For example, after making the point that people have too many options nowadays in supermarkets, he uses humor and describes his ideal phone as having an “MP3 player, nose hair trimmer, and crème brûlée torch.” The effect of the hyperbole is to convince the audience that the wide variety of choices available to people is ridiculous. He uses it after each example in order to bring the audience’s focus back to him and maintain attention. Some speeches employ humor to enliven them and Schwartz makes careful use of it throughout. help create the impression that the audience are part of the speech and therefore keeps them focused on him. The use of collective pronouns like, ‘our citizens’, “our identity’, ‘we are’ etc. For example, when he begins the speech, he describes the main topics as ‘some stuff’, thereby, making the tone of the speech less formal and intimidating. His speech interweaves informal diction, anecdotes and humor in order to make it personal and himself more identifiable to the audience. He eventually concludes his speech with a metaphor to stress that too many choices can be a ‘recipe for misery’. His main body is a mix of examples, analogies and anecdotes, through which he reiterates his main argument to his audience. In doing so, he uses ethos and gives the impression that he is an educated speaker who is aware of his subject matter. In his introduction, he introduces his main argument and ideas while referencing his book. His speech is divided into three sections: an introduction, a main body and a conclusion, which helps him introduce an idea and then provide examples to further his claim. The structure of the TED conforms to the conventions of an effective speech. The TED talk is in the form of a speech and this essay will examine how Schwartz employs various rhetoric techniques in order to persuade and emphasize the idea that maximizing choice doesn’t increase freedom, while still maintaining the interest of his audience. His main purpose is to argue that having too many choices is not as liberating as it seems and can at times be ‘paralyzing’. The Paradox of Choice, by psychologist Barry Schwartz, is a TED talk in which Schwartz discusses decision making and the freedom of choice.

The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz