you, unless you have some other method or way to get their attention.
Even though Smith is a logical and knowledgeable person, some errors pop up in his speech.

For example, he assumes that everyone uses more than one piece of paper towels or even uses a paper towel. Not everyone takes two or more paper towels and not everyone uses a paper towel. Even though he has some weak points, he had his strong points. He would be able to give a strong impact onto the audience by quoting “If we could reduce the usage of paper towels, one paper towel per person per day, 571,230,000 pounds of paper not used...” (Smith 2). He was able to convince the audience members that if you use one paper towel each day or at least each time you wash your hands you will be able to save about 571,230,000 pounds of paper

towels.
Through the shake and fold method, Joe Smith was able to instruct the audience on how to be able to save paper towels for every time people wash their hands. The effectiveness of this essay is very well done. Smith was able to engrind the words he repeated throughout his speech into the audience minds, and because of this the audience will be able to remember his shake and fold method. The author was able to show the impact on the audience by stating logic in his speech and showing them, just how much they can save if they use only one paper towel when they wash their hands. The authors ability to persuade the audience was impeccable, he was able to get through to the audience by having them participate in his speech, and by having him show a demonstration on how to do it. Having the audience participate in his speech having them memorize the words and then gets them to memorize his method.