Rhetorical Analysis: “I Know What Causes Autism…psst spoiler: It isn’t vaccines”
In my blog article “I know What Causes Autism…Psst spoiler: It isn’t Vaccines”, I use ethos, pathos and logos to support the idea that childhood vaccines are important and do not cause autism. I incorporate the three artistic proofs to apply a Rogerian Argument to a topic that often gets heated.
I begin by establishing not only my expertise but building up my character so that parents who read this article can identify with me and my situation. I start the article off with an anecdote about how I became a parent: “In June of 2010, I became a mom” (Repka, 2019, para. 1). I use the style of first person to compliment the building of ethos throughout the article. It is important that the reader know I am a parent and share similarities with them, just as any other parent does.
As well as build up the ethos of my argument, through identification and good character, I rely heavily on pathos. I use powerful language and descriptive personal stories to bring the reader to the right state of mind for my arguments. In the first paragraph I attempt to grab the audience with emotion to get them to pay attention to what will be said next: “I spent the first week of our son’s life in the NICU holding a newborn hooked up to monitors” (Repka, 2019, para. 1). My hope was having the audience experience the feelings of joy and sadness together, much as I had those first weeks of June 2010.
Pathos can be a good way to approach an argument, especially one where people are already emotionally invested, like when discussing their children. However, without thoughtful use of facts and supporting data logos can be difficult to develop. The lack of logos can turn emotional appeals can into manipulation of the audience. In the blog, I attempted to balance the emotions of the article with large doses of substantiated reality. I took information from the Center for Disease Control, Autism Speaks, the World Health Organization and the Canadian Government. I did my best to include the facts objectively including the following quotation of Dr. Wang’s from Autism Speaks: “Even though the outward symptoms of autism may not be apparent immediately after birth, the underlying brain differences are accumulating” (2013, para. 3) I used this method for introducing elements of logos, to keep my emotional appeals removed from the facts supporting the argument.
Along with the three artistic proofs, I used a Rogerian argument for the article. A Rogerian argument is one that tries to take the middle way between the writer and their readers (Excelsior College OWL, 2019, n.p.) As a parent I find articles or discussions about parenting choices often come off combative. This is not what you want to do when approaching something as important and childhood vaccines and public health. People often get defensive and stop listening to the argument if they feel attacked for how they are raising their children. I attempted to explain the logical fallacy that many people fall into, the Post hoc ergo propter hoc, in non-judgemental or emotional terms: “A bird landing on your car’s antenna the morning before your car was stolen, does not make the bird responsible for the theft” (Repka, 2019, para. 13). I specifically chose a benign topic to express this fallacy, to avoid any feelings of defensiveness in a reader.
I also chose the longer personal lead in for this article to establish part of my Rogerian argument. I show my persona experience and then delve into the nitty gritty of the facts of childhood vaccinations and autism. I circle back to this positive argument style at the end of the article: “I choose to believe that these parents are scared, and they need someone to sit with them” (Repka, 2019, para. 16). I do not call out parents who avoid or delay vaccines but show how listening to their concerns may help to bring them around to the facts of this situation.
Throughout the blog article I tried to balance the three artistic proofs logos, ethos, and pathos. In addition to these rhetorical devices I chose a noncombative argument style, to keep the audience engaged, in hopes that if they could stay through to the end the logos of my argument could be absorbed and held up with the good character I built and the emotion of my families journey with autism.
References
Excelsior College OWL. (2019). Rogerian Argument. Retrieved from Excelsior College OWL: https://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/organizing-your-argument/organizing-your-argument-rogerian/
Repka, C. (2019, December 5). I Know What Causes Autism...Psst Spoiler: It isn't Vaccines.
Wang, D. P. (2013, October 11). Are Children Born with Autism, or Does It Develop Later? Retrieved from Autism Speaks: https://www.autismspeaks.org/expert-opinion/are-children-born-autism-or-does-it-develop-later
