Rhetorical Analysis Of The TED Talk

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Genetic and Biological engineering are just a few of the plethora of types of engineering that are rapidly evolving and expanding their horizons. Many advancements have been made in the field and the community is divided when it comes to the issue of whether or not we should use such technology or what the limits of the technology are. It is imperative to find a solution to this issue or to create regulations because everyone currently does not agree on what should be done about the issue and this could very much morph into a dangerous situation. Many researchers and scientists use their research to formulate their opinions and to persuade the general public while human rights activists use their beliefs, emotions, and possible scenarios …show more content…

He states what the presentation is about and continues to present the audience with some background information on what he is presenting. He presents the audience with real examples in life with animals and then moves to examples used in humans. The presentation had a wide variety of people in the audience. The TED talk was presented in Atlanta, Georgia with an audience that consisted of researchers, scientists, advocates, and members of the general public who were interested in this topic. He uses different appeals throughout his presentation to appeal to the different members of the audience. The TED talk was presented live in March 2011 but it has been online on the TED website since then and has actually gotten over one million views. Anyone with a connection to the internet has the ability to access this presentation or transcript and so I believe that those people who watched it online are just people who are interested in the topic. Wolpe heavily relies on and uses the logical appeal of logos to connect with the researchers and scientists in the …show more content…

Wolpe strategically uses pictures to support his claims and the pictures most likely have a tremendous effect on whether or not the audience will believe him. He explains the engineering that some of these creatures have endured before transitioning to the bioluminescent gene which is how he really connects the technology to humans. Wolpe explains the mechanic behind the technology of the bioluminescence gene and then says, “They did it with mouse pups, kittens…they did it with monkeys…if you can do it with monkeys, you can do it in human beings”. When he makes this connection, his purpose is to prompt the audience to think about the logics of the situation and realize that this is very true and could actually happen. The next major point that he makes is that, “…no area of government—not the EPA or the FDA—controls genetically engineered pets” and this would scare the audience because it is common knowledge that when something isn’t regulated, the situation will probably escalate and something unwarranted will happen. He continues to use the logical appeal when he uses the examples of the human ear that was grown on a mouse, or when they transformed a cockroach into a surveillance tool or when a scientist gave a cell random DNA and the cell actually

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