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Megan Redfern

Dr. Miss

UWRT 1104

02 February 2017

Rhetorical Analysis

This document was written by Megan Redfern as a Senior in high school. This was

written as a testimony to be spoken in front of her hometown baptist church after a week long

mission trip. To clarify, testimony is defined as, a public recounting of a religious conversation or

experience. It is important to understand the speakers background before analyzation. Megan

Redfern grew up in a small town outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. Her parents have always

encouraged going to church and her closest friends were members of this specific church.

Though she never felt that religion was pushed on her she always saw it as something very

important in her life. In the first paragraph she states, On Senior Sunday I sat in the front row

and listened as my friends, Becca Perry and Brooks Hill shared their testimonies and felt called

to share mine (Redfern 1) this shows that her friends have a great influence on her and

especially play a role in the motivation of this piece.

Ethos is a rhetorical strategy used to establish credibility. Megan uses this technique in

the beginning of her paper by explaining what was done on the trip that week. She informs the

audience, We worked with habitat for humanity on a house where in one week we turned a

carport into a bathroom and washroom and so much more. (Redfern 1). She informs the

audience that they worked with Habitat for Humanity which is a well known volunteer

organization. This section is the most informative and helps give background information and

illustrate their week. The main reason to use this technique is to make your audience trust you
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which is accomplished here. She clarifies to the audience that she is a credible and genuine

source which will help her reach and connect with the audience.

To analyze the purpose of this writing I will start where it is first introduced. Megan

shares how this is something she has felt called to do. The main idea is for the speaker to express

her feelings toward the youth group with whom she has spent most of her adolescence with, She

adresses them with, For those of you who I was able to get to know and consider some of my

closest friends (Redfern 1). This is meant to praise them for what they have done for her over

their time together. When digging deeper into the objective she begins to make connections with

the audience, I have seen many people come into this youth group and quickly find a family,

including myself. (Redfern 2). By speaking on friends and family and friends who are family,

this connects to the audience because most people can identify with the appreciation of close

friends or the appreciation of family. This only works for this specific audience, this wouldnt

appeal to anybody who reads this. This can be a negative to this piece because it doesnt have the

ability to reach to a wide range of audiences.

The diction and tone, specific words such as cherish and impact, are what help the writer

get her purpose and emotion across to the audience. This is a very personal writing which should

be reflected in the tone. Tone is serious yet is presented in a sentimental way. For example she

says, The friendships formed within a group like this are so pure because they are built on a

foundation of God. (Redfern 1) and I have seen this group come together in times of need, I

have seen them help people find christ, and even witness miracles. (Redfern 2). This should be

read with a thankful tone to express the authors feelings. The author could have used better

diction to persuade the audience to feel what she is feeling. With more diction and details this

speech/testimony could discover an audience the author may not realize exists. There is always
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something to be read between the lines and with some editing a lot of people could be touched by

this work of writing.

This is not an academic piece or done by assignment. This was done by volunteer and is

very informal. It is very obvious that it is un edited, in this case it is okay for it is written to be

spoken not for academia, an example of this is the introduction when she begins with Hi, My

name is Megan Redfern and I recently graduated from Heritage High school (Redfern 1).That

would not be how one is instructed to start an academic writing. When someone is to read this,

the style of it makes it seem more personal and raw. This is an advantage for this because of the

goal of the writing. This would not be the case if this was a formal informative piece such as a

science report. Pieces written for academia usually have a format to follow and certain

requirements. If this was going to be evaluated it would have been very different.

Through analyzing my own work I have noticed that I tend to have a informal and casual

discourse. I learned that this is why it is hard for me to write within an academic discourse. As a

writer I am somebody who writes how I would speak. Part of this comes from being someone

who keeps a journal, it is a habit for me to write in this style. For this piece in particular I did not

have to mushfake for it wasnt meant to impress and it was all genuine. It was important for

readers to understand my background before reading this piece. By understanding where I come

from and how personal this is it is easier to understand the emotion behind it. Though an

improvement would be to write this in a way that the audience doesnt need to know my

background in order to feel the emotion.

Works cited

Redfern, Megan. Testimony

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