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Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis
The world of psychology is expanding tremendously with the amounts of research and
technology available in today's society. Psychologist and other medical professionals want to
share their discoveries and teach the readers who find interest in the subject. Stress disorders
have been the recent focus of scientific research. Scientists are noticing trends in their research
and feel the exigence is to communicate what causes stress, who is vulnerable to stress, and ways
to cope with stress. The first article is a professional text that comes from the renowned mental
health and archives website, "Psychology Today". Dr. David Vago wrote the first article: who is
primarily an associate psychologist and a Professor at Harvard Medical School. The second
article is an academic journal from ASU's database and consists of four authors: Simona Trifu,
Anca Gutt, Daniela Braileanu, and Eduard Carp. Each author did not have a well-known
reputation like Dr. Vago but all had experience in the medical or physiological field. The two
articles have very similar topics in the discussion of stress disorder; however take different
rhetorical approaches to appeal to their audience, which leads to different uses of ethos, pathos,
and logos.
After reading through the articles, it was clear the audience's differed tremendously. The
title of the first article from Dr. Vago reads "The Key to Experiencing and Handling Stress in a
Healthy Way" (2015). From the title I inferred that the text was towards the general public
because stress is a factor, everyone faces in day-to-day tasks and should have an idea of how to
cope with it. Headings in the article are meant to create curiosity in the readers. For example, the
author asks, "are you vulnerable to everyday stress?" or states "successful management of life
stress" (Vago, 2015); which lead into a persuasion of how to cope with the stressor and tasks that

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Rhetorical Analysis
might cause you stress. The author's layout also consists of different visuals and links embedded
in the middle of paragraphs that can assist people to help grasp a topic. One visual in particular is
a cartoon explaining how a stimulus triggers stress.
Further rhetorical decision acts appear further within the style of the writing. Dr. Vago
hardly uses big words that might confuse the reader. His style consists of metaphors and easily
broken down definitions. One of the metaphors used in particular was to help define two critical
factors of coping with stress, protection, and recovery. The definition at first was wordy, but the
metaphor relates the protection factor to a rain coat, asking the reader if the "raincoat will protect
you from getting wet?" (Vago, 2015) It is a simple task to show people avoiding stress is just as
easy a bringing a raincoat to keep yourself dry. Overall the text attracts an audience of anyone
who might have stress complications in life and are intrigued by the author's appeal. The writing
also lacks specific terminology that everyday people would not understand which makes the
purpose of the reading easier to understand.
The second text is an academic journal with four authors and is titled "MENTAL
STRESS, PRIORITY FRAMEWORK OF ACTION" (T, S.s., G, A.A., B, D., & C, E.e. 2015).
Below the title the authors included a title page with an abstract, objective, hypothesis, and
conclusion. A list of keywords, such as "mental stress" and "psychosomatic diseases," is also
included below the conclusion. From the title page, I can infer that the average person would not
know the reason for these additions let alone be interested in them. The journal is meant to
explain how mental stress can lead to other disorders and seek out what personalities are more
prone to stress. With no visuals or attracting mechanisms, the journal serves a different purpose
to attract a particular audience.

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Rhetorical Analysis
Before looking at the detailed context in the academic journal, I noticed it was set up like
a science experiment. The abstract, objective, hypothesis, and conclusion represent what you
need to do in a lab write up. With this style in mind, scientists need evidence and examples to
back up their argument. The author's use a case study of a patient that would benefit most from
"psychotherapy" (T, G, B, & C, pg. 91, 2015) because of their personality. Both styles of the
authors can be effective depending on what audience you are targeting. People of the medical or
psychological professional would have a better understanding of the precise terminology used in
this article; therefore, academic journal would favor a discourse community based on complex
expressions.
With a commitment to a particular form to an audience by the author's, eventually leads
to constraints within their texts. For example, in the second article from the academic journal, if
you are targeting a scientific community it is a necessity to include a hypothesis and a
conclusion. The absence of pronouns in the academic journal leaves me to believe pronouns are
forbidden in scientific texts. The uses of pronouns in Dr. Vago's article are used periodically as
part of the style to appeal to a wider audience. With the author choosing this style, this limits him
to be able to use bigger words and have to write lengthier definitions so the audience will
understand. At the same time not using slang words that would be deemed as unprofessional.
Constraints are a factor in any text that has a directed audience.
The two texts are now seemingly the opposite at this point; however, you don't have to
look far to find an identical use of credibility or ethos. Before Dr. Vago's name in the first article
is "Ph.D." printed in bold letters. Likewise, the four authors of the second article either have
"Ph.D." or "Psychologist" printed next to their names. The authors of the text give himself or
herself credibility to show accomplishments or superiority. However, throughout the two articles,

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Rhetorical Analysis
the display of ethos differs from one another. Dr. Vago in the first text presents ethos in an
informal way. The majority of Dr. Vago's citations are substituted for links implanted into the
article that take you to a different website. The second article from an academic journal consists
of purely formal citations. The author's reference and cite "(Vogel, 1995)" (T, S.s., G, A.A., B,
D., & C, E.e. 2015) several times throughout the article. The footnotes consist of the sources
used in the following paragraphs to inform the reader what extracts were made. The convincing
method differs in the academic journal because the authors rely more on the power citations to
support their idea; while Dr. Vago consists of fewer resources. Rather he relies more on his
expertise and individual reputation.
Overlooking the use of pathos can be easy in any article or journal. In the academic
journal, the emotional connection might arise in the topics of personality. The descriptions are
very accurate and might relate to a friend, family, or relative. For example, after describing a list
of personality traits, the author's say this person most likely suffers from "anxiety, depression,
frustration, hostility" (T, G, B, & C, pg 91, 2015) and lacks a peace of mind. Knowing someone
with these traits could arise some emotional factors. Dr. Vago's article relates to people on a
friendlier, exciting way. Dr. Vago's introduction of the article was a story about Jack Nicholson's
reaction to stress as he smashes a golf club into a car in traffic. I think Dr. Vago added this to
show everyone experiences stress, and this can be comforting to know you're not the only one
feeling this way or reacting to stress in a certain way.
The use of logos, statistics, and facts, is prevalent both texts but yet again used in
different fashions. In the first article by Dr. Vago's, he provides his points through the utilization
of a visual graph. The figure depicts stress levels over time and the consequences when they are
not coped with in the right way. A written summary of the chart could be confusing, but the

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Rhetorical Analysis
bright colors and bold letters the author uses make it stress-free. An example of a statistical
reference in his text would be that "77 percent of people in the United States regularly
experience physical symptoms" due to stress (Vago, 2015). The academic journal does not
reference statistical evidence or have any graphic data, but the text consists of underlying facts
from other references. For example, the author's reference Ion Bradu Iamandescu, who explains
how mental stress symptoms prolonging over 6-12 months can cause other dysfunctions such as
"neurodegenerative dystonia" (T, G, B, & C, pg 89, 2015). Notice the authors use a combination
of ethos and logos in this example from the text.
While the rhetorical decisions of the articles are incongruent, the exigence of the articles
is still displayed compellingly. The article from Dr. Vago was to help the audience learn the basic
ideas of stress and potentially ways to recognize, prevent, and treat stress. Dr. Vago also gives
helpful information on environments that can cause stress and suggest how to self-treat yourself.
The academic journal looks to educate physicians, doctors, or psychologist on ways to recognize
severe symptoms in patients as well as differentiating personalities prone stress. Each personality
has suggestions on treatment options of grueling stress. The rhetorical decisions tie well into
each article because the audience and constraints authors must keep in mind while
conceptualizing their argument.
The significant difference between the two texts was the audience they were targeting.
Because of the different audiences, the pathos, logos, and ethos used varied. Certain constraints
motivated the way the paper was constructed and the style, which the authors chose. The use of
visual's and organization were used to capture reader's attention in the first article from Dr. Vago.
He gets to his point by asking the reader questions and providing real world examples that
majority of people can relate to. While the use of references for facts and additions on the title

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Rhetorical Analysis
page for the second article from the academic journal were used to look scholarly and appeal to a
discourse community. The author's methods consisted of a more scientific approach; that
required a stricter style that has more constraints.

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Rhetorical Analysis
References
TRIFU, S.s., GUTT, A.A., BRAILENANU, D., & CARP, E.e. (2015). MENTAL STRESSPRIOITY FRAMEWORK OF ACTION. Euromentor, 6(1). 87-94.
Vago, R David (2015). The Key to Experiencing and Handling Stress in a Healthy Way.
Psychology Today.