Do hospitals make the grade?

http://www.philly.com/philly/health/20130318_National_Hospital_Ratings_Websites.html

This article, by Jordan Rau for the Philadelphia Inquirer, analyzes the hospitals in the Philadelphia area. Specifically, he looks at the hospitals different ratings from different sources as poses the question: Which sources can we trust to ensure the best care possible?

The purpose of this article is to inform readers of the different ratings that hospitals get judged on. The audience is adult readers who want to know if hospitals around this area "make the grade". Lastly, the exigence is the different ratings that hospitals get from different sources and the authors want to analyze which ones we should trust.

Jordan Rau uses many rhetorical devices in his article. The main appeal he uses throughout is logos. He uses facts and statistics to get his point across. For example, he writes "Around Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 21 of 24 hospitals were singled out as exemplary by at least one group. Around Baltimore, 19 of 22 hospitals won an award." This shows the reader the high amount of hospitals that get an award in one area. Logically, it is unlikely that all these hospitals receive exemplary marks and the readers uses facts to get this point across. The author also appeals to the readers ethos by establishing credibility by citing many expert sources. He cites Vice Presidents and actual healthcare rating specialists. By doing so, he established credibility in his writing which in turn allows the reader to better trust what he is writing. It makes his article more believable and thus improves his argument. 

I think the author did achieve his purpose through writing his article. The question he poses is a valid one and he makes a well constructed argument, by appealing to the readers logos and pathos, that convinces them to question what hospital ratings you can trust and which ones you cannot. 

Non-Alchoholic Nova Schin Poster

      This poster pictures a clearly pregnant woman holding up bottle full of beer. The intended audience is pregnant women who enjoy the taste of beer but cannot have it due to being pregnant. The purpose is to attract pregnant women to the Nova Schin product. Lastly, the exigence is the need for a drink that does not contain alcohol but tastes like beer.

      As many people know it is unhealthy for a woman to drink beer while pregnant but, because this is an ad for non-alcoholic Nova Schin, the ad creators decided to feature a pregnant woman drinking beer as the focal point of the advertisement. Her image is centered and she is extremely large in contrast to the other accents on the advertisement, so she is the first thing that the viewer’s eyes look at. It is very striking, and frowned upon, to see a pregnant woman holding a bottle of beer. Because of this, when one sees this picture, they are immediately drawn to the ad to see what it is promoting. Then, after looking at and reading the poster, they realize that it is an ad for non-alcoholic beer. By that time, however, they would have already read the ad and figured out its purpose. A second rhetorical device that this ad uses is contrast. The white and blue fading colors behind the large image of the woman helps to make the picture stand out. Also, the beer bottle and beer can in the lower right hand corner are also contrasted. The bold colors within the design effect of fading white circles surrounding them leads the viewer’s eyes to them. Lastly, the viewer must tilt his/her head to read the text on the side of the advertisement, the whole purpose of the ad. Not only does the sideways writing causes the viewer to really examine the ad but also the contrasting colors, white on blue, makes the bolded letters stand out. 

        Overall, I think the ad achieved its purpose of attracting pregnant women to the product.  The rhetorical devices used in conveying the advertisement to the viewer help to effectively grab the his/her attention. The unorthodox picture of a pregnant woman holding a beer causes the reader to initially be attracted to the ad and the contrasting colors make the woman, beer, and text really stand out. 

The big reveal: More and more expectant parents are throwing themed parties to announce their baby's gender.

       In todays day in age, more and more parents are throwing themed parties to find out their babies gender, along with a normal baby shower. This article, by Samantha Melamed for the Inquirer,  describes how in the past year, these baby gender reveal parties have become full-blown, pocket denting, events.

      The purpose of this article is for Samantha Melamed to bring attention to the increasing popularity of baby gender themed parties. The targeted audience is expected parents or parents of young children who would be interested in learning more about this increasing cultural change. The exigence is the fact that these types of parties are so popular now, which pushed the author to write this article.

     Samantha Melamed uses numerous rhetorical devices in order to get her point across to her readers. For example, she appeals to the logos of the reader by including direct quotes from parents who have either thrown a baby gender reveal party or who have attended one for a friend or family. The importance of including this is it makes the whole idea of this type of party real in the readers minds. If direct quotes were not embedded into her article, many readers would really not believe that this is such an increasing idea; however, because it is included, the reader instead has examples in front of their eyes to convince them that this really is gaining momentum in the baby world. Besides appealing to the readers logos, she also appeals to their ethos, and through this uses structure that keeps the reader hanging. To go off of ethos, in addition to including direct quotes, she embeds a real life story from a couple who did throw a gender reveal party. It was a cute and friendly story of a couple who's first babies gender, which happened to be a girl, was revealed infront of family and friends. This convivial story shows readers how exciting and fun a baby gender reveal party is, and may in some cases, convince couples to have one. In sharing this story to her readers, Samantha Melamed also uses structure to keep her readers on their toes. She writes about the story in pieces, seperated by factual information, and does not reveal the most important part, the gender of the baby, until the very last paragraph of the article. This keeps readers wanting to read more in order to figure out how the party turned out and what gender the baby was.

    After reading this article, I do believe that the author, Samantha Melamed, conveyed her purpose to her readers and achieved it very well. Through her use of rhetorical devices, Melamed was able to keep her readers reading untilt the end of the article, thus allowing them to get the full affect of her writing. She also appeals to their logos and ethos which helps her convey the validity of her topic to her readers while sharing with them a heart-warming story.