If I should have a daughter...

This TED talk begins with a spoken word poem about how Sarah Kay would treat her daughter if she was to have one. Then this TED talk transitions into a talk about how Sarah became interested in spoken word and how her interest has blossomed into teaching others about the importance and value in spoken word. Sarah ends the talk with how she began, with a spoken word poem, but this time about rebirth and significance in the world.

Sarah Kay opened with a spoken word poem in order to capture the attention of the audience. This is an interesting technique because her talk is not centered around the topic of having a daughter, but instead her experience with slam poetry. Opening with a poem that is not centered around her main concept is effective because it allows her to keep the audience wondering where she is going with the talk. Also she gets to present an example of spoken word to her audience. She presents her story in a chronological order. The purpose of this is to allow the audience to become aware of how she started in the field of spoken word poetry, and what she has done with her experiences with spoken word as a result. Additionally, Sarah utilizes humor in several points throughout her talk. Her purpose with using humor in the beginning was to break the ice. This also had the effect of regaining the attention of the audience after her poem at the beginning of the talk. Sarah also uses "the girl in the hoodie" as a symbol throughout her talk. This girl symbolizes both the start of her career, and a driving force that can occur in any person. She references this girl at several moments in the talk. This connects her past life and the beginning of her career to where she is now. This showing that she is always influenced by her past experiences.

 Sarah mostly utilizes pathos, this is due to the fact that her talk is centered around her personal experiences. Sarah constantly revisits the common theme of walking through life, open to any hurt that you may experience. This is also a theme in her poem in the beginning. The purpose of this is to create a talk that can be relatable to everyone in the audience. Everyone has experienced hardships, and Sarah allows the audience to imagine how they can use their hardships to also write spoken word. Sarah Kay also uses pathos when she mentioned girls, specifically younger girls in her talk. She starts by saying a poem about a future daughter. She follows this by talking about teaching a young girl named Charlotte about poetry. This is pathos because it has the effect of relating to members of the audience that have been a daughter or are a parent to a daughter. Additionally, Sarah used pathos in order to spark motivation in her audience. This is seen in the line, "Step one was the moment I said, "I can. I can do this." And that was thanks to a girl in a hoodie. Step two was the moment I said, "I will. I will continue. I love spoken word. I will keep coming back week after week. And step three began when I realized I didn't have to write indignant poems, if that's not what I was." This quote personally impacted me while reading it because it shows how she went forward with her passions and is genuine in her thoughts. In relation to Ethos, Sarah Kay is the co-founder of V.O.I.C.E., which is an organization that uses spoken word as an educational tool. This makes her talk more credible because she has experience with teaching and talking about spoken word, making her advice and input more valuable.