Rhetorical Analysis

     

    When it comes to rhetorical analysis I immediately get nervous. When I hear the words summary I feel comforted. However I felt like I was able to write my rhetorical analysis a lot easier than my summary. When I saw that we were using Logos, Pathos and Ethos I felt confident in what we were doing. We have been using these three types of devices for years now, so when it comes to writing about them, I feel comfortable. I did run into some struggles when writing about these types of rhetorical devices due to the fact that I tried to avoid repetition. I was able to work through it though, and find new areas and specific scenes that help show these devices in a strong way. 

The way I represented Ethos is when they were excavating the dinosaur. “The paleontologists are the main source of information in regards to fossils. The main scenes we see this in are the excavation and preservation scenes. When excavating we are shown the three vertebrae that are sticking out of the side of the hill, now I would not have known what was in the hill. The archaeologists are telling us that the fossil was sticking out of the wall along with it being the vertebrae of a t-rex. This use of ethos makes me trust what they are saying, without doing any extra research or questioning.” This form was evident throughout the entire scene. 

I represented Pathos and Logos throughout the legal scene in the courtroom. “Logos is made most evident when the narrator was explaining the charges brought upon the team. The graphic telling us the list of charges and what caused them to get these charges, was the use of facts. The chart explained the charges given and why they were given. This is simply the facts and the logic of what the case is built off of.” And the Pathos being, “The major use of pathos in the documentary is when Sue is being abducted by the Fbi. There are groups of children and families gathering together, yelling, chanting, making signs to try and stop the FBI from stealing Sue. The community helps bring a human aspect into the film, we constantly see paleontologists and fossils in the film. This can cause us to feel disconnected or not a part of the communities that are being shown in the film. When the community comes in we can relate to them, we are able to feel the sadness and emotions they are feeling.”