Rhetorical Analysis Of Graham Hill's TED Talk

In Graham Hill’s TED Talk on March 2011, titled “Less Stuff, More Happiness,” Hill stresses the importance of conserving space and minimizing environmental footprints. The main focus of Hill’s TED Talk is to put into perspective the quantity of space and money that Americans spend on personal storage. The speaker Hill, speaking at a TED Talk, is directing his message to the general public informing citizens that everyone needs to conserve space and energy. As Hill states, “Lots of credit card debt, huge environmental footprints, and not coincidentally our happiness levels have flat-lined over the last 50 years.” Hill effectively uses Logos as a type of appeal to logic because he uses facts and statistics to prove his point and to make the audience think about what information he is giving them. Hill uses facts informing the audience and readers of the amount of storage Americans own, and the amount of money that people

He establishes his voice immediately by saying.”Less might equal more. I bet most of us have experienced at some point the joys of less: college-- in your dorm, traveling-- in a hotel room, camping-- rig up basically nothing. Whatever it was for you, I bet that this gave you a little more freedom, a little more time.” By saying “us,” Hill connects with the audience by implying that he has also experienced the effect of “less equals more.” Hill chose author’s voice for his tone because his speech is more of a comfortable, informative speech, and is a light-hearted, not serious occasion. The speaker Graham Hill, comes across as knowledgeable because he states facts, and he also owns a website about the topic. This makes his argument more persuasive, and credible because it shown that he has done extensive research on the topic. Which makes his argument more believable to the general