Project 1 Rhetorical Analysis

Imani Harris

The Urgency of Fighting Obesity

Introduction

The modes of persuasion often referred to as rhetorical appeals, are devices in rhetoric that

classify the speaker's appeal to the audience. They are ethos, pathos, and logos. As requested I

will be performing a rhetorical analysis on the article The Urgency Of Fighting Obesity. I

essentially used the rhetorical appeals to evaluate if the document was effective or ineffective. To

begin with, this is a very well written article and yes it was effective! The purpose of this article

is to inform and persuade parents with obese children or someone who needs to know the

information before it happens. The audience could be anyone concerned about personal health

and or anyone who knows someone with these health issues due to obesity. Parents are the most

targeted audience for this audience because at a young age they decide on what their child eats

and how much they consume of it. Childhood obesity has led to many different lifetimes treating

diseases such as heart disease, strokes, and cancer. These are what the article calls consequences

of childhood obesity. This document was effective because it appeals to each of the appeals

which was logos, ethos, and pathos. It has credibility since it is located on the New York times

newspaper article website. Now I will explain why the document is effective and how it proves a

lot of points.

Ethos
Ethos is the first mode of persuasion. When an author writes, they will either have the ethos or

need to earn it. You should consider your tone of voice, and general presentation while

considering the type of audience you are facing. Taken together, the data speak to the critical

importance of preventing undue weight gain in young children, a task that depends largely on

parents, who are responsible for what and how much children eat and how much physical

activity they engage in. This information was stated in the article and proven to be true while

reading statistics online and seeing a firsthand experience. There were many studies done on this

certain article for the credibility of the statement. Here is one example of a study from the article.

The New England Journal of Medicine, Solveig A. Cunningham and colleagues at Emory

University found that overweight 5-year-olds were four times as likely as normal-weight

children to become obese by age 14. The study, which involved a representative sample of

7,738 kindergartners, found that the risk of becoming obese did not differ by socioeconomic

status, race or ethnic group, or birth weight. Rather, it showed that excess weight gain early in

life is a risk factor for obesity later in childhood across the entire population This makes my

analysis strong because it gives a clear example of how weight gain starts early in children's life

which is the reason for this article. Obesity starts at a young age and can last a lifetime if you let

it.

Pathos

Pathos is the second mode of persuasion. Pathos is emotional appeal. Draw audience in by

offering emotionally charged reasoning with vivid visuals that affect the audience's emotions.

Problems of youthful obesity go beyond physical ones. Obese adolescents have higher rates of

depression, which in itself may foster poor eating and exercise patterns that add to their weight

problem and result in a poor quality of life that persists into adulthood which was stated in the
article. There were also many studies done on the emotional part of this article. For example, In

researchers reported that individuals who were obese in childhood are more likely to have poor

body image and low self-esteem and confidence, even more so than those with adult onset

obesity. Another study by Dr. Jeffrey B. Schwimmer of the University of California, San

Diego, and colleagues found that obese children and adolescents reported a diminished quality of

life that was comparable to that of children with cancer.

Logos

Logos is the third mode of persuasion. It relies on making a logical argument, backed with

reason or evidence to persuade the audience Attempt to provide sufficient evidence from sources

and tone reasoning. Avoid using logical fallacies. Logos is facts. There were a lot of facts in this

article. This article was credible because of the professionalism names and job titles. The facts

were very much so realistic and credible because of the evidence behind it. Here is one example

of facts. Below will be the problems found in organs. Dr. Stephen R. Daniels, a pediatrician at

the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Childrens Hospital in Denver, found that

problems in many organ systems were often apparent long before adulthood. They include high

blood pressure; insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes; high blood levels of heart-damaging

triglycerides and low levels of protective high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol;

nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; obstructive sleep apnea; asthma; and excess stress on the

musculoskeletal system resulting in abnormal bone development, knee and hip pain, and

difficulty walking.

Conclusion
Clearly, the data speaks to the critical importance of preventing undue weight gain in young

children, ask that depends largely on parents, who are responsible for what and how much

children eat and how much physical activity they engage in. This document is effective because

it appeals to each appeal to make its case. For those of you unclear on the definition of rhetoric,

it is the art of speaking and writing effectively.

Citations

Brody, Jane E. "The Urgency in Fighting Childhood Obesity." The New York Times. The New

York Times, 04 July 2016. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.