Blogpost 9

In Melissa Marshall’s TED Talk, “Talk Nerdy to Me,” she is reaching out to the scientists and engineers of the world to try and convince them to teach people about the work they do within the context of that individual’s understanding. Melissa Marshall herself is not an engineer, but she at one point taught a communications class at Penn State to engineers, and even though the research was beyond her, she loved learning about what these people were doing in order to try and change the world. Her purpose was to show that these interactions are what connects people to have a common goal and gives the opportunity for more ideas to be heard. Melissa’s first hand experience working with these people and finding a genuine interest in their work, plays a role in convincing her audience to feel the same and that she is right, in essence it makes her a credible source. She uses pathos to further convince her argument with her constant excitement for discussing the topic, it helps show that even though her mindset is not one of an engineer, she still finds their work extremely fascinating and believes other people would feel the same. Although some feel that taking the time to learn these things is unnecessary, I think it is rather the opposite because this is the research that will change the world some day. Prior to this blogpost, I had already seen the “Talk Nerdy to Me” video, I always found it inspiring so it was important to me to do this one for my blogpost. I strongly agree with Melissa’s points still after watching it for a second time.

Blogpost 8

Using semester skip for this one