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Please welcome to the TEDx 
Sonoma County stage Kelly Corrigan

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(Applause)

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So I have to be honest,

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I’m not feeling very good 
about my prospects right now.

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I don’t have a ukulele player,

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I don’t have a beret,

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I can’t do that dance that 
that guy did from the gospel

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and I am the last thing between you
and your five o’clock drink.

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(Laughter)

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Let me give you five facts.

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Thirty-three percent 
of high school graduates

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never read a book after graduation.

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In college the number goes 
to forty-two percent.

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When the state of Arizona forecasts 
how many beds they need for their prisons,

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they look to the number of kids
in fourth grade who read well.

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The number one cause 
of divorce is poor communication.

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And the number one predictor 
of occupational success is vocabulary.

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So my message today for individuals 
and couples and families,

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for workforces, electorates, 
and communities is read more.

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(Applause)

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Read personal narrative, 
read poetry, read op-ed,

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read Doris Kearns Goodwin

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and Louisa May Alcott 
and Captain Underpants.

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There are so many good reasons to read,

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there’s a whole set 
of physiological benefits

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similar to what you get from meditation

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so there is lowered stress and
deeper sleep and reduced memory loss.

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And then there’s the places 
that a book can take you

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that time and money and 
reality sometimes prohibit

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like Xerox Park, or Gosford Park, 
or Jurassic Park.

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And then there are the people you can meet

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in the pages of a book.

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You know you can walk the jungle 
with Coronel Kurtz

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or skip to the tea party 
with the Mad Hatter

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or storm the boardroom waving 
a tiny phone with Steve Jobs.

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Reading is the ultimate 
neurobiological workout.

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It is to the brain what exercises is 
to the body.

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I could stop right there and the case 
for reading would be made,

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but there’s another reason 
that I want to talk about today,

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and that is to read for the words.

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The consequences 
of a robust working vocabulary seem small

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but there’re actually many and meaningful.

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Before I get to them,

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let me just make the link quickly 
between reading and vocabulary.

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After fourth grade your vocabulary 
basically develops exclusively

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from reading and that’s because 
written language is so much more diverse

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than spoken conversation.

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If you were to read 
for thirty minutes a day for a year,

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you would be exposed to two million words
used in context.

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And they say conservatively 
that five percent of those words

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would be new to you or unfamiliar 
or rarely used words.

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So that’s a hundred thousand such words

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that you’re going to see in a year. 
Let’s say you only retain a hundred,

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but let’s also say that you’re not 
one of the thirty-three percent

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of the high school graduates 
who never read another book again

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and let’s also say that you’re getting 
ready to go to your 30-year reunion.

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That means that you have been exposed
to thousands of new words

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and you’ve incorporated them into your own personal arsenal.

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That has…that matters.

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that adds up.

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So as I said at the top, 
one of the things it does for us

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is predict occupational success.

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And it has been proven 
that achievement precedes the vocabulary

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rather than it being a result of.

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And at first it seemed so far-fetched to me 
that that would be the case

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but then it seemed 
so obvious the more I sat with it.

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I mean how we communicate 
has such a huge influence over

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how we are perceived

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and how we are perceived has such 
a huge influence over how we behave

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and how we behave over time 
becomes basically who we are,

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to our colleagues 
and within our profession.

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And it all starts with word choice.

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Two a strong working vocabulary

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is the best defense we have 
against manipulation

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both commercial and political.

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So take for example 
the whole ballot measure business.

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So you’ve got a team of word Smiths
that are trying to come up

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with the perfect exact phrasing 
for that ballot measure, then you’ve got

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a whole set of media working 
to translate that into new language

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and there you are the voter in the booth 
having to parse those words to made sure

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that you can accurately 
vote your conscience.

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That takes a strong vocabulary.

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Take for another example 
listening to a debate.

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We need to be able to hear 
and instantly recognize the motives

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behind choosing certain words over others.

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For instance affirmative action 
over reverse discrimination

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or illegal immigrant 
over undocumented worker

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or disability over difference.

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The third reason, as my husband said,

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is that language literally 
defines our palette of possible thought.

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As Helen Keller said, 
perhaps more beautifully, no offense Hun

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(Laughter)

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She said, well first she considered herself 
like a wild animal

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until she got her hands on words

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you know, she first learned braille 
and then she learned to sign

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and then finally she could vocalize.

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And she said language sets thoughts aster

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and keeps us in the intellectual 
company of man.

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And I learned this for myself.

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In 1993 I came out to California 
from Philadelphia

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and I started grad school at night 
to get a masters in English Lit.

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My first professor was a guy named 
Michael Krasny

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who you might know – you know – 
from public radio

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Michael Krasny is a lucid articulate man

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and I will tell you that in three months 
of those classes

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he introduced us to concepts as far 
and wide as cognitive dissonance

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and schadenfreude 
and intentional fallacy,

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agnosticism and relativism,

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solecism and those concepts 
that he drew with an architect’s precision

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with that uncanny verbal acumen 
of his are now mine.

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They are in my palette 
of possible thoughts forever.

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And fourth, which is my favorite reason,

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Having a strong vocabulary 
allows you to do the thing

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that fifty plus years of social science 
tells us is the key to well-being;

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make meaningful connections to others.

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The strength of our connections, 
the quality of our connections

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totally hinges on our emotional 
intelligence and EQ starts with words.

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How accurately and unambiguously 
can we identify and distinguish

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and convey our feelings to another.

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Was the lie insidious or was it shrewd?

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Did it make you anxious or cautious?

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Language allows for that potent 
divine moment between friends

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when we both understand 
and are understood.

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The "Exactly Moment" where I say 
“I don’t know it was just,

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I was so disappointed, 
but it was more than that”

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"You were disillusioned."

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“Exactly, that’s exactly how I felt”

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And so Word Nerds our job is clear.

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(Laughter and Applause)

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Only in TED do you get a clap 
for calling everybody a nerd.

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Our job is to go out there and help 
our families and our spouses

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and ourselves our workplaces, 
our electorate, our communities read more,

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so that we may be able 
to achieve and evaluate

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to think and connect

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so that we might keep building the bridge

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that Ian Forrester said is so essential,

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the between the prose in us
and the passion.

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Without it he said, we are 
meaningless fragments:

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half monks, half beasts.

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Thank you

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(Applause)