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    Rhetorical Analysis

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    Russell Wilson gives a TED Talk titled "My Secret to Staying Focused Under Pressure" where he discusses how he remains calm and collected even during difficult times. He uses pathos by sharing hardships in his life like his father's death. Wilson also establishes ethos as a successful NFL quarterback who has trained his mind for over a decade. While he doesn't rely heavily on logos, Wilson provides reasoning for staying neutral in stressful situations. Overall, he aims to show that dealing with stress is inevitable, so the best approach is learning to manage it rather than avoid it.

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    Rhetorical Analysis

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    Russell Wilson gives a TED Talk titled "My Secret to Staying Focused Under Pressure" where he discusses how he remains calm and collected even during difficult times. He uses pathos by sharing hardships in his life like his father's death. Wilson also establishes ethos as a successful NFL quarterback who has trained his mind for over a decade. While he doesn't rely heavily on logos, Wilson provides reasoning for staying neutral in stressful situations. Overall, he aims to show that dealing with stress is inevitable, so the best approach is learning to manage it rather than avoid it.

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    Russell Wilson gives a TED Talk titled "My Secret to Staying Focused Under Pressure" where he discusses how he remains calm and collected even during difficult times. He uses pathos by sharing hardships in his life like his father's death. Wilson also establishes ethos as a successful NFL quarterback who has trained his mind for over a decade. While he doesn't rely heavily on logos, Wilson provides reasoning for staying neutral in stressful situations. Overall, he aims to show that dealing with stress is inevitable, so the best approach is learning to manage it rather than avoid it.

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    Rhetorical Analysis

    Uploaded by

    api-548603492
    Russell Wilson gives a TED Talk titled "My Secret to Staying Focused Under Pressure" where he discusses how he remains calm and collected even during difficult times. He uses pathos by sharing hardships in his life like his father's death. Wilson also establishes ethos as a successful NFL quarterback who has trained his mind for over a decade. While he doesn't rely heavily on logos, Wilson provides reasoning for staying neutral in stressful situations. Overall, he aims to show that dealing with stress is inevitable, so the best approach is learning to manage it rather than avoid it.

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    Freeman 1

    Colin Freeman

    Mrs. Porter

    ENG 1101

    June 17, 2020

    The Secret to Staying Focused Under Pressure

    Russell Wilson is the current starting quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, one of the

    better teams in recent years, a lot attributed to him. We see Wilson on the field as someone who

    is nearly always cool, calm, and collective, but we have to ask ourselves how he remains like

    that. In Russell Wilson’s “My Secret to Staying Focused Under Pressure” Wilson tells us how,

    even though he has gone through many hardships in his life, like losing his father, to getting

    married at a young age and later getting divorced (4-5). The thing about this is that Wilson has

    always made it through them and has given himself a better future, one that he decided is gonna

    be his. Wilson has a very broad audience in this TED Talk, with it being those who are down

    on themselves and how they can work through it. His purpose is what the title is “My Secret to

    Staying Focused Under Pressure”, and he’s clearly not just talking about football either. It’s

    about how to deal with stress in life, because that’s life. You can’t get out of it stress free. It

    just doesn’t work like that. To show that, Wilson uses Pathos to give examples of some of the

    hardships he faces, and how he deals with them. Wilson also uses Ethos very well in displaying

    how he can prove his words are credible about getting back up after you’ve been knocked down.

    Third, Wilson uses Logos slightly to provide reasoning to the way he reacts to some of the

    situations that are occurring for him. These all combine together for him to make something

    that’s factual and something to relate to, all the while being from a person who has the

    credibility to say what he has to say in the interview.


    Freeman 2

    Nearly the first thing Wilson talks about in the TED Talk is his father dying. This is

    clearly an emotional appeal that he makes, and is thus an example of Pathos. In the TED Talk

    he says “The line goes flat. My dad passes away. The highest of the high to the lowest of the

    low. Just like that. My dad laying in his deathbed, just tears running down my face, you know,

    what do I do next? (Wilson, 4)” In the TED Talk Wilson uses many examples of Pathos, with it

    being his strong suit. Another example of Pathos that Wilson uses is when he talks about life.

    To him life just happens and it’s best to prepare for it rather than run from it. His example that

    he talks about was when he got married at a young age and then later getting into a divorce with

    his wife, and that’s a hard thing to accept (6). By using Pathos he makes his arguments more

    relatable for normal people, not just specifically in his situation. This is also why the audience

    for his TED Talk is arguably so broad. We can all relate in some way to what he is saying.

    Pathos isn’t the only thing Wilson uses strongly though, as he shows his credibility with the use

    of Ethos.

    Being a professional football player brings a lot of stress to a person. Wilson is a

    quarterback, which is arguably the most stressful position to be. The entire game revolves

    around you to do your best. Wilson also uses Ethos when he tells us about how he had a mental

    trainer for the last ten years, and how much that has helped him. He compares it to athletic

    training and thinks all athletes should get it because of how much it has helped him with his job

    (8). This tells us how he’s been training his mind to stay successful under pressure. The final

    element he uses to bring it all together is Logos.

    While Wilson doesn’t use Logos as much as he uses Pathos or Ethos, he still uses it

    enough to truly bring what he is saying together. Wilson shows the use of Logos when he talks

    about his concept of staying neutral (7). He would always try to stay neutral because according
    Freeman 3

    to him positivity can not work and negativity is always bad. According to Wilson he says that

    negativity will always work (6). This is a use of reasoning and that makes it a use of Logos.

    Wilson really doesn’t use Logos Too many more times after this example, but this thought of

    neutrality is what brings the TED Talk together by being the central theme.

    Russell Wilson’s “My Secret to Staying Focused Under Pressure” TED Talk uses

    Pathos, Ethos, and Logos to his advantage. Wilson is a professional quarterback who has to

    focus up under pressure. Wilson isn’t just a quarterback, as shown in the TED Talk. Wilson

    shows how he’s a very relatable person. Wilson gives many examples of Pathos, such as his

    father dying (4) to relate to normal people, not just other professional players, thus making his

    audience broad. Wilson also uses Ethos to show his credibility to make the claims he does, as I

    said before he is a professional quarterback for one of the good teams in the NFL. He has

    professional experience as someone who needs to focus up in order to keep his job, that would

    be very stressful if you didn’t know how to deal with it, but Wilson clearly knows how to.

    Finally, Wilson faintly uses the element of Logos to apply reasoning to his arguments, adding

    the final touch of what is needed in his TED Talk. It gives extra strength to his purpose, which

    is to show that we live through stress in our lifetime, it’s something that is unavoidable, so it’s

    best that we learn how to deal with it instead of running from it.
    Freeman 4

    Words Cited

    Wilson, Russell. “‘My Secret to Staying Focused under Pressure.’” Ted.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 18

    June 2020.

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