Researching Hard for TED

Hey Everyone!

For the rest of my public speaking class, we will be working on writing, and presenting TED talks. These talks will be our final project so we are spending a lot of time on them. The first step in this process is to research our topic. If you didn’t know, I chose to talk about how to travel. . . the right way. We learned that it can be very hard to find credible sites using Google. One of the resources that our school is paying for are the databases. These sites are managed by trustworthy people in the industry who can ensure that all the information is correct and up to date. I used these as my main source.

The first database I went to was CQ Researcher. I found two main articles that were useful to my topic. The first article was about the future of airlines in general. It gave me statistics about how many people are using the airlines today and how that will change. According to Peter Katel, “U.S. airlines alone flew 770 million passengers during the 12 months ending Nov. 30, 2007 — a 3 percent increase over the previous year. The total is expected to reach 1 billion annually by 2015.” (Katel). Although these number are a little old, they are still significant and relevant enough to use. Another interesting fact that I found was the following; "The Department of Transportation's inspector general reported to Congress last September that nearly 3.7 million passengers on 54,000 flights during the first seven months of 2007 had experienced runway delays on departure or arrival of one to five hours or more, an increase of 42 percent over the same period in 2006" (Katel). This will also help my talk because I can go on to talk about how to handle this situation and prepare for it, so it might even be an enjoyable experience.

In that same database, I found another article titled "Airline Safety" by Richard L. Worsnop. This article also included some interesting facts. The first one I found was that "From 1979 to 1992, according to NTSB figures, the annual number of takeoffs increased from 2.8 billion to 4.6 billion. Over the same period, the annual accident rate averaged .0012 accidents per million miles -- less than half the .0028 rate in the 14 years prior to deregulation" (Worsnop). Personally, I like the first sentence a little better than the second sentence, as to not bring a sense of worry to the listeners, but they are both good ways to prove a point.

In the other database, Grolier Online, I found similar statistics that both kind of old and helpful to prove a point. Another thing I searched for, was travel blogs. On these blogs I found tips and pointers that could help travellers. I got some ideas from these blogs as well as a good perspective on the topic from people who like to call themselves experts. I also enlisted my family to give me some tips that they would recommend to travelers. I tweaked and chose certain tips that I really liked. When I presented the research I had to the class, they also gave me some help.They recommended a book titled Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest by Cheryl Strayed. It is about the author who hiked the whole Pacific Trail alone. She learned a lot about herself, her life and how she was going to live it. I haven’t read the book yet, but I aim to read, at the very least, certain parts. I’m can’t wait to see how my TED talk turns out and I’ll keep you updated. See you next week!