Project 5 - Rhetoric in Text 1

Authors use rhetoric in their pieces in order to grab the attention of the reader and get their point across. A form of rhetoric that we discussed in class that is commonly used by authors is word choice. By incorporating certain words in their piece, an author can provide the reader with small hints that lead to the understanding of the author's view on the subject. Word choice can also be a good persuasive tactic to sway the minds of the reader into thinking a certain way about the topic being discussed in the piece.
When analyzing the CNNhealth.com article entitled "Mom won't be forced to have C-section," it is evident that the author, Elizabeth Cohen, incorporated examples of rhetoric through her word choice throughout the piece. For example, Cohen chose to include a quote from Joy that includes the word: "flabbergasted." The quote reads as follows: "I was a bit flabbergasted, because that seemed rather extreme." So, in this quote, two words actually stand out to me: "flabbergasted" and "extreme." These two words cause the reader to sympathize with the Szabo family because when Joy says she is flabbergasted, she means that she is shocked and appalled at her local hospital's new code. Also, when she describes it as "extreme" readers can understand the position that Joy has on the issue involving her and her local hospital, and the readers may be swayed to believe that same thing. Even though, Cohen did not use these words in her own writing, since they were found in a quote by Joy, she still chose to include this quote out of many other quotes that she could have used. Thus, it suggests that Cohen saw the strength that this quote had by using words such as "flabbergasted" and "extreme," and decided to include them into her article in order to allow the reader to feel sorry for Joy and the Szabo family in attempt to get the reader to side with them.
A word that I found in which the author uses herself (not a word in a quote) is the word "devastating." This word suggests that the author has an emotional attachment to the topic discussed in the article and she is trying to sway the reader to think a certain way on the matter. In the context that the word "devastating" is used in is actually supporting the hospital's new code. However, it does not matter which side the author is attempting the reader to sympathize. We are simply analyzing how an author can use words to create a bigger impact on the reader and allow the reader to gain an emotional connection to the topic in which they are reading about. That is what rhetoric is all about. Elizabeth Cohen successfully used subtle hints to pull the reader in emotionally by using strong, meaningful words such as, "devastating," "flabbergasted," and "extreme."