Rhetorical Analysis Papers

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Daniele Laval Period 6 September 28, 2015 Rhetorical Analysis Essay on “Personality and its Effects on Facebook and Self-Disclosure” On social media, there are always some people who post endless selfies and some who post reflective tidbits of poetry, but why? Lindsay Schmit, writer of “Personality and its Effects on Facebook and Self-Disclosure”, gives clarity on topic using the scientific method and extensive research. In her aforementioned research paper, Schmit made an assertion that, by using science, she can make a cogent argument that personality tests, such as the MBTI, account for patterns in self-disclosure on social media. Ethos, pathos, and logos are the three main strategies emphasized in the paper but giving definitions also…show more content…
Pathos was very effective because it was not over-done; in a research paper such as this one, too much pathos will make Schmit’s argument invalid and overemotional. Her inclusion of at least some pathos in this paper was spontaneous and well-executed. She didn’t come off as apathetic but she still gave a profound perspective to her research paper by including pathos. Her use of pathos engaged the audience emotionally, without overdoing it. However, using emotional claims alone is not as convincing as when it is used in conjunction with logical appeals. One of Schmit’s most effective methods of promoting the credibility of using personality tests to link personality to self-disclosure is her ability to appeal to the reader’s pathos, while still using…show more content…
Logos offers credible evidence to support your argument. Facts, which are used in the logos approach quite often, are valuable because they are not debatable; they represent the truth. Examples are more likely to receive questioning although they can be used in a cohesive logos-based argument. Authority, such as quoting established authors and getting interviews with other researchers, was definitely a key strategy used by Schmit in her paper. The people and references she used were not out of date and were very qualified to comment on the topic of personality and self-disclosure in social media. Most of Schmit’s paper was logos: her entire experiment was logos because it used fact-based data and presented a likely argument. She also utilized near the end of her research, right before results, by stating the statistics of frequency of status-posting on one’s Facebook wall. She calculated the number of statuses per hour and recorded and average which would be very persuasive to the reader if they were a researcher or found fact-based evidence more conclusive. By the end of her research paper, Schmit had made her article nearly completely
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