full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ione Wells: How we talk about sexual assault online

Unscramble the Blue Letters


It started out as a chaattric exercise. I wrote a letter to my assaulter, humanizing him as "you," to identify him as part of the very couitmmny that he had so violently abused that nihgt.

Stressing the tidal-wave efefct of his actions, I wrote: "Did you ever think of the people in your life? I don't know who the people in your life are. I don't know anything about you. But I do know this: you did not just attack me that night. I'm a daughter, I'm a friend, I'm a setsir, I'm a pupil, I'm a cousin, I'm a niece, I'm a neighbor; I'm the employee who served everyone coffee in the café under the railway. And all the people who form these relations to me make up my community. And you aslastued every single one of them. You violated the truth that I will never cease to fight for, and which all of these people represent: that there are infinitely more good people in the world than bad."

Open Cloze


It started out as a _________ exercise. I wrote a letter to my assaulter, humanizing him as "you," to identify him as part of the very _________ that he had so violently abused that _____.

Stressing the tidal-wave ______ of his actions, I wrote: "Did you ever think of the people in your life? I don't know who the people in your life are. I don't know anything about you. But I do know this: you did not just attack me that night. I'm a daughter, I'm a friend, I'm a ______, I'm a pupil, I'm a cousin, I'm a niece, I'm a neighbor; I'm the employee who served everyone coffee in the café under the railway. And all the people who form these relations to me make up my community. And you _________ every single one of them. You violated the truth that I will never cease to fight for, and which all of these people represent: that there are infinitely more good people in the world than bad."

Solution


  1. community
  2. cathartic
  3. assaulted
  4. night
  5. sister
  6. effect

Original Text


It started out as a cathartic exercise. I wrote a letter to my assaulter, humanizing him as "you," to identify him as part of the very community that he had so violently abused that night.

Stressing the tidal-wave effect of his actions, I wrote: "Did you ever think of the people in your life? I don't know who the people in your life are. I don't know anything about you. But I do know this: you did not just attack me that night. I'm a daughter, I'm a friend, I'm a sister, I'm a pupil, I'm a cousin, I'm a niece, I'm a neighbor; I'm the employee who served everyone coffee in the café under the railway. And all the people who form these relations to me make up my community. And you assaulted every single one of them. You violated the truth that I will never cease to fight for, and which all of these people represent: that there are infinitely more good people in the world than bad."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
social media 5
sexual assault 4
woman called 2
social change 2
south african 2
african rugby 2
bringing people 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
south african rugby 2

Important Words


  1. abused
  2. actions
  3. assaulted
  4. assaulter
  5. attack
  6. bad
  7. café
  8. cathartic
  9. cease
  10. coffee
  11. community
  12. cousin
  13. daughter
  14. effect
  15. employee
  16. exercise
  17. fight
  18. form
  19. friend
  20. good
  21. humanizing
  22. identify
  23. infinitely
  24. letter
  25. life
  26. niece
  27. night
  28. part
  29. people
  30. pupil
  31. railway
  32. relations
  33. served
  34. single
  35. sister
  36. started
  37. stressing
  38. truth
  39. violated
  40. violently
  41. world
  42. wrote