Minor Assignment 2: Jack Selzer's "Rhetorical Analysis: Understanding How Texts Persuade Readers"1/31/2018 I found the assigned reading from Jack Selzer's "Rhetorical Analysis: Understanding How Texts Persuade Readers" to be quite interesting. Having taken a Rhetoric class as part of my online high school curriculum, I am familiar with the topic of rhetorical analysis, but Selzer's descriptions and the examples of analysis he had done deepened that understanding for me. I agree with Selzer that for most people rhetoric has a negative connotation. Saying that someone is speaking in rhetoric generally means that they are deceitful or somehow trying to hide the truth. I learned through my previous study of rhetoric that this is not the only meaning. As Selzer suggests, rhetoric is "not only a means of producing effective communication but also a way of understanding communication." Doing a rhetorical analysis can help us to better understand a writer's intent to persuade, convince or influence an audience through word selection, tone, and purpose. Some critical questions to consider when analyzing a piece of writing are: What is the goal of the writer's article? Is it a persuasive argument? Does the writer establish credibility and seem trustworthy? And what emotional aspects does the writer use to be more influential?
For my rhetorical analysis, I chose an article that was assigned reading for my Introduction to Sustainability course. The article, "Nature isn't a commodity that should be bought, sold and traded" was written by Dr. Kate Rawles and published in The Ecologist in May 2011. Right from the title, the author seeks to be very clear in her purpose. She makes a bold statement in saying what she feels nature isn't to make a case for what she believes it to be. She applies rhetorical device of ethos in building her own credibility by balancing her argument against environmental ethicist Aldo Leopold in saying "We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." Further, Rawles employs the rhetorical device of logos in basing her argument in facts and statistics to prove the magnitude of the problem she's writing about when she states, "Marine biodiversity is key and often overlooked. Seven-tenths of planet earth is ocean, and 99 percent of the space available for life is in the sea. If all life on earth were wiped out, marine life would continue: but not vice versa. And all is far from well in the sea." She also uses this previous statement to employ the pathos device by almost imperceptibly weaving in illustrative language that ties to the emotions and values of her audience. The most striking example of rhetoric that the author uses is the device of ethos. Through her writing style, she demonstrates a confidence in delivery that could be repellent to some audiences and could leave them with a need for more evidence-based or emotionally-based language to be entirely convinced of her argument. I can see that this could be particularly true of an audience that may already have their own perspectives on this topic. I would be very interested in whether or not my peers see the same through their own reading and analysis of the article.
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AuthorHi! I am Collin Barker and I am a Marine Biology Major at Roger Williams University, an avid reader and fish keeper. To learn more about me check out my About page. Archives
May 2018
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