Forms of appeal
The most important forms of appeal in Kelly Jean Drinkwater's TED talk are ethos and pathos.
Ethos
Ethos plays an important role throughout Drinkwater's TED talk.
For example, the fact that she herself is overweight and has had experience with fat activism gives her personal authority to explore the topic of fat acceptance: “My way of engaging in activism is by doing all the things that we fatties aren’t supposed to do, and there’s a lot of them, inviting other people to join me and then making art about it.” (ll. 66-67).
Drinkwater also builds authority by borrowing ethos from a famous dance theater company which chose her to lead a fat dancers project which was a success: “When director Kate Champion, of acclaimed dance theater company Force Majeure, asked me to be the artistic associate on a work featuring all fat dancers…” (ll. 75-76); “…Nothing to Lose became a sellout hit of Sydney Festival. We received rave reviews, toured, won awards and were written about in over 27 languages.” (ll. 84-85).
The speaker also creates ethos by identifying he...