Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies in Sound Check

In this post I will examine the rhetorical strategies found in the article published by John Schwartz, titled "Sound Check."

Appeals to Credibility or Character

• Personal stories - Schwartz describes his own experience recording his own audiobook. In his article he writes about the art of the audiobook, the qualities that make up a successful audiobook, and then he himself demonstrates this through recording his own audiobook which deems him very credible. The reader also gets more insight into the mind of the author.
• Reference to credible sources - Schwartz spends a great deal of time discussing other authors that have recorded audiobooks and also discusses actors and their feelings towards recording an audiobook. For example, Schwartz discusses Tina Fey as an example. This leads the reader to believe that Schwartz has done his research and is thereby an authoritative figure that enables him to give a sound opinion on audiobooks.

Schwartz carefully goes about writing his article. These strategies above are very handy in making him sound more credible and luring the reader into understanding more of the audiobook. He is sort of biased since he wrote an audiobook himself.

Appeals to Emotion

• Personal stories - This enables Schwartz to connect with the reader on a more personal level because not only is he providing research about audiobooks but he is also giving the reader insight into his own experience with the audiobook.
• Level of formality -  Schwartz writes that a general audience could understand the concepts present in his article. This also enables the reader to connect with Schwartz on a more personal level because he is not too formal

Schwartz is trying to elicit an interest from the reader about the audiobook. He is somewhat successful through the use of his personal stories and informal writing. These qualities do not detract from his credibility however.

Appeals to Logic or Rational Decision Making

• Interviews or expert opinions - Schwartz interviews various authors and actors to gain their input on the audiobooks. This is helpful in deeming him more credible.
• Clear transitions between sections of text -  Schwartz shifts ideas without detracting from the main idea. He organizes his paragraphs in such a way that they flow together very nicely.

These strategies are the most effective because while this is somewhat an opinion piece, Schwartz creates himself as a more credible source as he provides information about other writers. Also, paragraph organization is essential in making a coherent argument.

Janson, Johannes. "Book." 03/08/11 via Wikipedia. Creative Commons License.

EDIT:

For this reflection I read both Isaac's and Hallye's blog posts. Something that they both did that I didn't do was incorporate quotes into their argument which I thought was very effective. Like me, Hallye wrote quick blurbs about each of the rhetorical strategies and how they are relevant to the main argument. I think I did a fairly good job of addressing each point however without the need for quotes.