Rhetorical Analysis of Points in Case - by Dani Deibert

http://www.pointsincase.com/

September 1999 marked the humble beginning of a comedy column that was posted in the dorm bathrooms of Emory University. This column quickly began reaching national audiences via chain emails, which were one of the most prominent social mediums at the time. By the end of 2000, the original Points In Case column had launched its website. Today, it is a comedy blog site that features several columns maintained by different authors from colleges and universities across the nation. With a plethora of sarcastic posts by witty authors, the quirky, unconventional blog, Points in Case, appeals to the modern college student with a sophisticated sense of humor.

The ethos of Points in Case consists of a wide range of personalities. Contributors to the blog include staff writers, columnists, and guest writers from all parts of the US. Most of these authors are current college or graduate students, or fairly recent university alumni. While every PiC writer is quite unique, they all have some common aspects, which help to unify the blog. First of all, they are well-educated, in they have received or are working towards some college degree. This intelligence is evident across the authors’ writings; it is seen in their vocabulary choice, sentence structure, and reasoning. Additionally, I noticed an air of sarcasm among the authors. Reading through the articles, I found a consistent presence of sarcastic tone, despite changing authors and writing styles. The combination of intelligence and sarcasm found in each of the writers is what connects the individual posts and gives the blog its character.

There is no specific, meaningful logos to this blog. Its sole purpose is to provide entertaining, humorous reads for its followers. Court Sullivan, founder and editor of Points in Case, writes on the informational page, “Our number one goal is to make you laugh.” The title of the blog itself “Points in Case,” is a play on the commonly used phrase: case in point. That being said, rather than providing examples specific to certain topics of discussion (case in point), this blog provides miscellaneous information that may be relevant to some situation (points in case). Sullivan explains this with the exemplary statement, “here are some points to consider in case this happens to you.” While the articles sometimes reference current issues, the content tends to consist of satirical comment on the subject. For example, two people recently wrote about presidential candidate Donald Trump; specifically, they wrote about his hair. This blog allows its audience to take a break from the “real world,” relax, and laugh.

The pathos of this blog consists of college students (like myself) and graduate students. More specifically, these young adults need to have an understanding and an appreciation for the style of humor utilized by the blog’s contributors. Those with an affinity for sarcasm and satire are bound to enjoy the content of this blog. Additionally, the articles are written under the assumption that the readers are somewhat informed of current events and trends. Even though the “About” page simply states that the blog is “geared toward college students and post-grads,” I feel that these other traits can be found among the blog’s readers.

Aside from the three points of the rhetorical triangle, Points in Case touches on some of NC State University’s Intellectual Standards of Critical and Creative Thinking (defined here https://think.dasa.ncsu.edu/intellectual-standards-of-critical-and-creative-thinking/). These traits include: clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, significance, fairness, originality, adaptability, appropriateness, and contribution to the domain. Due to the satirical nature of the blog, many of these traits are not displayed as their given definitions. I cannot say the blog is exemplary of fairness, because the authors often include their personal opinions. Nor can I say it is completely accurate; there is a lot of exaggeration and distortion of facts among the articles. Despite this, the blog shows a number of these traits in an indirect manner. While the articles have a tendency to be almost nonsensical, the authors maintain a logical mindset throughout their writing. All items are relevant to the comedic purpose of the blog. Even though the works themselves do not have significant meaning, relaxation and laughter are important necessities to offset the stressful lives of college and graduate students. Lastly, all of the posts are certainly original; the ideas are creative and very unique.

To wrap things up, Points in Case is a satirical, sarcastic comedy blog written by brainy college students and graduates for brainy college students and graduates. The overall style of the blog is very casual, as it its sole purpose is entertainment. Whether you were a student reading the original column in the Emory bathrooms in 1999, or you’re like me: a nerdy college freshman reading pointsincase.com today, the posts are sure to give you a chuckle--case in point.

Rhetorical Analysis Of "Hello Healthy" by Laura Carpenter

Project 2

Laura Carpenter

http://blog.myfitnesspal.com

College is hard, and being healthy in college is harder. “Hello Healthy” is a blog in partnership with “my fitness pal” with a goal to provide easy ways to improve one’s health and lifestyle. The site is split into four main categories, which are further split into groups of articles for each category. These four main ones are: Eat, Moves, Live, Learn. They all contain tips, nutritional information, and ways to improve every-day life. Its’ articles are from a combination of authors, ranging from registered dietitians, to weight trainers. The breadth of authors, makes the website more credible in it’s information, because those writing are experienced and trained in their fields specifically. Every article, as well as the homepage to the site, include buttons to push to share it on all types of social media, including: Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook. This shows that the site heavily relies on social media as its primary source for their articles to be seen. Since the site is a partner with “My Fitness Pal”, links to it, as well as “My Fitness Pal” branding covers “Hello Healthy”. Also, every article, as well as the main page, has pictures; these work to grab the reader’s attention, as well as to hold the audience’s attention. When all that is seen is word after word, for several pages, it is hard to stay focused. Through logic, an encouraging tone, specific examples, and implementing research, “Hello Healthy”, aims to better the health of every individual, at any place in life.

The “Learn” category, serves to educate the readers; whether it be on how to use “My Fitness Pal”, or on what recent food recalls there are. A recent article under this category was “The Basics of Body Recomposition: How to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle at the Same Time”. The article alone intrigues the readers, lose fat and gain muscle? It sounds like a dream. Instantly, the reader is intrigued by the title, and then enraptured by the random bolding of sentences. This bolding serves to highlight the main points of the article, and if anything else, the author wants the reader to take away those points and tips. Along with the rest of the website, this article holds a light and encouraging tone. This particular author uses second person, implementing the word “you” all over, makes the reader feel more involved and makes the topic feel more relevant. He also brings up research multiple times, making him a more credible source. Multiple times, he breaks down fitness lingo into something everyone can understand, so that the article is more relevant to everyone, rather than just the fitness gurus. He also brings logic into the article by deductive reasoning. “Part of recomposition training is gaining muscle, and the most effective way to do that is resistance training, therefore, to achieve recomposition, you must resistance train.” Logic is also used when he gives specific examples of how this training can affect overall health. “Calorie cycling is going to help you lose fat while you gain muscle, optimize your hormones, and live longer”, who wouldn’t wan to do it then? Every technique he gives, he makes interesting, as well as relevant. He wants the readers to be convinced that “recomposition training” can be for anyone. Rather than oversimplifying, or overcomplicating, he is real about the technique, and explains that it won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

Another one of the main categories was Move. “Four Ways to Love Exercise-Yes It’s Possible”, is the most encouraging title a girl could ask for. The title alone makes the reader excited to find out what’s next and to get out there and be active. The next thing that grabs attention is a picture of a super fit girl who appears to have recently worked out. Instantly, the reader is compelled to go grab some tennis shoes and hit the gym. Although a person’s biggest motivator should be themselves, its human nature to compare to others, and this picture makes the reader want to look and do the same. The author, who is a personal trainer and well coach, had her own forty-pound weight loss, which makes the appeals to pathos, and makes her appear more real and intrigues to reader to listen more carefully. She breaks her article down into a list (1, 2, 3, 4), with bold lettering at the title for each number title. All of these titles are also encouraging: “Find Movement You Enjoy Doing”, “Take it Down a Notch”, “Mix it Up”, “Value Quality over Quantity”. These titles are meant to grab the audience’s attention, so that they are willing to focus on the rest of the article and find out more. “One study done by researchers at the University of Alabama Birmingham found that women who exercised six days a week actually ended up burning 200 calories less per day than those who performed the same workouts two or four times a week.” She also brings to everyone’s attention that she has done her research, and is not just throwing out random theories that should be taken as facts. She is sure in her statements. Her goal in this article is obviously to make exercise seem attainable and possible for those who have always struggled with self-motivation. There is no reason for individuals to hinder their own success by forcing themselves to do exercises they don’t enjoy. It’s encouraged to find something enjoyable, and to fall in love with that type of fitness, and pursue it, and this is only logical. Why force something upon yourself when you hate it? It obviously will not last long, and that is not the effect you’re looking for.

Eat is the third category, and interesting article, recently published, is “Solutions to the Biggest Challenges of Eating out”. Any ready feels immediately “called out” upon the title. After a night out to eat, everyone comes home feeling guilty, even if it was for putting a little too much salad dressing on that buffalo chicken salad, or eating an entire order of burgers and fries. Rather than calling out people, the author actually aims for the readers to just put themselves in that scenario, and to encourage us to do better next time. The author is a registered dietitian, who obviously has credibility just based off her title. The article is first introduced by some basic statistics. “American’s eat and drink on average about a third of their total daily calories away from home”. When the reader continues to read, rather than finding a sentence saying to never eat out again, they find the author to be understanding of any typical American’s eating habits outside of the home. Instead of giving the reader crazy ideas of how to eat out “right”, she gives reasonable examples of how to save calories, and how to monitor portion sizes. “Instead of letting yourself get to the desperate hunger zone, remember to eat regular meals and light snacks during the day”. She also suggests for portion sizes to get a to go box, and box up half of it before you start your meal, or to imagine the size it should be on your plate and eat only that much. By backing up her reasoning for portion control through stating “Drs. Lisa Young and Marion Nestle, portion sizes at restaurants took a sharp increase in the US during the 1970’s and have continued to expand,” she earns more credibility, and it draws the reader in further. Through logic, the author suggests that “you can come back another time or take home leftovers” when we start to get in our heads that its okay to gorge on the delicacy of foods we encounter when we go out to eat. Rather than being judgemental throughout the article, the author is thoroughly encouraging; she knows it’s not easy to pass up delicious food. She knows that sometimes we fall off of our diets, or don’t stick to the original plan of clean eating, but suggests that instead of beating yourself up about it, you should stand up, brush yourself off, and continue to try to make healthier choices.

Last, but not least, Live finishes off the categories. “How to Break up With Drive-Thru Dining” reads as an interesting title. Break up? As in a relationship? That is exactly what the author suggests. American’s have a relationship with food, and usually it’s not the healthiest. The picture for this article is what you might expect to see late at night when all the fast food restaurant signs are lit up. Instantly, thoughts of late night runs to Krispy Kreme, Bojangles, or Dominoes come to mind. After these mental realizations come forward, the reader is hit with cold hard statistics about drive-thrus.  “65% of McDonald’s annual sales, $10.55 billion, go through car windows”. “It takes an average 189 seconds for customers to get their food from the drive-thru window”. That is a lot of McDonald’s, and that is a very short amount of time to receive the mass amount of calories in that bag of burgers, fries, and McFlurries. The scary part isn’t necessarily the food itself; it’s the speed and convenience at which it is given. The author aims for the reader to take a step back and re-evaluate their life choices when it comes to choosing the drive-thru rather than taking an extra five minutes to make something at home. Logic comes into play at the author suggests that “anything that is convenient is likely to be abused, and if you want to break up with the drive thru, we have to make the healthy alternative even more convenient.” In that sentence, He uses both “you” and “we”, so that no one feels entirely called out, but they realize that they are included in the scenario, and are not alone. He ends the article with “Dump this loser” and “you deserve better”, both these phrases adhere to the title suggesting a relationship. It also empowers the reader to be better and aim for higher and to push through that aching hunger for a few more minutes to have a more nutritious meal, even if it takes a little more work.

The entire “Hello Healthy” website is incredibly encouraging, and empowering. It makes each individual want to put his or her health first. It also meets ever individual on their road of healthiness, whether that be losing weight, gaining muscle, or just living a day to day healthier life. This is exactly what “Hello Healthy” aims to achieve. The authors on the website understand that no one is perfect, and everyone struggles with their health journey, and they are their to encourage and provide useful and helpful information for the readers to make the best decisions. With an easy to navigate web space, and colorful images, “Hello Healthy” is an attractive website with an incredible amount of helpful information

Rhetorical analysis of blog website: the Wonkblog edition

Rhetorical Analysis of the Wonkblog

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/

Hosted by the Washington Post, the Wonkblog employs journalists who write about domestic policy, economics and politics with the intention of being an alternative to the Washington Post. Although the Wonkblog exists to delve into social, political, or economic issues much like the Washington Post itself, the authors’ take on these topics from a social issues standpoint is what makes the blog appealing to the audience of working millennials. And just like its parent, the Washington Post, the Wonkblog emphasizes professional journalistic writing, stressing the intellectual standards of of logic, accuracy, and breadth.

The target audience of the Wonkblog is that of young working adults and it serves as an alternative to the Washington Post. For example, when it comes to talking about business, the Wonkblog focuses on companies generally familiar with a younger working audience. Looking at business related posts going back a few weeks, one blog post talks about the decline in sales of K-cups and K-cup machines while another talks about Chipotle falling sales. Although these two companies are struggling as the Wonkblog posts pointed out, the blog does not mention all the recent news about plunging profits of the major oil companies, nor the volatility the stock market has been recently displaying. This is because the Wonkblog’s target audience is young working adults, and things like oil prices and the performance of the DJIA are generally not of concern to that demographic. K-cup machines are popular among young working people, and are found commonplace in an office-style work environment. Chipotle also markets itself at young, working, health-conscious millennials. The Wonkblog, being aware of this, mainly focuses its economic and business posts limited to companies and topics of interest to the younger working population.

When it comes to politics and even the economy, the Wonkblog attempts to take these posts from a social issues perspective since social issues are important to millennials. One example of that is a post from a week ago that talks about a study that shows evidence of voter ID laws favoring white Republicans. Another post from last week talks about how Donald Trump’s accent stereotypes him as a “blunt, no-nonsense New Yorker.” The post also quoted a linguistics PhD candidate saying that anywhere in the world, people who are considered to speak the “bad” version of a language are marginalized, rural, poor, or a minority. This once again highlights Wonkblog’s goal of pleasing its target audience of working millennials by looking at politics from a perspective they like, which in this case is social issues centered around equality. Even posts that seem to have an innocuous title, like “the fairest--and funniest--way to split a restaurant bill” end up focusing on social issues. The description for the post about splitting a restaurant bill goes on to say “how to talk to all the white men at your dinner table about inequality.”

Although there are about five or six authors working for the Wonkblog covering a broad range of topics from Chipotle to Donald Trump, they all end up presenting themselves in a similar way. They all write from a third person perspective, never once referencing to themselves, although there are a few rare exceptions. The posts also read much like a news article, including having paragraphs broken up into short blocks like one would see in a newspaper. Nearly every single blog post uses at least one outside source, whether it be a researcher, professor, or a professional related to the topic. This is because the Wonkblog is riding on the reputation of the Washington Post to provide professionally written content, and in order to meet that expectation, the Wonkblog’s posts are written in a professional journalistic style. Although the readers of the Wonkblog may not be reading the Washington Post itself, they are still expecting the same level of quality for the content.

The Wonkblog does a good job of meeting all of the intellectual standards of critical and creative thinking. However, some of these standards are especially apparent throughout the blog, such as the use of logic, accuracy, and breadth. For instance, the post about Donald Trump’s New York accent strongly embraces these three intellectual standards. As discussed earlier, Trump's accent gives him an image of a “blunt, no-nonsense New Yorker.” The writer provides a logical explanation as to why Trump does that, and why it possibly contributed to Trump’s success. Using a linguistics professor as a source of quotes and information, the author explains that Trump uses this accent to appear competent, blunt, and even decisive, which according to the polls are the important qualities in a candidate for Republican voters. The author also notes that Obama will also speak differently based on an audience. “When he gives speeches at black churches, for instance, his voice develops a twang,” the author wrote. The author concludes the post by saying that due to the social significance people attach to accents, “the way that a politician talks becomes a rhetorical tool--another way to connect with voters or to burnish a certain public image.” The author of this post shows a mastery of the intellectual standard of logic by being not only explain why Trump talks the way he does, but also tie it into Trump’s success and the success of other politicians who used similar strategies.

Accuracy is also a major intellectual standard that the author upheld. Not only is the post free from error, the author goes above and beyond to include multiple linguistics professionals, including professors, to back his claims. Lastly, the author upholds the intellectual standard of breadth by looking at this from more than one perspective. Using the linguistics professors as a source, the author explored linguistic discrimination to explain why people modify their natural accents to appeal to certain groups, showing that this is more complex than just Trump being Trump. 

Although just one post, the one about Trump, is used an example of intellectual standards for consistency, other posts even by different authors similarly uphold the intellectual standards. For example, the post about declining K-cup sales presents its evidence in a way that expands on the breadth intellectual standard. The post talks about multiple reasons behind the decline of K-cup sales, including a surprising observation related to the increased income of Americans. "Americans, suddenly finding themselves with fatter wallets, are paying to buy coffee prepared by other people again," the author said. The post then went on to talk about consumer awareness of the environmental impact of K-cups being another factor in the decline of sales. Rather than fixating on one possible cause behind the decline of sales, the author focuses on multiple possible reasons, demonstrating the mastery of the intellectual standard of breadth. And like the other post about Trump, this author also uses multiple professionals and industry analysts as sources to demonstrate how the intellectual standard of accuracy is consistently upheld throughout the blog and even among different blog writers.

Overall, the Wonkblog presents itself as an alternative or an introduction to the Washington Post for working millennials by focusing on topics that millennials care about. These topics range from restaurants and brands that millennials are familiar with or frequent, or news, politics, and economics from a social issues  perspective emphasizing equality. Although the Wonkblog is maintained by several people, they all use the same journalistic techniques and uphold the intellectual standards in order to show that they can be professional outside the Washington Post as well.

Sources:

https://medium.com/@d_stellanorth/chipotle-s-segmentation-and-target-marketing-millennials-ed510781fe16#.jxhh7zj2m

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/09/whats-up-with-donald-trumps-voice/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/12/the-poor-are-better-off-when-we-build-more-housing-for-the-rich/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/03/down-go-coffee-pods/

Rhetorical Analysis of the Nomadic Matt Blog

The Nomadic Matt blog is run by Matt Kepnes, and is focused on travel. Matt Kepnes quit his cubicle job to travel the world about ten years ago, and on his blog he writes, “it’s my mission now to help others like you to realize their travel dreams.” Through his blog, Nomadic Matt, Matt Kepnes seeks to help people from all walks of life travel.

One way he does this is by targeting specific audiences through titles and incorporating other travelers experiences. Examining some of the titles reveals that the author's diction is intended to capture the attention of certain audiences. For example, “Why This Family Took Their Teens on an Epic RTW Trip” clearly targets families with teenagers. Matt Kepnes calls on this audience by specifically stating “family” and “teens” and then describing their trip as “epic.” At the end of the article, the related articles continue to target this family audience. These articles include “7 Common Excuses People Use to Avoid Family Travel,” “Why Road Trips are a Good Idea for Family Travel,” and “9 Tips for Better Family Travel.” 

Another post, titled “6 Women Who Conquered Personal Mountains to Travel the World,” is catered to women travelers, specifically those who may have something holding them back from traveling. Kepnes writes, “It’s an important topic I can’t adequately cover, so I brought in an expert to share her advice,” which shows he is aware that his perspective is limited, so he brings in other’s experiences to reach the audience. This article features travel stories of six women from different backgrounds. By including stories from six women of different backgrounds, as opposed to fewer or more similar, he increases the chances of the reader relating to one of these stories. As with the family travel article, the related articles at the bottom continue to appeal to this group. They include, “Women Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Travel Alone,” “Conquering Mountains: A Guide to Solo Female Travel,” and “How to Gain the support of Your Friends and Family.”

A third article that targets a specific audience through its title, as well as brings in someone knowledgeable on the topic, is “How Not to Let Anxiety Stop You from Traveling.” Matt Kepnes introduces the topic by connecting his experience to what people with anxiety experience, but then leads into Lauren Juliff sharing her experience with dealing with anxiety and traveling. by having someone who has struggled with anxiety address this topic, the Nomadic Matt blog becomes more credible to address this topic. In general, the use of diction in the articles to address specific audiences and incorporating the experiences of others allow the Nomadic Blog to target and connect with a larger audience.

Another way the Nomadic Matt blog seeks to reach a broader range of audiences is through variation in the types of posts. The first page of the blog includes articles titled: “Visiting Isaan: Adventures Through Rural Thailand,” “My (Current) Ultimate List of Travel Movies,” and “Now Open: the Ultimate Travel Blogging Course.” The visiting Isaan post is typical of what one might expect on a travel blog. Matt Kepnes writes, “This area may be rural and lack the activities of other regions, but Isaan is a diamond in the rough and a visit here will give you a fascinating look at small-town Thailand.” The article describes what Isaan is like and makes the argument of why the reader should visit there. The post about travel movies is a little different and can still interest someone even if the don’t see themselves traveling anytime soon. It is introduced as, “a list of my all time favorite travel movies that will inspire you to get off the couch, pack your bag, and head to unknown lands.” It still stays true to the purpose of the blog of getting people to get out and travel, even though it is discussing movies.

In the article about the travel blogging course, the author introduces his blogging course. The purpose of the course is to learn “the Business of Blogging” to be able to make money while traveling to pay for your expenditures. Matt Kepnes writes, “I want to teach you how to get here too. There’s plenty of room in travel for all of us… it’s a 1 trillion dollar industry, after all! There is no reason why you can’t be successful as well.” While the main purpose of this article is to feature the blogging course, he stays true to the overall blog purpose of helping people travel. The variety of the articles on the Nomadic Matt blog serve to reach a variety of people and help them get out and travel.

The Nomadic Matt blog contains pages of posts about specific topics. By including a page on couple’s travel and a page on solo female travel, the blog seeks out an audience larger that just those that can relate to Matt Kepnes experiences. Both of these pages begin with a description below the header where Matt Kepnes explains why he lacks expertise on these subjects and that the posts contain advice from travelers with first hand experience. On the solo female travel page, Kepnes writes, “I can’t offer advice on that subject (since I’m a guy!) so I got some female travel writers to offer their advice.” Similarly, on the couple’s travel page, he writes, “As a solo traveler, I can’t relate as I’ve never traveled with my partner (I don’t have one!). So I enlisted the help of my traveling couple friends to provide advice on how to deal with traveling with a partner because the couple that can travel together, stays together.”

The couple’s travel page features stories and advice from different people who have experience traveling with a partner. Some of the posts featured on the couple's travel page include, “Coping with Fights on the Road,” The Importance of Personal Time,” and “Dividing up Travel Responsibilities.” Every one of these posts is accompanied by a photo of a couple, but all of the photos are different. They variety includes running on the beach, posing with sled dogs, covered in mud, in snow, and dining in a restaraunt. By including such a variety of photos, the author is trying to reach a variety of couples whose travel goals may be entirely different.

The solo female travel page is similar to that of the couple’s travel, but it is filled with advice for travel concerns that are associated with solo female travel. Many of the articles are focused on safety such as “Safety Tips for Solo Female Travelers” and “Is It Safe to Travel India Alone?,” but the overall theme of all of these articles is empowering women to travel the world, and be safe doing so. The post “Why Solo Female Travel is Different” is written by a Kristin Addis who has experience traveling alone and describes why solo travel can be different for females. Addis writes, “Because, like it or not, women and men do have different concerns when it comes to traveling, especially when alone.” This is why Matt Kepnes makes a point to include this section on his blog. These section addressing more specific concerns cater to certain audiences so that the Nomadic Matt blog can provide advice to a greater range of people. 

  

In conclusion, Matt Kepnes’ blog, Nomadic Matt, seeks to help people from all walks of life travel. He does this through articles that target certain audiences through their titles, variety in the types of articles, and sections on couple’s travel and solo female travel. Overall, the Nomadic Matt blog seeks to reach a larger audience by going beyond just the experience of Matt Kepnes to help people from all different backgrounds get out and travel.

Rhetorical Analysis: "Please Donate to My Kickstarter So I Can Buy a Hot Tub"

http://www.pointsincase.com/articles/please-donate-my-kickstarter-so-i-can-buy-hot-tub

A student at Temple University, Jon Plester, in his article, “Please Donate to My Kickstarter So I Can Buy a Hot Tub,” emanates witty, sarcastic humor. He uses a warped sense of logic to explain an illogical request: “donations” from strangers to fund his purchase of a hot tub in his apartment. Being that this Kickstarter is merely a joke, it could be said that his target audience is people similar to himself. He has written this article for entertainment, using an intelligent, sarcastic, and self-deprecating tone. It seems that college students with similar personalities and attitudes to Plester’s would most enjoy this article.

Plester begins his “persuasive letter” with a brief introduction and the main purpose of his “plea”. That being said, the first rhetorical aspect displayed is ethos. In the very first sentence, he describes himself as fitting into a number of insignificant roles of many others’ lives, for example “meeting attendee, or break room meanderer.” He suspects that most of these people do not consider their relationship with him to be anything more meaningful than a possibly familiar face. His wish is mitigate his apparent lack of friends, as he claims,

“I don’t have many of [friends].

I don’t know why.”

As his explanation of his solution (the hot tub) progresses, his projected outcome becomes more and more wildly exaggerated. By the end of this section, he asserts that his hot tub will bring him friends in a “flock.” He continues to say that he will have: “So many friends, heck, I won’t even know what to do with them all.” The increasing ridiculousness of his statements is indicative of the sarcastic tone throughout the article.

After giving reason for his plea, he describes the model of hot tub he wishes to install in his studio apartment: the AquaRest AP-600, 5-person, 81-Jet Spa. He explains how having four close friends--as he will call them, “brothers”--is the ideal number of people he would like to share his hot tub with, “no more and no less.” He justifies this amount when references a bit of pop culture, perhaps to attract more people, or simply to indicate a television series he watches: “Four, coincidentally enough, is the same number of friends that actor Vinny Chase has in the HBO television program Entourage.” He follows by presenting the features of said model of hot tub. These include 19 hydrotherapy jets and a heavy-duty, “virtually indestructible,” outer wall. Then he appeals to those with back problems; the “therapeutic lumbar arch supports achy backs,” as he read on the AquaRest website. He continues with the theme of increasing exaggeration in the logos, ending his paragraph by proclaiming, “This could be life changing for him.”

Lastly, Plester lists incentives for donors. One might say this is his biggest draw for pathos, though this “audience” is one of the imagination. For these nonexistent donors, he describes rewards promised in return for various increments of money given to his “fundraiser.” Of course, as the amounts of money become larger, the “prizes,” per say, become more and more outlandish. They begin with the reward for a $10 donation: “You may spend an evening with me and my newfound brothers.” Then the increments continue to $250, in which he promises, “We will all go to a big time movie premiere in Hollywood!” Then, “We will end the night with a couple of smoking hot babes, relaxing inside my AquaRest AP-600!” However, in the final sentences of the campaign, he takes a sudden turn. He says that cannot make any promises regarding the use of his hot tub-- exclaiming, “Get your own AquaRest AP-600, you leech.” This contradiction makes it clear, once again, that this campaign is entirely in jest.

All in all, the sole purpose of this article was entertainment--a bit of comedy for his audience: the sarcastic, witty, college student.

Rhetorical Analysis on "Mental Health In College" from mostlymorgan.com

Project 1: Laura Carpenter

Source: http://mostlymorgan.com/mental-health-in-college/

Inexperienced, college blogger, Morgan Timm addresses her struggle with mental health in college throughout her latest blog post on http://mostlymorgan.com/mental-health-in-college/ .Morgan aims to be a comfort and and an encouragement to her readers, as well as to take a step in improving her own mental health. She conveys an apprehensive yet encouraging tone in order to convince her readers, who are mostly fellow college students, of her decision to take a semester off school. Her tone also warns her readers to be cautious of their own mental health throughout school. Through pathos, as well as ethos and logos, Morgan’s piece moves the reader.

Morgan begins her post by acknowledging her mood in the past few months, and using these emotions to draw the audience in. “I need to get real with y’all for a moment. I was depressed”. She uses short, and concise sentences for clarity. Without a doubt, her mood has been down as she’s struggled with depression, and later mentioned anxiety. Her use of first person makes the post personal, rather than saying a friend was struggling with these things, she claims it for herself. She also introduces her own depression by stating that it can happen to anyone, making the blog post relevant to anyone who ever becomes stressed and anxious. “I learned the hard way that depression can happen to anyone –even if your life looks perfect from the outside”. Obviously, she is as surprised as those who know her that depression can take over a life without the “victims’” realization. “My life felt like it was going in a downward spiral and there was nothing I could do about it”, is her final introductory sentence. It obviously catches the reader’s attention, begging them to continue reading further and discover what’s been done about her situation. Directly after, she inserted a picture with the title of the blog. It shows a girl, who is assumed to be Morgan, staring out a window. However, instead of the window opening up to a beautiful, sun-shining day, the window is closed, and blurry due to the rain that has fallen against it. The rain easily connects with her diagnosis of depression. In the top right corner, there is a light, and on the bushes out in the rain, there is color. These are hints of hope and encouragement.

Continuing into her post, Morgan elaborates on her story, starting at the beginning. Introducing her first realizations of anxiety and depression, she uses strong verbs and adjectives to stir-up emotions and vivid imagery for the readers. These words include: “terrified, paranoid, unusually dark, disappear, hurting, slipping away”, all of them point to another side of Morgan and her struggle. She describes the battle that constantly warred in her mind; again creating vivid imagery of what she went through without anyone knowing. By telling her story, and “being real” with her readers, Morgan obviously appeals to pathos, gripping the readers even further into her story.

After the warring happening in her head, a shift occurs. “Finally, I had a public breakdown, and had someone tell me…you deserve to be happy, you just need to get help.” She had reached her breaking point, and this is where she starts to reveal a light in the story. “Things are slowly getting better every day”, instead of having an unrealistic turn around, Morgan continues to revel in the truth of her situation, and expresses her need to get better, but her understanding that it takes awhile. After getting help, Morgan’s diagnosis becomes credible and even more relevant as she encourages anyone with the same situation to seek help. Her appeal to logos is apparent. After hooking the readers with pathos, she uses logos to further connect with her readers.

Moving to the end of her post, Morgan quickly adds her decision to leave school, and how that has impacted her health. “I really didn’t start making big progress until I made this decision”. Her tone is almost daring readers to be willing to make big decisions in efforts to save their health. Since she summed up this decision in just a few sentences, she felt the need to elaborate by accompanying the blog post with a video. Visualizing -mentally- everything she has gone through is one thing, but actually witnessing it through a self-made video, is another. In the video, she is simply sitting in front of a camera and explaining her decision. Through actions such as nibbling her lips, not making eye contact, and rambling, it is easy to tell she is still uncomfortable with the situation, and that this post was a brave step for her.

Although she is an inexperienced writer, Morgan is living the reality of having mental illness in college, and is therefore a credible source. Through raw diction and unreserved truths, Morgan is able to capture the readers and carry them through this journey with her. She also accomplishes this by appealing to pathos, logos, and even ethos. All three of these were applied in her video, and are seen in the writing as well.

Project 1: Rhetorical Analysis of a Blog Post

An in-depth rhetorical review of Jeff Guo's WonkBlog Post

by Sasha Afanasyeva

Jeff Guo, a reporter for the Washington Post who typically covers economics, boldly explores new territory in his latest WonkBlog post about what’s wrong with Disney princess movies. With the goal of highlighting the controversial results of the latest groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting Disney princess research, Guo successfully approaches the subject through evidence-backed discussion on how women’s speaking roles have declined in these movies for the past 30 years. Guo uses a neutral tone much like a reporter to demonstrate to his audience that despite the subject matter, he is still serious in his discussion.

Guo starts of with examples of the “backwardness” of how women were portrayed in Disney movies in the 1930’s and 1950’s in order to demonstrate how 1989’s “Little Mermaid” appeared to be a step forward, only to tear down the “Little Mermaid” from the pedestal he put it on. According to Guo, the “Little Mermaid” started a disturbing trend in which speaking roles for women were suddenly decreased to less than half of words spoken, unlike the “backwards” predecessors where women still had the majority speaking roles. “For a film centered on a young woman, there’s an awful lot of talking by men. In fact, this was the first Disney princess movie in which the men significantly outspoke the women...in the five Disney princess movies that followed, the women speak even less. On average in those films, men have three times as many lines as women.” Guo wrote. This is a good example of the pathos appeal, as it shocks the audience into realizing that the newer films are not as progressive as originally thought.

For the majority of his post, Guo uses the ethos approach by using interviews as sources from various university researchers who studied the very topic, including professors of linguistics and the very people behind this Disney movie research. In addition to using these experts as sources, Guo also provides graphs that showed the percentage of words spoken per movie, and number of speaking roles women have compared to men. As the data is provided by sources that the audience can trust as being credible, they serve as a powerful tool in demonstrating how few speaking roles women have compared to men. Guo, successfully using these sources in his ethos appeal, explained that part of the reason women have fewer speaking roles, as well as as fewer words spoken, is that the chatty sidekick role in all these movies goes to men. Guo noted one exception to that being of Mr. Potts, a teakettle from “Beauty and the Beast.” Even in Frozen, which has the two sisters as protagonists, fewer words were spoken by women compared to men, and women had about 16 speaking roles as opposed to more than 30 that men had, demonstrating that this trend continues today. “Despite being a story about two sister princesses, men claim 59 percent of the lines in that film,” Guo said. To tie in the data from the researchers, Guo is successful in using the logos appeal when connecting the similarities between the movies and the point he is trying to make.

However, words spoken per movie is not the only concern Guo noted. Women in the more recent movies were more likely to be commented on their appearance than skill, reinforcing that body image is important, a point that Guo used both ethos and logos to make. After all, if girls are taught that being complimented on looks is something to aspire for, Guo logically connects that it can send a message to young girls that focusing on their body image is important for them. Guo’s use of both credible sources and logical connections shows that the way Disney portrays women is something to be possibly concerned about because of the sort of values the movies teach young girls. Guo did note though, that this focus on appearance shifted some in the last four princess movies made, starting with “The Princess and the Frog” with only 22 percent of compliments directed at women involving physical appears on average, and about 40 percent of those compliments involving skills or accomplishment. Guo attributed this recent trend reversal to the most recent movies, especially “Frozen” and “Brave”, due to these movies being directed and written by women or by a team that included women, once again making a strong logos appeal in the process. Guo furthers this point by mentioning how Brenda Chapman, creator of “Brave,” had said that she wanted to “smash the stereotype of the Disney princess movie.”

Throughout his discussion, Guo maintains a neutral third-person tone, using carefully picked quotes from his sources to make any “bold” claims, conveying to his audience that despite this post straying from his usual subject of economics, he is still professional in his approach. Had Guo used a first-person approach, the blog post would likely appear too opinionated, causing readers who expect the same quality writing as in his economics posts to lose interest. Guo’s writing style relies heavily on using data to truly drive in a point, making the logos appeal perhaps his strongest. He doesn’t just use a strong quote from a credible source to drive in a point--he uses data as evidence to support his claim. This is seen through the use of graphs and numbers throughout the post, not something one may expect when reading about Disney princesses. This could also be in part due to Guo’s true focus being economics. It is not uncommon for economists to tackle social issues as economics is the study of choices people make. Economics writing heavily uses data and logos appeals to draw conclusions. Guo’s day job as a journalist is also likely why he so heavily relied on the ethos appeal through the heavy use of interviews with credible sources, as opposed to just finding articles online to reference to. Guo did not use pathos very much in his post, with the exception of the beginning, where he “shocked” the audience into realizing that the rather sexist 1950’s Disney films were more progressive in some areas than modern movies. Guo likely used the pathos appeal that way to draw in the audience as a hook by showing there is a problem, which in turn keeps them reading the whole blog post.

Guo maintains the intellectual standards of critical and creative thinking of logic, precision, clarity, relevance, breadth, and depth throughout his post. Guo's use of credible sources and data to draw conclusions in a logical manner upholds the intellectual standards of logic and precision. The post is easy to read and stays on topic with no confusing or irrelevant information, thus meeting the intellectual standard of clarity and relevance. In addition to noting the main issue at hand, which is the reduction of women's speaking roles, Guo also looks at the social environment in which the films were made, as well as exploring Disney's perspectives and attempts to improve, thus upholding the intellectual standards of depth and breadth.

Overall, Guo successfully demonstrates that there is a problem in modern Disney princess movies that are meant to have female protagonists. Guo accomplishes this by showing that women have fewer speaking roles compared to men, as well as fewer words spoken. Guo strategically uses the pathos appeal to draw in the audience, and then uses ethos and logos appeals to carefully present his case, while maintaining a neutral tone throughout.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/25/researchers-have-discovered-a-major-problem-with-the-little-mermaid-and-other-disney-movies/

A Rhetorical Analysis of Nomadic Matt

Matt Kepnes authors a blog titled Nomadic Matt where he shares tips and information about traveling. One article, “Why You Should Never Get a Capital One Card,” argues that the Capital One Venture Card is terrible for earning travel rewards, which is what it advertises itself as doing. In this article, Matt Kepnes of Nomadic Matt uses first-person perspective, factual evidence, and comparisons to convince the audience that his claims are knowledgeable and relevant.

In the first few sentences of the article, the first-person perspective is clearly established. The author uses this perspective, not only to create a connection with the reader, but also to make himself seem more knowledgeable on the subject. In the first paragraph, he writes, “Many people — even me — recommend this card.” In this statement he does two things. First, he establishes himself as being familiar enough with this card to make a recommendation. Second, he connects his opinion to the opinion of a larger group, which helps to convince the reader that this is not just the author's opinion, it is shared by other people. After this paragraph, he describes what about the Capital One card may appeal to some people, showing that he has an understanding of the pros and cons of the card. In these first couple paragraphs, Matt Kepnes manages to establish himself as knowledgeable on the topic of the article, as well connecting himself to his audience.

At this point in the article, Matt Kepnes has presented most of his argument through ethos, and he makes a much stronger claim about the Capital One card. He states, “it’s probably the worst card for a travel hacker.” By holding off until now to state his main claim of the article, he makes the claim sound stronger. At this point, he has the reader's attention, and has presented himself to seem credible.

About a third of the way into the article that Matt Kepnes presents his main evidence to support his argument. This part of the article is logos intensive as he goes into details of the value of the Capital One rewards. Here he compares Capital One points to American Airlines Points:

“if you spend $50,000 USD on your AA card, those 50,000 points can be redeemed for a one-way business-class flight to Japan worth thousands of dollars! If you spend the same on Capital One, it’s worth $1,000 USD. Capital One points have little value.”

These numbers make the most convincing point of why the Capital One card is a poor choice for someone trying to earn travel rewards. The text in this section is broken up by visuals listing flight costs which serves to break up the text in this section because the numbers make this part denser that the beginning or end of the article.

In addition to using first-person perspective and factual evidence, the author uses comparisons to support his claim. Because he is making the argument that the Capital One card is one of the worst cards, he must compare it to multiple other cards, as opposed to just a couple. Matt Kepnes does this successfully by mentioning ten other cards throughout the article including American Airlines, Citi Double Cash, and Chase Sapphire Preferred cards. He describes the Capital One card as a cash-back type card, and then makes comparisons to other cash-back cards that give better rewards or bonuses. After making these comparisons, he finishes his article by saying, “this is NOT a card you should ever get.” By providing the comparisons first, he strengthens his claim by showing that there are many better options.

In this Nomadic Matt article, Matt Kepnes utilizes first-person perspective, factual evidence, and comparisons support his argument about the Capital One Card through showing that his claims are knowledgeable and relevant.