Rhetorical Analysis on St. Jude’s
By: Dominique Mosby
February 18, 2014
Dr. Wielgoch
St.
Jude’s is a non-profit organization for children with deadly illnesses. The
organization raises money for children to get the correct treatment. It provides
treatment for children with illnesses such as cancer, leukemia, and Lou Gehris
disease. This gives children an opportunity to fight back against their
illnesses or diseases. The website has pictures with text under or above the
images. It shows many
different things such as, doctors, children, and scientists. The predominant
focus of the site are the visual. People love seeing pictures more than they like
reading actual text. [sk1] Pictures give a better view and idea
on what the site really contains. The text and visual complement each other by
the text describing what is going on inside the picture. Even if the picture
only contains a person smiling the text explains who the person is and their
position as far as St. Jude’s. The visuals help enforce the text, it does not
give any information that the text does not have. The visual
deepens the understanding of the text by the type of pictures that are posted
by the caption of it. [sk2] The
visual is placed either on the side, top or bottom of the text on the site. The
text would not even have a big effect if the visual was missing. As stated
above people would not get the same effect with just text with no picture but
the ultimate effect with the visual aid. In addition to the visuals and texts
this website uses Ethos, Logos, and Pathos to get across to their audience.
Pathos is the appeal of emotion, it creates an emotional response from
its reader. It promotes questions such as how did you feel? Or what emotions
did it bring out? With the St. Jude’s website it created numerous emotional
appeals and responses. Looking at the website is very sad. Seeing the pictures
of children with deadly illnesses makes the audience feel grief. [sk3] Another emotional appeal is relief.
The
website shows pictures of doctors and families holding children smiling. This
is displaying that St. Jude is a loving and caring environment for the children
which promotes a sense of relief. [sk4] Worry
is an emotion that can be connected to St. Jude’s site. People may worry
because they may have children of their own with these illness or that their
child may develop some of these illnesses. These illnesses does [sk5] not
just happen to certain children, it can happen to any child. The use of pathos
benefits St. Jude’s website because it touches the readers and connects with
them emotionally.
Ethos is another appeal used to analyze articles, books, and websites. Ethos
deals with credibility, meaning are the creators’ legitimate or a good source
of information. The St. Jude’s site is a credible site because it is worldwide.
St. Jude’s is a research hospital that many people use for their children and
they have plenty supporters all over the world. If the site was not credible it
would not be still running. St. Jude’s is a convincing site because they have
links and real people that were helped by using them. On the webpage it
has facts on a slideshow showing what illness they have found cures for. The
reputation of the site is found to be positive and uplifting. St. Jude’s site
is uplifting, showing that the survival rate for certain illnesses going up. This
sense of uplifting boost their creditability because it is easier to believe
something coming from a positive aspect, rather than a negative one.
Logos is the last appeal of the rhetorical
process. Logos appeals to the logic part of the rhetorical process. Logos also focuses on facts and reasoning
used to persuade. Facts on the site have to do with the new treatment options
to help the children get well. Another fact is the survival rate is growing for
sick children with a certain illness. The visual on the site
is constructed with several links for visitors and current members.
Organization and composition are a part of this site. This site is organized
simple for users to just click whatever they want to look into and receive
legit facts on a subject.
In overview St. Jude’s displayed great use of
Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. The
use of visuals are a great advantage to the organization. The visuals helped
reached the readers emotions by showing the sick children. In addition,
it is a credible site because of its reputation and its statistics, which deals
with Ethos. It provided facts and reasoning on the site for joining, which is
tied to Logos. Overall St. Jude’s website showed examples of Ethos, Logos, and
Pathos. Lastly, it is an effective website to attract attention for new user.
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