9/11 Attacks: Article Analysis

On September 11th, 2001, tragedy struck the United States of America when a terrorist group called “Al-Qaeda” attacked the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. By hijacking several planes, the terrorist group was successful in taking down both Twin Towers and part of the Pentagon by collision, killing thousands of people onboard the flights and in the buildings. The United States has taken years to recover from the attack but the underlying fear and terror will always stand ground. This constant invisible fear is vibrant in an article written by Brian Doyle, an American author and can be contrasted to an article titled “9/11 Attacks”. The two authors wrote about the same topic of September 11th but took two very different approaches to their …show more content…
By using diction, the author made this text logical with reason and explanation, such as only explaining key facts and information of what happened on the day of September 11th, 2001. The intent of the author was not to entertain but solely and strictly to inform the reader. The author states that “the attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations” (9/11 Attacks). Not only is this completely factual, it was not intended by the author to incorporate any use of emotion or literary devices. Logos is also evident in the article when the author writes about how “only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived” (9/11 Attacks). Once again, the author is simply stating facts of what happened on the day of the terrorist attack. This can be contrasted to the appeal of Pathos in the article written by Brian Doyle. Pathos, unlike Logos, is the emotional persuasion and appeal to a reader. Doyle incorporated the tones of sorrow and guilt into his article, almost as if he felt guilty for being a witness of the attacks, as a way to establish Pathos. The author proclaims that “no one knows who they were; husband and wife, lovers, dear friends, colleagues, strangers thrown together at the window there at the lip of hell” (Doyle 166). Compared to the diction in “9/11 Attacks”, it is evident that Doyle wanted more than to just make his article informative; he intended to enhance the emotional appeal of the reader. This is also suggested when Doyle states that “Jennifer Griffin saw people falling and wept as she told the story” (Doyle 165). One can infer that by inducting emotion into his writing, he felt guilty about the event and wanted to share his feelings to the readers. This is unlike the article