Reader Log: Joe’s TED Talk
In Joe’s TED Talk about how to use a paper towel, I found many fascinating instances of the use of facts and opinions, particularly in the context of the speaker. The opening use of the facts at hand were particularly interesting; when Smith opened with the long number, “Five hundred seventy-one million two hundred thirty thousand pounds of paper towels are used by Americans every year,” this already seems like a high number, which impresses the audience. However, Smith soon corrects himself affably and says “13 billion used every year”; while this seems like a mistake, it actually makes that second number even more impactful, as it is a much larger number than the already-large one they were given.
One opinion that Joe offers in his TED Talk is the notion that paper towels made from recycled paper is “not as absorbant,” and therefore you have to use more paper. This is an opinion because there is no evidence provided by Joe (or readily available) that recycled paper is less absorbant, and the citing of five recycled paper towels for every regular towel is a number posited by Joe with no evidence to back it up – this makes it an opinion.
The second opinion that Joe provides is the number of times you shake a wet towel to make sure it works right and gets all the excess water out. He cites twelve times because it’s “The one [he likes] the best: it’s the biggest number with one syllable.” While the latter piece of knowledge is a fact, the former phrase is his opinion, which he readily admits to. Instead of it being objectively the best way to dry your towel, it is just a preference he states for the purposes of his own preference. In this way, he expresses an opinion without stating it as fact.
Editorial Analysis – Rubenfeld
The following is a passage from the editorial “Mishandling Rape” in the New York Times:
“At Columbia University and Barnard College, more than 20 students have filed complaints against the school for mishandling and rejecting their sexual assault claims [FACT]. But at Vassar College, Duke University, The University of Michigan and elsewhere, male students who claim innocence have sued because they were found guilty [VAGUENESS]. Mistaken findings of guilt are a real possibility [OPINION] because the federal government is forcing schools to use a lowered evidentiary standard — the “more likely than not” standard, which is much less exacting than criminal law’s “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” requirement — at their rape trials [OPINION]. At Harvard, 28 law professors recently condemned the university’s new sexual assault procedures for lacking “the most basic elements of fairness and due process” and for being “overwhelmingly stacked against the accused.” [FACT]
Is the answer, then, as conservatives argue, deregulation — getting the government off the universities’ backs? Is it, as the Harvard law professors suggest, strengthening procedural protections for the accused? [HYPOTHETICAL]
Neither strategy would get to the true problems: rapists going unpunished, the heady mixture of sex and alcohol on college campuses, and the ways in which colleges are expanding the concept of sexual assault to change its basic meaning [OPINION].” (Rubenfeld, 2014)
My reaction to the text was highly in favor of Rubenfeld, because of my already existing bias towards believing college campuses are havens for rape and sexual assault, with little accountability on the part of administration in order to keep problems quiet. To that end, Rubenfeld’s editorial already spoke to me as I agreed with his points. That being said, I also highly support Rubenfeld’s use of facts and statistics to get real number from real schools into the open. Citing the number of sexual assault mishandling complaints and the quoted arguments from experts in their respective fields makes the evidence even more compelling than normal.
In the end, I agree highly with the article, and with Rubenfeld’s opinion that rapists often go unpunished, and that the college atmosphere contributes to rape culture and a fundamental redefining of sexual assault to make it more acceptable in college environments. Rubenfeld makes compelling points due to his use of facts and quotes to precede his opinions, with clear logical connections between them. The use of hypotheticals in the second paragraph helps to sum up the debate as it is normally being argued, only to offer a third option of ignoring the rhetoric and focusing on the sheer truth of the issue. In this way, I highly identify with Rubenfeld’s perspective and outlook, and believe this editorial to be an effective work on its particular subject.
Works Cited
Rubenfeld, Jed. “Mishandling Rape.” New York Times. Nov. 15, 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/opinion/sunday/mishandling-rape.html?ref=opinion>.
Smith, Joe. “How to Fold a Paper Towel.” TED Talks. March 2012.
<http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_smith_how_to_use_a_paper_towel>.
