A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Undercover Parent By Harlan Coben

In the article, “The Undercover Parent,” author Harlan Coben zones in on the currently advancing issue of children and their online safety and growing cyber independence to unknowing parents all around the world. His relatable style helps to hook the audience in conjunction with usage of both logos and pathos style set-ups. He continually brings up different types of scenarios and arguments to get into the heads of his audience. Although throughout the argument generalization is used there are multiple times when regarding parents there are also specifics placed on some types of people to add emphasis. Coben also hits on points of abruptness and slight offensiveness in his writing style to grab attention and heighten the severity of the matter. The usage of several uncouth styles such as risky examples and provocative wording is ultimately put in play to get under the audience’s skin to persuade them that the issue of cyber safety has become increasingly more dangerous over the years and should be taken seriously amongst families. Coben immediately begins by setting up a scenario establishing pathos with the audience: this straight out of the gate appeal sets the wheels in motion of emotional impact throughout the whole article. Not only …show more content…
Coben commands the attention of his audience with an assertive sentence in the very beginning of the paragraph to establish certainty without question. While he starts off this section with use of assertiveness he continues on to exhibit pathos to establish a relatability factor with a more calm sensible tone. He makes sure to let the audience know that “You don’t have to be an expert to put it [Spyware] on your computer” () to make the point that anyone can fall to agreeing with his viewpoint on installing the software in