Running head: Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetorical Analysis
Denny Chavez
RWS 1301
University of Texas at El Paso
Abstract
This piece of work will explain and examine how the genre affects the argument of the
reader. It will go over and provide details and examples of the main Rhetorical devices. It will
explain how the author uses Logos, Pathos, and Ethos in their own work. In reference to this,
there will be examples provided for each rhetorical tool.
Rhetorical Analysis
The genre of a piece of work can affect the argument of the author with reason being that
the writer needs to utilize the correct information and evidence to support their thoughts and
claims. In the book Mental Health Issues in the Classroom by Frank M. Kline & Larry B. Silver
it is stated “The general purpose of this work is to help educators learn to work with mental
health professionals. It accomplishes this aim by providing information about professions,
vocabulary, and concepts of the mental health community”. They both utilize facts and rhetorical
devices to prove their claim to the reader or audience. This makes it simple for the reader to find
what the writer/author is aiming towards when publishing this work.
Audience
What makes a piece of writing unique, is their claim, argument, and their targeted
audience. For example, Miller and Silver’s book “Mental Health Issues in the Classroom” is
targeting those that want to learn how to work with mental health professionals. They way they
reach this claim is by utilizing vocabulary, professions, and concepts of the mental health
community. They provide you with basic information about the presuppositions of the mental
health community and also includes information for those mental health professionals like, about
the structure of the mental health community. Another part of the audience will be families. It
provides ways to work with families and describes patterns of family development typical to
families with children who have significant impairments. Targeting an audience is an important
factor. If you don’t write your work with the purpose of targeting a specific audience, then your
paperor work is pointless.
Ethos
Whenever you read a piece of work, it is always important to understand the readers
thoughts and beliefs. This helps you make a personal connection with the work and author in a
way that you can relate to. Larry B. Silver, is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, he is also a
clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.,
also, he was acting director and deputy director of the National Institute of Mental Health. For
more than thirty years his primary areas of research were, clinical, and teaching interest have
focused on the psychological, social, and family impact of a group of related,
neurologically-based disorders, Learning Disabilities, Language Disabilities, Sensory Integration
Dysfunction, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Knowing this information, you can
tell that a lot of research and studies were made to write this book. Larry B. Silver wrote Mental
Health Issues in the Classroom to provide ways of helping those in need with his research and
examples. With the background provided of him, the reader can use this to make valuable claim
in regards of trust with the work provided in the book.
Logos
When an author provides or states their claim in a piece of work, they need support it
with the correct information and evidence. In the book Mental Health Issues in the Classroom,
the author Larry B. Silver he provided his claim and argument by providing facts, stats, and
research results from studies he has done about different mental health types that people suffer
from. He also talks about substance use and abuse. Providing us with facts about it and studies
provided from these studies. When it comes to Logos, the base of it is simply credibility and
truth. The writer needs to support their thoughts and claims when using logos by providing
evidence for the audience to understand and trust.
Pathos
Whenever an Author utilizes pathos, he/she tends to target and make a connection using
emotions towards the audiences to make a sympathy connection. For Example, Frank Silver uses
facts about children and people that suffer from mental health issues and have ruined their lives
because of these problems. On page 4 the author states “” He also states on page 4 that “The
report also suggests that 40%-50% of students will not be able to fulfill their educational
potential” The reason why he states this is because he Growing numbers of students have
significant mental health issues. A report from the Center for Mental Health in schools suggests
that in some schools 75%-85% of students do not come to class ready and able to work.is saying
that the mental health issues that these students suffer from the mental health diseases. The fact
that he includes that they will not be able to fulfill their education is very hard for me to digest. I
find this an emotional approach because he is targeting kids future’s. This right away triggers
emotions in people's lives causing this to be an example of pathos.
Conclusion
To conclude this paper, the genre can affect the argument of an author due to the use of
the 3 main rhetorical tools. Logos, Pathos and Ethos. The book Mental Health Issues in the
Classroom was a perfect example on how everything was supposed to be used. The ethos part of
this work was covering the Author's life and specialties he is capable of and also his studies. The
logos part talked about how facts and studies were provided when it came to talking about the
mental health issues. It covered the statistics and everything about the problems. The Pathos part
of this paper covered the emotional connection to the audience when provided with facts about
the kids future. The Rhetorical devices help the audience determine if the authors writing is
trustworthy and believable. Overall we can say this was a well developed piece of work and also
agree with the fact that genre really does affect a claim and an argument.
References
Ask Dr. Silver. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2018, from http://www.ldonline.org/experts/silver
Y. (2016, July 26). Examples of Rhetorical Devices. Retrieved March 10, 2018, from
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-rhetorical-devices.html
Silver, L., Silver, L. B., Kranowitz, Carol Stock; Silver, Larry B., Silver, V. C., Brigitte Buettner,
Larry Silver, Thomas F. Hedin, Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Andrew Carrington Shelton,
Elizabeth Hutchinson, Larry Silver, Michael Cole, Margaret A. Sullivan, Cynthia Lawrence,
Frances Muecke, W. Barksdale Maynard, . . . M.D., L. B. (1993, January 01). Art in History.
Retrieved March 10, 2018, from
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Larry%2BSilver&cm_sp=det-_-bdp-_-a
uthor
