Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies in "Genetically Engineered Babies? Experts Debate Idea Of 'Designer Baby' Ban"

Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies in "Genetically Engineered Babies? Experts Debate Idea Of 'Designer Baby' Ban"

Ethos, Pathos and Logos are three different types of appeals used in writing. Below is an analyzation of these rhetorical strategies in the article above. 

• Appeals to Credibility or Character (Ethos): 
• References to credible sources are apparent throughout the article, one specific example being a direct quote from Lord Robert Winston, a professor at the Imperial College in London. Additionally, the author also made appeals to credibility by adding scholarly word choice with an informative tone regarding the subject. There was good acknowledgment of both sides of the argument as well as refutations to the arguments of each specific side. 
• The strategies listed above were used in order to allow the author to convey an informational message regarding the material at hand. The author made appeals to the credibility by employing the above examples. This ethos was bolstered up in order to make the author seem more credible. 
• Having credible sources, and writing in a way that sounds scholarly makes the author come across as a reliable source who is writing with the purpose of informing the audience with factual information rather than potentially incorrect information. 
• These appeals to credibility and character also work to develop the piece as a whole by tying together the whole writing. The use of quotes, references to credible sources and explaining both sides of the argument work to make the writing seem less biased and more informative. 
• Although overall it seems that the author has no bias, the fact that she focused more of the piece of writing on the opposition side of the ban of genetic engineering it would seem that she may favor that side as well. 
• Appeals to Emotion (Pathos):
• It is apparent that the piece has repetition of key words such as "designer babies". There aren't many other appeals to emotion other than level of formality which means the article is much more formal than a casual writing. Additionally, the writing contains some statistics in the "Unknown consequences" section of the writing but other than that there is not much.
• These appeals to emotion are employed in efforts to make the subject of the text relatable for people. 
• The text spoke to me in a way that made me imagine being a mother of a child and trying to imagine if I would ever want genetic engineering on him or her. 
• I believe these emotions are effective because it really makes the readers put themselves in the situations and understand how the process would make them feel. This is imperative to deciding what your stance on the issue is. 
• This increases the authors credibility because it shows that she understands how to convey the message to the audience and help them understand the controversy as well as determine their stance on the issue. 
• Appeals to Logic (Logos): 
• The article contains statistics, expert opinions and clear transitions throughout the body of the work. One example is seen in "Even [for] height, one of the most heritable traits known, scientists have found at least 50 genes that account for only 2 to 3 percent of the variance in the samples," Krimsky said. "If you want a tall child, marry tall." Additionally, the article has extremely effective organization for developing the author's ideas. 
• By using these strategies the author is trying to appease the audience and provide reasonable thoughts as to why the readers should favor one side or the other of the argument. Additionally this works to develop the authors main points in a systematic way that is easy to understand. 
• The intended result is the actual result for this type of appeal. The structure of a well written work allows the reader to understand better while having crisp and detailed reasoning to look at. 
• I think these strategies are effective because the author seems to make a claim and then expand through expert opinions. She keeps the text well organized with transitions and sub headings to inform the reader more thoroughly. 

Gene.png, "De-gene" 7/14/10 via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

Reflection:
I read Olivia's and Jon's  blogs about analyzing rhetorical strategies in their individual articles. Olivia's analyzation showed that her article and mine are a bit different due to the fact that the author of her article used no direct quotes or hyperlinks. Appeal to credibility is at a high in my article and it will be interesting to see how her writing is different then mine due to the face that the appeals are less heavy in that area for her. She effectively took quotes from the articles to analyze in her determination of different types of appeals. Jon's article did have quite a bit of emphasis on the appeal to credibility which was very similar to mine. The title of his article alone also shows an appeal to emotion by using the word "family" which should be an indication that the pathos will also be a big factor in the writing for him.