Facebook Rhetorical Analysis Rhetoric

(Jane Mathison Fifes) "Using Facebook to Teach Rhetorical Analysis", demonstrates a strong argument on using social media sites to do a rhetorical analysis. When using style detail, Fife took advantage of many different aspects in order for her piece of writing to be presentable to a specific audience. In this case, the audience is teachers. Fife displayed a distinctive amount of appeal (Pathos, ethos, logos) in order for her to properly support her argument. The argument also shows multiple arguments and statements with evidence for a better understanding of what she is trying to get across to the readers. Fife's argument is to persuade other teachers to learn with their students by bringing social media sites into the classroom to analyze …show more content…
Fife made sure to mention as to why some may feel that social media is just an out of school subject. She then argued back at the opposing argument. Fife specified how one of her students read an article written by Jamerson Magwood. Her student read in the article that Magwood "...claimed that traditional rhetorical analysis techniques did not apply to Facebook."(2010, 557). Fife argued back that Facebook did in fact apply to Facebook, just in different ways than what is known to be traditional. Fife used her students evidence from Facebook to support how rhetorical analysis can be found on Facebook. Some examples of rhetorical analysis that they found were things like personal information, uploaded pictures, statuses, and comments on others profiles. Fife and her students concluded that posting a status would "...offer telling information about the persons attempts to affect an audience."(2010, 558). Fife also talked about how uploaded pictures could be an example of someones experiences. A big part of rhetorical analysis is appeal (Pathos, Logos, and Ethos), so Fife asserted that there were examples of different appeal throughout social media. Fife mentioned the differences of her "please like me" and "this is me" rhetorical strategies found on Facebook.(2010, 559). Fife stated that her "please like me" rhetorical strategy would "...stir positive emotions in the reader."(2010, 559). This was an example of Pathos found on Facebook because it's connecting to the readers emotions. The "this is me" rhetorical strategy that Fife thought of was said by her to be "...veered away from the Pathos-heavy appeals to affiliation, using a more Logos-driven cataloging of likes..."(2010, 559). This was an example of Logos because the writer would not be looking for the readers approval, they would simply be stating who they are.