RWS 1301

Renee Malooly

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
Arturo Salazar

Rhetorical Analysis of Heres What No One Tells You About Having Both Depression And
Anxiety
Heres What No One Tells You About Having Both Depression And Anxiety by Anna
Borges is an article in which the editor lists experiences about when depression and anxiety
intervene with one another. Borges uses the rhetorical strategies of pathos, ethos and logos, to try
and convey her message into the reader.
The purpose of the article is to help the reader understand what its like for someone who
experiences metal health issues. This article from BuzzFeed News by Anna Borges is regarding
what an individual who is has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorder experiences
in his or her daily life. Borges starts off her article with an editors note in which she provides a
short introduction in which she gives a quick overview about the topic and how the article has
taken place. Anxiety and depression affect everyone differently. (Anna Borges, 2015) this
statement is used as an opening sentence in the editors note, the importance of this statement is
to remind everyone that not two people have gone through exactly the same experiences, and one
deals with thing the same way someone else does.
The audience which Borges is trying to connect to, are mainly people who are currently
living their lives facing depression and anxiety every day of their lives. Borges could also be
trying to inform those who seek an answer on how to help and provide support for their loved
ones. People who are trying to find out what is it that they are experiencing may stumble into
this article, however, just because one thinks he or she can relate to a couple of these scenarios it
does not mean that they have mental illness. Borges keeps the identity of the subject whose
experiences are being listed, which helps avoid a biased view on the gender, ethnicity and age of

the individual. The reader, who Borges is trying to inform, can make their own personal, nonbiased opinions and relations about the article.
Pathos, a rhetorical strategy used to make the reader feel empathy and provide an
emotional response, is the most abundant strategy used across the article. The editor of the article
provokes the reader to experience a feeling of pity or sadness simply by talking about depression
and anxiety. For people who can relate to some of the experiences, their empathy is stronger than
that of someone who cannot fully relate. Its the constant fear of winding up alone, but
accidentally isolating yourself because you sometimes just need to hide from it all. (Anna
Burges, 2015) The fact that people feel the way Borges wrote, in which they are constantly
fighting with themselves about what they want in their live, is tragic enough to make someone
who has not lived with these two disorders show off an emotional response.
Ethos, a strategy which includes the credibility and trustworthiness of the author, also
takes part of Borges efforts to get her message through to her readers. Anna Borges is an author
and editor for BuzzFeed, one of the largest source for news on the internet. Her position as a
BuzzFeed staff member should provide the reader enough trustworthiness to Borges article.
Borges has also been responsible for 299 articles and posts throughout BuzzFeed, meaning that
her work has been worthy of acknowledgment by her superiors. But overlooking her credibility,
because the article is based upon the experiences and emotions of a single individual the
information that Borges writes in her article is not enough to justify that every person dealing
with depression and anxiety disorders can relate to these article.
The rhetorical strategy that this article lacks of is logos, which include facts or statistics.
The only fact that has been provided by Borges was introduced in her editors note, Nearly oneha;f of people diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder The words

Nearly one-half have a hyperlink attached which takes the reader to the Anxiety and
Depression Association of Americas website which is filled with facts and statistics regarding
the topic of depression and anxiety disorders. If this article were to include a final paragraph in
which Borges expresses her own personal opinion in the topic she more than likely wouldve
added more facts to strengthen her articles credibility and message.
Anna Borges does a very good job in writing the article. The article itself did an
outstanding job at doing what it was meant to do, the use of pathos made it clear to understand
what someone with depression and anxiety feels and experiences. The fact that her employer is
one of the largest news provider of the world and her large amount of work that has been
published online provide the artcle enough credibility to make the reader trust Borges writing.
The main flaw of the article was the lack of the logo rhetorical strategy,