Analyzing Articles Essay

Submitted By cyleq
Words: 1261
Pages: 6

Cyle Quick
Professor Polo
Discourse 100
12 October, 2014 Today on social media such as the news, information on a subject can be released within hours not even having all the facts to the subject but a scholarly article takes weeks before it is looked over and published. A scholarly article takes much longer for various reasons, one is that they don’t only have the true facts but they also have all the facts as well. It also takes a very great author to write a scholarly article. What makes these authors so great at writing scholarly articles is their use of language, rhetorical strategies, and power to reach out to their intended audiences. In this articles we will look at 2 different scholarly articles showing you that authors reach out to their audiences using language, rhetorical strategies, and power. The first article that we will look at is, “Facing the Future of Social Media.” In this articles Kevin Smith discusses how social media is not only being used for personal uses but as for educational uses as well. He did a study of almost 1,000 professors indicating that roughly 80% are using social media and about one- third use social media to communicate directly with peers and students. This authors intended audience was intended to scholars and professors as well considering that it involves both of them. You can also assume that it can be intended to the students’ parents as well concerned how their children are learning. The language that this author used in the article is very educational, considering that it is intended to an educated person using bigger, educated words such as “imminent” or “adjunct”. By using words like this the author is giving his audience the impression of a solid, full educated and cultured mind. The rhetorical strategies that the author uses is ethos and logos. Ethos is showing credibility and trustworthiness and the way that Kevin shows this is because he’s a Scholarly communications officer at Duke University. He is an educated man and people take his word and advice in to more consideration knowing that he knows what he’s talking about. The other rhetorical strategy that he uses is logos and that is facts or statistics appealing to his argument. The way that Kevin shows his argument is correct by saying that Social media is being used for scholarly purposes as well is the fact that he took a survey showing so. In Kevins article it says, “this study of almost 1,000 professors indicates that roughly 80% are already using social media and about one-third use social media to communicate directly with peers and students (Smith).” After taking a survey it is easier for the audience to believe his argument is correct since there is proof backing it up. A way that this author shows power is by his choice in words. He uses very big and educated words to show his confidence in what he is talking about. He also uses many other resources than just his own to show that it’s not just him that sees social media making an impact on the scholarly side but other trustworthy studies such as “Chronicle of Higher Education.” Having confidence in what you say portrays to the audience that what you’re saying must be right. I personally think this authors argument is very valid and he has every way of showing that it is. He uses language, rhetorical strategies, and power in his article making his argument believable and very convincing. The next article that we will discuss is, “The Effectiveness of Online Advertising: Consumer’s Perceptions of Ads on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.” This article was written by Pikas, Bohdan, Sorrentino, and Gabi. They discuss how they use social networks for advertising and how effective it is knowing that internet usage has been rising for years. Considering that this article was pusblished in “The Journal of Applied Business and Economics” you can tell that the intended audience for this article is economic policymakers, business circles,