Ideas Worth Spreading - TED’s Rhetorical Position in College Composition

Oct 15, 2026

Examines TED’s rhetorical aims and mass-culture reception through a microstudy of first-year writing pedagogy. Based on interviews with three instructors who identify as TED enthusiasts and a survey of composition teachers, the study analyzes how TED videos shift from classroom tools to a central influence. It contrasts claims about interdisciplinarity and critical thinking with accounts of TED functioning as a fun break, questioning effects on idea generation and brainstorming.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time1 h 6 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

TED’s growth and educational use

Research questions and rationale

Microstudy methods and participants

Critics of TED’s mission and reception

“Ideas worth spreading” and slogans

Ideas Worth Spreading?: TED’s Rhetorical Position in College Composition Shannon Howard Auburn University at Montgomery Introduction Beginning in 1984 as an annual conference event, TED—a nonprofit organization based on forging new connections among technology, entertainment, and design—started as an invitationonly affair and then grew to have an online presence in the 2000s. At that [time TED.com](time TED.com)[ ](time TED.com)launched an audio and video podcast series that made possible “a clearinghouse of free knowledge from the world's most inspired thinkers.” People now share their favorite TED talks online via social networks and use them to enhance motivational training sessions with groups of employees or students. The organization, whose goal is “to make great ideas accessible and to spark conversation,” has gained an international audience with the talks also featured in over 100 languages (“About”) . These talks, always eighteen minutes or shorter, claim to highlight some of the major thinkers ofour time and make their central arguments short and portable to the public. At my institution, a regional university (approximate student population of 5, 000) located in the Deep South, some instructors regularly use TED Talks in their writing pedagogy. Proof of this digital tool’s influence may be seen in Facebook posts (especially in 2014-15, the year of this study) to the department’s composition group—a private community reserved for questions and concerns about teaching. I also see the use of the videos during composition orientation in August and in teacher-led discussions ofthe videos in classrooms I have personally observed. Consequently, my first year at this particular campus made me wonder how often TED functioned as a presence in writing pedagogy, and this culture of TED led me to dig deeper into the message of the organization as well as to question what kind of influence its rhetoric might be having on the writers in first-year composition. I wondered how ubiquitous TED videos had become during the 75-minute class periods these instructors taught and how the videos themselves were framed in terms of meeting goals of teaching writing. I was also aware that although education scholars have engaged in research about TED, no study of its purpose has been undertaken by someone in the field of Rhetoric and Composition. Therefore, I conducted a microstudy in which I interviewed three instructors—teachers I will refer to as Maryl, Kate, and Anne—who identified as TED enthusiasts, and I surveyed our department of composition teachers about their practices involving TED. While the most seasoned instructor (Anne) I interviewed praised TED for its interdisciplinarity and its ability to generate critical thinking, others with less experience were honest about the videos functioning as a fun “break” from lecture or class. Consequently, this study examines the moments when tools of pedagogy indirectly become the heart of our pedagogy and highlights how technology fads might generate a misleading impression of the writing process in general, particularly in the idea generating and brainstorming stages of writing. Additionally, by focusing on idea generation and brainstorming as elements in the writing culture of many composition classrooms, I specifically call into question the TED slogan’s premise of “ideas worth spreading” and emphasize the need to follow through on ideas rather than simply disseminate them. Before this project moves into the classroom, it is useful to survey TED’s rhetorical aimsand mass culture’s reception of those goals. While TED certainly has its supporters, some of whom are described in subsequent pages, some critics attack how the organization fulfills its mission. Martin Robbins in 2012 posted a critique of TED videos, describing his viewing experience in these terms: “The genius of TED is that it takes capable-but-ordinary speakers, doing old talks they’ve performed many times elsew

FAQs

What motivates the study of TED in first-year composition classes?

The study is prompted by how often instructors use TED and by concern about what TED’s rhetoric may be doing to writers during idea-generating and brainstorming stages.

How did the author conduct the research?

The author conducted a microstudy, interviewing three instructors (Maryl, Kate, and Anne) and surveying composition teachers about their practices using TED.

How do instructors differ in how they view TED’s classroom impact?

The most experienced instructor praises TED’s interdisciplinarity and ability to generate critical thinking, while less experienced instructors describe the videos as a fun break from lecture.

Oct 15, 2026

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