Analysis Of Julie Zhuo's Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt

When anyone picks up a pencil and starts writing they have a particular audience in mind. For instance, if you are writing a letter to your best friend you are going to write the letter keeping that particular person in mind. On the other hand, if you were writing the same letter to your mom it would be written differently because your attitude has changed due to the change in your target audience. Being able to reach that target audience can be tough because you have to relate information to them in a way where they agree with your points. A writer named Julie Zhuo wrote an article for the New York Times called “Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt”. The article discusses the topic of trolling and how there is no accountability on the internet for people who lie or make threatening remarks to others. Her target audience was internet content providers and she wanted them to redesign their comment sections in order to keep trolls off of the internet. In order for Zhuo to reach her audience, she used rhetorical techniques like ethos, pathos, and logos. In Zhuo's essay “Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt” she uses ethos effectively to establish …show more content…
However, she could have used pathos and logos better than what she ended up doing to be able to reach her audience effectively. To make her writing stronger she could have reorganized some paragraphs in the article. Zhuo left the important message at the end when it needed to be addressed earlier in the article. In addition, she could have used more statistics about the outcomes of not having restrictions on comment sections. Zhuo attempted to use pathos but she choose narratives that may not persuade her audience. But, she did establish credibility for herself leading the audience to be able to trust her knowledge when reading the article. Therefore, Zhuo does not effectively reached her target audience due to her poor use of pathos and