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Anthony Giannattasio

ENW: 100

Professor Ferrara

7 November 2019

The TED Talk I watched, “What your breath could reveal about your health” by Julian

Burschka draws connections to ways we can prevent deadly diseases from taking our lives. In

2016 studies showed that way too many cancers, heart diseases, and other significant illnesses

were being diagnosed way too late. Burschka talked about this issue and presented a potential

solution which is called Breath Analysis. When listening to the TED Talk I was able to point out

ways that Burschka used rhetorical appeals to get the audience's attention and express his views.

Julian Burschka motivation behind this TED Talk is to save the lives of people around

the world by adopting a new Breath Analysis disease testing system. In the first few minutes of

the video Julian gives some backstory about how he always gets scared if he feels pain in his

body. He automatically thinks he needs to get tested for a deadly illness. He goes on to talk

about the idea of having alcohol breathalyzers look for diseases through your breath instead of

looking for alcohol. The reason for this is your breath is made up of Volatile Organic

Compounds which can detect many major diseases. Immediately I was able to recognize the

rhetorical appeal of ethos being used by Julian Burschka. He uses his own research to ensure his

credibility and outside resources to provide evidence for his findings. For example, Burschka

states, “And as defined by the World Health Organization, screening is the presumptive

identification of unrecognized disease in an apparently healthy person, by means of tests… that

can be applied both rapidly and easily” (Burschka 00:01:42). Credibility is identified here

because he uses a trustworthy source, The World Health Organization to support his claim. From
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the audience's point of view this makes Julian Burschka look a lot more legit and people are

more willing to take his word for it. I personally trust Burschka because not only is he taking

information from outside sources, but he is speaking in a TED Talk setting where they only

allow people who are educated in their fields to present. On the TED Talk website under their

FAQ tab the company states, “TED isn’t a typical conference. The TED audience has high

expectations of the speakers; the TED speaker team works with speakers well in advance of the

conference to help shape a presentation that will succeed on the TED stage.” With that being

said, you can tell it is very tough to become a TED speaker. They are extremely focused and

careful throughout the process of giving people the opportunity to speak at TED.

Another rhetorical appeal used in the TED Talk was pathos. Burschka talked about topics

that involved deadly diseases which got the audience's attention. Not only did this get the

attention of the audience, but it also probably made them worried and brought in an emotional

aspect. This is shown when Burschka states, “Where disease detection, diagnosis and treatment

can happen at an early stage, way before any symptoms occur” (Burschka 00:09:54). This sends

a message to the audience that Breath Analysis tests can actually pick up on an illness before you

start to have symptoms. In other words, a deadly disease can be in your body and wouldn't even

know unless you undergo a breath test. Scary right? This can generate some fear and draws a

personal connection to someone in the audience or even watching at home.

In my opinion I feel that logos isn’t as well represented as it should be. Burschka only

talks for 13 minutes so you can’t expect him to go in depth on how Breath Analysis can become

possible. He didn’t really mention many specific facts or statistics during the TED Talk. The

only one I can remember is when he stated, “For the majority of diseases listed here, there’s

substantial scientific evidence suggesting that the disease could be detected by breath analysis.”
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(Burschka 00:04:23) Burschka is referring to the list of the Top 10 Causes of Death (Health) in

2016. 7 out of the top 10 would actually be able to be tested through Breath Analysis. Despite a

lack in facts and statistics, everything that Burschka says logically makes sense. He brings his

unique technology outlook into the health world and combines it with evidence to support his

ideas.

This TED Talk was a mix of formal and informal. When Burschka was speaking in the

beginning it was in a formal matter, he didn’t act like it was a personal conversation at all. His

main goal was to share his findings and ideas to the audience. I felt that there were two different

target audiences in this TED Talk. The first target audience would be the general people and

population of the United States or even other countries. The second target audience would be

doctors, health researches, or anyone in the medical field. The first target audience of the general

people would find this style appealing because he presented very smoothly, clearly knew what he

was talking about, and it was easy to follow. The second target audience of professionals in the

medical field I think wouldn’t like this style as much. Professionals in my eyes would want to

see more evidence and facts to back up Burschka idea of Breath Analysis. Facts and evidence is

a category Burschka struggled with during his talk. I found the presentation rather enjoyable

because of the interesting topics he brought up. Towards the middle and end he even mixed in a

little humor throughout the 13-minute talk which made the audience laugh a little bit. In my

opinion, I didn’t find the TED Talk confusing at all. It was rather easy to follow along and

nobody in the crowd seemed confused either. Overall, this style of presenting would not

“offend” either target audience in any way. He doesn't mention any touchy topics that can spark

arguments or use any foul language.

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To conclude, Breath Analysis could become a real testing service one day, or even the

top testing service according to Julian Burschka. After listening to the TED Talk, I am in full

support and love the idea of Breath Analysis. I think it’s an extremely smart idea and could be

the future in disease diagnosis. Burschka used rhetorical appeals to his advantage. The audience

was tuned in and he presented a great talk. Using the concepts of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

helped Julian’s claim. The power of using these tactics in the text and video helped Julian

Burschka gain the audience’s attention and portray his message.

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Works Cited

Burschka, Julian. “Transcript of ‘What Your Breath Could Reveal about Your Health.’” TED,
2017,
www.ted.com/talks/julian_burschka_what_your_breath_could_reveal_about_your_health/t
ranscript.

“Speaking at TED.” TED, www.ted.com/about/conferences/speaking-at-ted.