Evaluation of Rhetorical Situations

In the following post, I will be analyzing the rhetorical situations of three different public speech acts centered around my field (nursing).

Stojanovic, Darko. "Medical Appointment" 1/26/2015 via pixabay. CC0 Public Domain License. 

Article 1

Even In Nursing, Women Are Paid Less Than Men

Author/Speaker

Author, Lisa Rapaport, is an experienced journalist. She writes for many different online sources, including Bloomerberg Business, Reuters, and Muck Rack. Much of her writing focuses on medical and health reports. She is a graduate of the University of California and lists her employment as Public Relations and Communication, but is now living in New York, New York. As a woman, of course, her portrayal in this article can be seen as somewhat biased. She may in fact be a feminist by nature, slightly lessening her credentials. 

Audience 

Rapaport doesn't report the issue with the voice of someone making a call to feminists. The intended audience, rather, is the general concerned public. Her rhetoric doesn't urge female nurses to action, instead stating the facts and possible reasoning behind the male populace's increased pay. A majority of the article consists of quotes and references to other studies, suggesting that the article is intended as a source of information, rather than an opinionated disapproval. 

Context

This article is definitely a result of the recent call to inequality between men and women in all areas of wife. Though it does verbosely define the events described in the article as wrong, it still shed light on yet another example of male preference in another walk of life. Its incorporation of quotes, paraphrasing and references are reminiscent of a news article. It function in much the same way, as well, providing a brief report as to the newly discovered (though always present) difference in male to female pay in the nursing career. 

Article 2

California Bill Would Let Nurses Perform Abortion During First Trimester 

Author/Speaker

Author, Kathleen Miles, is the Senior Editor at The WorldPost. She has also worked in politics as a district representative for congressmen. As a writer heavily invested in the political industry, the author focuses moreso on the political standpoint of the argument rather than the health related one. She expresses her expertise very well in the article while still giving insight on the medical issue itself.

Audience

Interestingly enough, the article is actually targeted toward those interested and in support of abortion. He article focuses heavily on the benefits on the bill, despite the title's suggestion. She emphasizes that allowing nurses to person first trimester abortions would decrease the number of second trimester abortions, which are more dangerous and expensive. She also refers to those who believe the bill is a mistake "...[lowering the] standard of care for women..."

Context

The contemporary focus for this article is definitely abortion. Without the controversy of the increased popularity of abortion, this article would be nonexistent. It lays out the truth, that abortion is gaining more popularity and is, arguably, progressively being viewed as less sinful than it was once believed to be. The author, of course, does not outwardly say this. It is the way she states the fact without a tone of disapproval that proves this point. 

Article 3

Wet Nursing Is Back! Sort of.

Author/Speaker

Author Amanda Marcotte is an American blogger with a focus on politics and feminism. She was hired as a presidential compaign blogmaster in 2008. Her blogposts and articles have been the subject of many controversial issues over her career. This article focuses on her rally for feminism. Unlike the first two articles, Marcotte's voice is definitely prevalent in the article.

Audience

Marcotte targets feminist mothers all around the world. Her writing includes the strong voice (her voice) of a supporter of all things feminist. Though she provides support and rebuttal for the selling of breast milk, her views are clear in the sarcastic nature of her writing. The title of the article alone defines the article as one that is not of the scholarly sort. 

Context 

Though it's not said in so many words, this article states the opinion of pregnancy being a beautiful and powerful process. Breast milk is portrayed as the super power giving entity of the world. She refers to wet nursing as an example of the necessity for breast milk in healthy babies across the centuries. This article is not to be taken seriously in scholarly context. It applauds the mothering profession while also empowering the feminist view. 

Reflection 

I believe my analyses of my articles were successful in encompassing the three categories/questions. I went slightly more in depth under audience than some of my peers. I found that, at least in the cases of my articles, the intended audience was somewhat vague. In Kelly's post, she defined all three of her sources' audiences as being runners (as befitted her topic). Following this regulation, my audience would seem to be nurses. However, I found that this was not always the case.

My analyses were very similar to Morgan's, whose post I also read. She was very descriptive within each category, helping to emphasize the rhetorical boundaries of each article within each category individually. In this exercise, I believe it was more important to elaborate on the rhetoric rather than simply answer the questions.