Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies in "Extremely Hopefully and Incredibly Freaked Out: How We Feel About Designer Babies."

In this post I am going to be analyzing the ethos, pathos, and logos in the article Extremely Hopefully and Incredibly Freaked Out: How We Feel About Designer Babies. 


Appeals to credibility or character (ethos)

• credible sources- "...Debra Mathews, a geneticist and bioethicist at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics." "...George Church, a geneticist from Harvard."
• academic diction- "eradicating" "moratorium" "signatories" "parapets" 
• mix of tone- "It's fine to get a little freaked out." "The scientists are right to call for caution." "Lets not fall back into news cable parapets."
• acknowledges both sides of the argument- "So be afraid, be hopeful, and above all be educated."
• appeals to values and beliefs shared by the audience-  "... but most [people's beliefs] fall somewhere between the two extremes."

1. The author uses these strategies to convince the reader that he is knowledgeable and reliable source to report about the subject. 
2. The audience can see that his ideas are supported by evidence. The academic diction shows the audience that the author is well educated and somewhat of an expert. The audience is more receptive of the article because it acknowledges both sides of the argument and caters to their cultural and societal beliefs. 
3. These strategies all increase the effectiveness of the text's message. The strategies support the opinions the author is trying to make, engage the audience, and ultimately convince the audience of Stockton's argument.
4. The author does have some strong opinions that come across in the text, but because he is able to show both sides the credibility is held. 

Appeals to emotion (pathos)

• repeats key words- "fear" and "hope"
• formal tone- "This technology could change the future of the human race." "Poorly conceived policy has led science astray before."
• humor- "Sit down America, and lets talk about making babies."
• includes one image- "Photo by Sean Gallup- Getty Images"

1. The author is trying to incite hope and fear in a way that makes people reflect on the issue of designer babies. This may seem confusing because they are such opposite emotions, but it is crucial in covering the topic as a whole. 
2. I can only speak for the effect of the text on myself. For me, it did spark more thought on the subject and made me rethink my stance on the topic. Fear weights a little more on my mind than hope when it comes to genetic editing. However, the emotional appeal was not too overwhelming, and the article still kept an informative tone. 
3. These emotions are effective because the audience probably is not knowledgeable or has heard little about designer babies. They need to be able to think rationally as they absorb the information and not be clouded by a lot of emotions. 
4. The emotional response covers both sides of the designer babies conflict, and this adds to the credibility of the article. The author argues both sides, and also gives his opinions for both sides. Appealing to emotion balances the logic of the text. This is important because while the text is formal and gives data and sources, it is important to acknowledge that this topic has a lot of emotional charge to it. 

Appeals to logic (logos)

• implements statistics- "A group of Chinese scientists announced they'd edited the DNA of some 80 fertilized eggs."
• expert opinions- "...or change epigenetic states," says Paul Knoepfler, a stem cell biologist at UC-Davis. 
•  effective paragraph organization- Uses short and concise paragraphs with adequate white space between. 
• arrangement of text for emphasis "But- here's the important bit- let's not leave...".

1. The author is trying to give the audience factual evidence that proves why they should be fearful and hopeful of designer babies. He does this by including quotes from experts researching this field and statistics about the current state and progress of genetic editing. He wants the audience to feel like they can formulate opinions and have emotional reactions based on the information he is proving. 
2. The actual result is achieved by what the author attempted. 
3. These strategies are effective for this audience and rhetorical situation. The audience wants to know that the information they are reading is backed up by reliable evidence, and the appeal to logos archives this. Also, the information is not too advanced and is easy to understand by someone who is not a science expert.  

O'Shea Pete. "Writing Tools." 8 April 2011 via Flickr. Creative Commons.

Reflection:

I really liked how in both Jenny and Lauren's posts they included many examples from their article when talking about credibility, emotion, and logic. This made it very easy to connect their article to their commentary about how effective each strategy was. I am going to revise my post and include more examples from my article in each section. A similarity between their two posts is I felt that the appeal to logic was the most effective rhetorical strategy. This is important to an article because without providing facts and evidence to support your opinion, people aren't going to find you as credible or reliable. Also, overall I feel that both the appeal to logic and credibility are important in every article, so I think they are also effective rhetorical strategies. Depending on the rhetorical situation, more or less of the different strategies should be applied, but using them all improves the context and argument overall.