E-Textbooks Rhetorical Analysis

Over two thirds of American public schools offer eBooks to their students according to the School Library Journal. Electronic books, or eBooks, are defined as, “books composed in or converted to digital format for display on a computer screen or handheld device,” (“E-book). These are a growing trend in K-12 schools, as well as in colleges and universities, and their value must be assessed. If eBooks are not the best method of providing information to students, then something should be done before it affects each American learner personally. Three pieces of evidence address the aforementioned social issue. The first is an essay written by a doctoral candidate named Darlene Walker called “Current Advantages and Disadvantages of Using E-Textbooks in Texas Higher Education.” Its central argument is that implementing eBooks as primary information providers for students would cause problems. This is shown through expert testimony and has two rhetorical purposes which are explaining and formulating belief. The second piece of evidence is an infographic provided by Akansh Murthy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It claims that eBooks are overtaking and should overtake textbooks using visuals and statistics. Its rhetorical purposes are virtual experience and formulating belief. The …show more content…
As would a newspaper reporter the author of “Ebooks Take Hold in Schools-Slowly,” goes through the who, what, when, and how of the social issue in an unbiased fashion. She is successful in this purpose because an abundant amount of evidence is cited which applies to the topic. In addition, the article was short and to the point, making the readers’ job easy. Of the VASES the rhetor used statistics to support her claim. Sun used 21 different statistics in order to describe the growth of eBooks in the American school to the audience and was effective because of the amount of information and the tone with which she