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.