Exercise 2.h

1. I believe the rhetorical situation to which this text is a response is a college student stating facts and his own opinions in a newspaper article in an attempt to persuade the readers not to vote for Hilary Clinton in the 2008 election. The writer of the article’s main purpose is to sway the votes of the undecided and help others understand while he feels Clinton is not fit for the position of President while West simply was completing a rhetorical analysis of the piece. The audience of the original article is any reader of the Collegiate Times while West’s audience is his professor, classmates and any reader of the original article.

2. The genre conventions I recognize in Bryan West’s analysis are those of any rhetorically sound text. The purpose of the analysis and the audience seems to be kept in mind while writing the piece. He also made use of the of the types of rhetoric (pathos, logos, and ethos) although logos was the main convention used as it was analysis meaning it consisted mostly of factual information. I have written many things in this genre before including many rhetorical analysis of cultural artifacts and election speeches in English 1105 and other papers in high school. I have also read many things in this genre before including book and movie reviews and my peers papers in past classes. The rhetorical conventions are becoming very familiar to me as it is something which was stressed in my previous classes.

3. Another genre West may have used to achieve the same purposes for the same audience could be a speech or perhaps even a visual. The advantages of using the analysis is that it is mostly neutral and unbiased as it states the facts. However, some may find this to be boring or uninteresting and therefore forgo taking the time to read it. The advantages of a speech or visual is that it is more personal and would allow West to incorporate more of his own opinions. However, the disadvantage of this is that those opposing his views may dismiss it altogether.

4. Another genre the author may use to communicate his purposes to a difference audience altogether is a comical paper. This would allow him to poke fun at the points he disagrees with and continue to elaborate on the things he agrees with through jokes. This would most likely appeal to a younger audience or anyone who doesn’t prefer to take things very seriously. The writer would need to adapt his persuasive appeal by not using as much logos but instead focusing on the emotional appeal of pathos.

5. I believe that the conventions present in this writing could be used in almost any profession. His goals were to write a rhetorically sound piece while keeping in mind audience, purpose and the three appeals. This makes for a strong and sound textual analysis and any good writing would contain these same tactics. West’s essay was a review and therefore consisted more of logos while other occupations may differ in this aspect depending on their own personal goals. For example, a scientist would probably tend to use more logos while a social workers would perhaps focus more on pathos.