For our first essay, the text that I will be performing a rhetorical analysis of is an excerpt article from our book, called "Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It."
I chose this text because, first, the title drew me in. I think it's absolutely crazy what people pay for bottled water (not to mention the environmental effects) when they could just as easily drink tap water. I was interested to see what the author had to say about it. Also, the article is a little longer than most of the excerpts in our book, so I figured that I would have more to write about with more to refer to.
I have come to the conclusion that the article is an argument to convince. I debated between this and persuade, but ultimately I think that putting it in the persuasion category would be a bit too extreme. The author is simply trying to convince the audience that tap water is currently just as safe (if not more so) than bottled water.
This being said, I think the author does a good job of achieving her goal. She cites facts from leading experts in the field, appeals to the readers emotions, and uses specific examples from her life (getting her own tap water tested, ect..)
I can't wait to write the essay and get a chance to elaborate on all of these things! :)
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Smart, Pretty, and Awkward
THE BLOG...
For our reading assignment, I read the blog Smart, Pretty, and Awkward by Molly Ford. It caught my attention because it was cute, fun, and the posts weren't particularly long.
THE PURPOSE ...
The blog is an argument to inform. You can tell because one) it's not particularly "argumentative," and two) the author is clearly trying to tell the audience something they didn't know.
THE ANALYSIS ...
Molly starts each blog with a quote. The authors range from Emerson, to Julia Child, to Stephen Colbert, and the topics are equally diverse (some funny, others insightful). A quote proves to be the perfect way to set the mood for her informative blogs by effectively drawing the audience in.
The blogs give advice in three different areas: how to be smarter, how to be prettier, and how to be (less) awkward. Breaking the tidbits and advice up into these three different categories each day helps the information to be relayed effectively - you are given each piece of advice to analalyze separately first, and then you can reflect on them together (as a whole). This technique is effective.
The actual information relayed in the blog is the dissapointing part. I love the quotes, and the cute blog layout totally won me over. But once I started reading, I can't say that the information I recieved was really worth my time. In one of my favorite inacurrate tips Molly writes, "I like to give my eyelashes a break from mascara a few times a week as I think it is good for them to breathe a bit without makeup." (In all actuality your eyelashes are dead and do not "breathe" with or without mascara). Some of the others include pictures of cute animals, not-so-fashionable fashion tips, and advice such as "Liking where you live makes everything happier" (Duh!)
All in all, the blog is set up to be cute and charming, but ultimately proves to be a let-down. The attention-grabbing techniques are effective, but the actual information that is relayed isn't particularly informative.
For our reading assignment, I read the blog Smart, Pretty, and Awkward by Molly Ford. It caught my attention because it was cute, fun, and the posts weren't particularly long.
THE PURPOSE ...
The blog is an argument to inform. You can tell because one) it's not particularly "argumentative," and two) the author is clearly trying to tell the audience something they didn't know.
THE ANALYSIS ...
Molly starts each blog with a quote. The authors range from Emerson, to Julia Child, to Stephen Colbert, and the topics are equally diverse (some funny, others insightful). A quote proves to be the perfect way to set the mood for her informative blogs by effectively drawing the audience in.
The blogs give advice in three different areas: how to be smarter, how to be prettier, and how to be (less) awkward. Breaking the tidbits and advice up into these three different categories each day helps the information to be relayed effectively - you are given each piece of advice to analalyze separately first, and then you can reflect on them together (as a whole). This technique is effective.
The actual information relayed in the blog is the dissapointing part. I love the quotes, and the cute blog layout totally won me over. But once I started reading, I can't say that the information I recieved was really worth my time. In one of my favorite inacurrate tips Molly writes, "I like to give my eyelashes a break from mascara a few times a week as I think it is good for them to breathe a bit without makeup." (In all actuality your eyelashes are dead and do not "breathe" with or without mascara). Some of the others include pictures of cute animals, not-so-fashionable fashion tips, and advice such as "Liking where you live makes everything happier" (Duh!)
All in all, the blog is set up to be cute and charming, but ultimately proves to be a let-down. The attention-grabbing techniques are effective, but the actual information that is relayed isn't particularly informative.
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