Writing requirement

Thoughtful and detailed,

Be sure to keep working on wordiness, strong vocabulary, and comma usage,

Use correct MLA format for book titles, italics only,

This is the assignment ：

“This week, we will discuss two TED Talks we watched for our Essay #3 assignment.

Please create an original post that is ONE solid paragraph, with a clear topic sentence, at least three body sentences, and one or two concluding sentences. Remember that we are practicing paragraph structure as much as we can in this class!

The prompt for the paragraph is: Tell us about two TED Talks you selected and tell us (1) why did you select each of these two talks; (2) briefly summarize each talk; and (3) what did you learn from each of them ? Conclude with some general observation about what you think of the TED Talk format in general.

Continue to follow the Class Talk guidelines that were posted in week 1. To earn full points, you must reply to four other students, writing at least three-sentence replies (your replies don’t need to be complete paragraphs). Also be sure to proofread your work for typos, grammar, and spelling. “

TED Talks: https://www.ted.com/playlists/171/the_most_popular_talks_of_all

Examples of the original post:

1. “I selected two TED Talks which are 10 ways to have a better conversation by Celeste Headlee and Inside the mind of a master procrastinator by Tim Urban. These two TED Talks are what I watched before taking this class. I tend to look for TED Talks which can give me advice when I have trouble something about. I guess I was concern about talking with others, and I did not want to start my assignment when I chose these two Ted Talks. Speaker Celeste Headlee is an experienced radio host, and she knows well how to make a better conversation with others. She introduces about 10 elements that make a great conversation. I learn how to makes people be comfortable while having a conversation, and how to continues significant conversations with others. My second choice of TED Talks Speaker Tim Urban, a popular blog writer, gives explanations of Laziness with a variety of fun facts that we can easy to find in our normal life. He uses funny illustrations which he drew and it gains the sympathy of audiences. I reflect on my self that I put back all the stuff I need to do, and I learn that If I keep being a procrastinator I won’t be improved. I think TED Talk formats are that there is no Questioning and answering and a single presenter generally delivers TED Talk. ”

2. “Looking at the TED Talks page, I was really drawn torward watching the 25 most popular talks of all time. Two TED talks really caught my attention because of their subject matter. The first one was How to make stress your friend. I thought this talk was very interesting and found it very beneficial to myself. The psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress in a positive way and not think of it as an enemy that makes us sick. Her talk has really changed my outlook to how I viewed stress. The second TED talk was What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness, and I chose this talk because I was very drawn to this title. This talk raised a question on what makes a good life. Robert Waldinger explained how many others out there believe fame and wealth is what truly matters, but he explains that people are completely mistaken. This talk was very interesting to hear since it really raised a question on happiness and what truly is a good life in the eyes of others. I thought the TED talks format was presented in a very organized way. The format and organization of it made it very clear to the audience on what the presenter was trying to inform others about.“

Also, you should write four reflections on others experiences.

For five reflection,

Write one paragraph for each reflection, there are four reflection in total

1. Each post MUST BE three or more sentences. This includes your posts in response to other student posts.

2. Each post must be detailed. It is not enough to simply write, “I agree with you” or “I like your idea.” You must say WHY you agree or like someone’s ideas.

3. Write in complete, standard English sentences. Do not “text.” Poorly written posts will not be considered for a grade.

4. If you disagree with someone’s post, politely do so. Explain why you disagree with facts and details.

5. If you agree with someone, build on the ideas.

6. You can reply to someone who had replied to your original post; this will count as another of your required postings for the assignment.

7. Be kind, respectful, and curious toward other students.

8. The instructor reserves the right to delete any post that is offensive, intolerant, or not sufficiently academic for a college-level course.

Please reapply these four reflection:

1. Jasmine Lee :” I selected two TED Talks which are 10 ways to have a better conversation by Celeste Headlee and Inside the mind of a master procrastinator by Tim Urban. These two TED Talks are what I watched before taking this class. I tend to look for TED Talks which can give me advice when I have trouble something about. I guess I was concern about talking with others, and I did not want to start my assignment when I chose these two Ted Talks. Speaker Celeste Headlee is an experienced radio host, and she knows well how to make a better conversation with others. She introduces about 10 elements that make a great conversation. I learn how to makes people be comfortable while having a conversation, and how to continues significant conversations with others. My second choice of TED Talks Speaker Tim Urban, a popular blog writer, gives explanations of Laziness with a variety of fun facts that we can easy to find in our normal life. He uses funny illustrations which he drew and it gains the sympathy of audiences. I reflect on my self that I put back all the stuff I need to do, and I learn that If I keep being a procrastinator I won’t be improved. I think TED Talk formats are that there is no Questioning and answering and a single presenter generally delivers TED Talk. “

Example of the reapply:

“Hi Jasmine,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the Ted Talks. I like the two speeches you choose because I think it is very useful in our daily life. As a person who majors in Communication, I always want to learn how to improve my communicative and presentation skills, therefore, I think the first speech 10 ways to have a better conversation could teach me to become a professional communicator. As for the second one, it is interesting because I also watched this Ted Talk before, and I really agree with the speaker’s messages.”

2. Zakai Wu: ” I watch two ted talks which is from Susan Cain, She talk about “power of introverts” I chose this speech because I watched it according to my own personality, because I am usually an introvert. After I read Susan ’s speech, I felt that the original introversion was not a bad thing, otherwise it was extremely harmful. Big benefits. She lectured that introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world. Introverts are more focused on their own affairs, and they are less disturbed by the outside world and society. In fact, introverts should be encouraged and celebrate. The format of her speech is that kind of illustration, and she has very strong arguments to support her arguments every time. And the second talking is Shawn Achor, “The happy secret of better work”I chose his speech at the same time because my recent study status was not so good and I didn’t feel happy. I just wanted to change this status. It tells his own story. He is a psychic professor at Harvard University. He specializes in solving the psychological problems of students. He mentioned that we believe that we should work hard to be happy. On the contrary, we only work hard to be happy and work happily. These two things are mutual. So I know that I need to understand the source of my happiness and make myself feel happy often. This is the most efficient way to work and study. The style of his speech is based on autobiography, and he also used data speech methods to prove his point many times in his speech, which is also a very good method.”

Example of the reapply:”

Hi Zekai,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the TED Talks. After reading your thoughts on these two different talks, I am more interested to watch them one day. I like how you mentioned you watched the talk from Susan cain according to your own personality, since you are usually an introvert. I believe this is a great way to look into things and learn about different stuff.”

3. Yu Tsen Lin:” Thanks to this assignment, I watched many inspiring, intriguing Ted Talk speeches, which indeed awakens my awareness of some issues and motivates me to change the current situation. Among many Ted Talks, I choose Yve Blake’s For The Fan Of Love and Joseph Kim’s The Family I Lost In North Korea. And The Family I Gained because these two ted talks left the deepest impression on me. First of all, I want to talk about For The Fan Of Love. Blake is mainly discussing that people should not have double standards in our perception of passion and enthusiasm. Moreover, she emphasizes why we should all embrace our own unbridled enthusiasm. In this fun, lively talk, I once again realize that it is not wrong to have a strong passion for a person or thing, giving me the courage to be the person who I truly am and do everything I want. As for The Family I Lost In North Korea. And The Family I Gained, Kim reveals his toughest days and darkest side of North Korea, how he escaped from North Korea, and why he endeavors to study hard when he came to America. It is difficult for Kim to adapt to a new environment -America, meanwhile coping with high school assignments and exams only with elementary knowledge. Nevertheless, he defeats those obstacles, and he studies harder than other peers so that he could succeed one day and reunite with his family. I clearly remember that Kim says, “Hope is something you have to make it yourself.” I was really moved by his message as well as his heart. Through his speech, I understand that North Koreans are not connected with the outer world, and they can’t have basic rights. They don’t desire to have freedom, but having food to survive is what they concern every day. Inspired by Kim’s messages, I decide to share his story with more people since this is also what he hopes for, expecting the world could pay more attention to the issue in North Korea. Although these two Ted Talks are two different topics of speech, I discover some characteristics in common. First, their topics are interesting or realistic so that they playwright could catch the audience’s attention. Second, both speeches are powerful enough to convince the audience. They explain their idea clearly and with conviction and provide evidence to support why their idea could be implemented. Last but not least, the speaker needs to have a strong conclusion with inspiring messages to affect the audience if they were to accept it.”

Example of the reapply:”

“Hi Yu,

Thank you for sharing your TED Talks. I was really interested in the second TED Talk of yours, which was The Family I Lost In North Korea. And The Family I Gained. I can feel the emotion to it already and hope I can watch this later on. I can never imagine my family not being able to have food to survive from and this really inspired me to take care of my family more than I should’ve.”

4. Yarong Wei:“ The two ted videos I chose are “The happy secret to better work” and “Your body language may shape who you are”. First of all, “The happy secret to better work” makes me want to watch because we often feel distressed when doing our own work or studying and don’t think it is a happy thing. Therefore, I want to learn from this TED speech on how to feel happy at work. This lecture is about the multi-faceted research from the speaker over the years. We found that it is not necessarily the real world that makes us, but the lens that our brain uses to see the world makes our real world. If we change a pair of lenses, we can not only change our happiness level but also every educational or business outcome. Every time you feel successful, you redefine success. For example, if you get good grades, then you must get better grades; you go to a good school, and then you have to go into better ones. School; you have found a good job, the next step is to find a better job. If happiness is the opposite of success, you will never get happiness. Therefore, I think what people do is just to promote success beyond the cognitive level of society, because we feel that we must succeed in order to be happy. When we have a positive mindset, dopamine will enter your brain system. Not only can dopamine make us happier, but it can also open up all the learning centers in the brain and allow us to adapt to the world in another way. Secondly, I chose “Your body language may shape who you are” because its title is very attractive to me. Everyone’s personality can be learned from your body language so I think it is very powerful. This lecture tells us that when people open their bodies, they maintain a strong posture so that the body secretes testosterone and the dominant hormones are decisive, confident and optimistic. However, when people’s bodies are curled up, maintaining a weak posture will produce more cortisone which is a stress hormone, which is tense, disturbing and pessimistic. A small change in body posture can cause a person to change from a negative mental state to a positive one. Speaker Amy even told her own story about her own intellectual decline in a car accident and the story of students who dare not come to the stage to tell us, “Please pretend that you are successful, you will succeed, and you must integrate it into your own bones. Do it continuously until it is internalized into your bone marrow. “Therefore, I learned from it that when we feel that we are not good or very nervous, we should tell ourselves not to think we are not good and not to deny ourselves easily. Because I haven’t tried to do it yet, no one knows what the outcome is. After watching these two lecture videos and the TED Talk format, I think the most important thing in a TED talk is “real”. Regardless of our subject matter, the examples and theories we give must be true and peer-reviewed.“

5. Ruby Warya:” The two TED Talks I decided to watch were Do schools kill creativity? and This is what happens when you reply to spam email. The reason I selected these two TED Talks was that it stood out to me the most since education is the most important part of our lives and the other TED Talk is about spam emails, which I think you guys will agree that we get those all the time. Therefore, I decided to watch these two TED Talks and look at what it is all about. The first TED Talk, Do schools kill creativity? talks about how creativity in education is important as much as literacy and that we should treat both of them with the same status. If we are not prepared to be wrong, we’ll never come up with anything original. By the time we are adults, we lose that capacity. Mistakes are the worse thing we can make and the result to that is that we are educating people out of their creative capacity. He said, “There are 3 things about intelligence: Intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct.” In the end, he tells us a story about a choreographer named Gillian Lynne. He said, “When she was in school, she was hopeless. The school wrote to her parents that she had a learning disability.” When she went to check on her, her mom left her in a room with music and went outside. They found out that she didn’t have a disability and that she is a dancer. Later on, she graduated from the Royal Ballet School and found the Gillian Lynne Dance Company. Now, she is the most successful musical theater production in history and a multimillionaire. He believes that our only hope for the future is to learn and explore a new idea to human ecology. The second TED Talk was This is what happens when you reply to spam email. The person explaining to us about the spam email is James Veitch. He talks about how he got a spam email from Solomon. He then replies to that email continuously and talks about how much he will invest in the gold being distributed. He then says to go big on the deal, which then he does invest in a larger amount. Then Solomon says that he can’t convince his company to do a larger quantity shipment. After a while, Solomon then says that he will spend it on RealEstate and James Veitch says he will spend it on Hummus. His point in this was that he was wasting Solomon’s time and he says that if we reply to a spam email as he did, then to not use your personal email. What I learned from these two TED Talks was that when they talked about their topic, they concluded general stories relating to it and evidence on what they said and how’d they approach it.“