Julio De La Cruz

Miss Salas
Rhetoric & Composition 1301
21 October 2015
Rhetorical Analysis Final Draft
The article Health Risks of Genetically Modified Foods by Dona Artemis and
Ioannis Artavanitoyannis is an article that is strictly informational text as it incorporates
data from studies and real information. The authors purpose in writing this article could
be to inform and persuade the World Health Organization that Genetically Modified
Foods are not fully safe for people to consume since the issues with these foods is
neglected or overlooked. The testing of these genetically modified foods on animals
seems to be the exigence in this case since there are many charts with stats on the effects
these foods had on the animals in this article.

Informational articles, unlike other articles, tend to have straight-forward and

unbiased information with a purpose to expose information in order to persuade. With
that being said, throughout this article the only sections that are written from the personal
intakes of the authors would be the introduction and the conclusion, the rest of the
sections are discussing information from a source that they have cited. The body
paragraph sections of this article mainly contain facts and statistics with very little text
that provides a personal perspective. This particular article focuses on the negative side
effects that GMOs (Genetically Modified Organism) may have when consumed. Many
food companies today produce genetically modified foods that can impose a threat to our
health, and this article talks about those threats with its main enforcer being the data that
was collected by testing these Genetically Modified Organisms on animals. The authors,

Julio De La Cruz
Miss Salas
Rhetoric & Composition 1301
21 October 2015
Artemis Dona Artemis and Ioannis Artavanitoyannis, establish their credibility since they
had studied in the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at the University of
Athens in Greece. Since the genre of this article falls upon an informational one, it
becomes difficult to find any biased opinions or commentary throughout the article since
it is strictly based off of facts from sources that they gathered.
The targeted audience seems to be the World Health Organization (WHO), an
organization that works to help improve our health and eliminate any threats to our
health. Implying for a need of global exposure to these Genetically Modified Foods, the
way these foods are perceived in different countries is discussed because each country
has their own approach to it. Furthermore, the testing of these genetically modified foods
on animals and seems to be the exigence in this case since there are many charts with
stats on the effects these foods had on the animals in this article. The reason the testing on
animals is the main exigence is because with animals, the negative effects are strong
enough in terms of numbers and statistics to prove they are dangerous for them to
consume. With that being said, the authors believe that is enough evidence found to prove
that these foods pose a threat to human health. The authors point out the many
deficiencies animals like pigs and rats would develop after being given the genetically
modified foods.
The authors organize information by first putting the information in their own
words, and then they cite the data table or where they got that information right after they
presented it. Moreover, they have citations throughout each of their paragraphs and

Julio De La Cruz
Miss Salas
Rhetoric & Composition 1301
21 October 2015
citations for any information that they received from an outside source. This factual style
of information eliminates the factor of appealing to any emotion. Staying factual was a
tactic that the authors successfully incorporated in this article. The article provides table
charts with statistics followed by text that gives an overview of the information.

There are beliefs that Genetically Modified Foods are not dangerous because
plenty of people consume them every day and this belief might constraint the authors
from getting their point across. The consumption of Genetically Modified Foods might
not always have negative effects on people, but the authors assure that its no reason to
justify the production of them. The World Health Organization could decide that they
have bigger problems to solve than Genetically Modified Foods that only sometimes
negatively affect human beings health, but the authors claim its still a big issue since
some of the foods do contain a chemical, IGF-I, that does promote cancer, a disease that
has no definite cure and is accountable for millions of deaths. There is also a social norm
to shun anyone challenging the natural way of how everything works. The belief that
everybody else eats these foods therefore its okay to consume them constraints the
authors main points.

The production of Genetically Modified Organisms has been active for roughly
about 22 years and it has since then shown to have negative effects on both animals that
were being tested and human beings. The authors of this article also begin talking about

Julio De La Cruz
Miss Salas
Rhetoric & Composition 1301
21 October 2015
how the testing on animals is cruel since it does affect them negatively more than
humans, which could be another exigence for this article. To have this going on for more
than two decades seems to be an unnecessary problem for the authors. Furthermore, the
cruel and unfair testing on animals, and the suspicious chemicals these organisms contain
along with the negative effects it also has on human beings are the reasons why the
authors wrote this.