Natalie Kelber 11 February 2013 ENGL 3060 Critical Commentary 3 Introduction: This chosen artifact to describe the idea

of the rhetorical criticism called cluster criticism are about flu prevention and what risks are if you dont go along and get the flu vaccine. The whole purpose of this artifact is to motivate people to get the flu vaccine. The Department of Health gives detailed information on how to prevent the spread of flu, who should get vaccinated, where to get vaccinated, and what to do if you are sick, (Department of Health 3-4). Methods: Sonja K. Foss talks about cluster criticism in terms of Kenneth Burke, who developed the idea of cluster criticism, uses ideas of identification of consubstantiality, in which shared substance constitutes an identification between an individual and some property or person,(Foss 1). She also talks about how Burke sees persuasion as a result of identification. Cluster criticism also talks about associations and disassociations within key terms, in which they are talking about the positive and negative aspects of the given artifact. There is repetition, bold words, and huge fonts can be found as the supplements, in which Foss says that Burkes idea of supplements are this process involves a close examination of the artifact to identify each occurrence of each key term and identification of the terms that cluster around each key term, (Foss 3). There are also ideas of intensity in which a person analyzes the given text or speech to identify the tone of the message. In my given artifact about flu prevention, the intensity is more about the seriousness of the flu and how to prevent getting this disease. I also gauged the intensity by seeing what words were bold and was repetitive. Results and Analysis: The questions I had while looking through this informational packet about flu prevention are what are the steps to flu prevention? What does the vaccine do for your health? The artifacts key terms are: Flu, Prevention, and Vaccination. Throughout the article, the words flu and causes came up quite a bit, which indicated that this article is mainly about the causes of flu and what you can do to prevent the flu, such as besides getting the vaccine, you can cover your mouth, get rest, wash hands, and stay home, among other things. The common clusters among my main three key terms were prevention, disease prevention, risks, and health. They also used colorful pictures to tell the people reading this informational packet to get up and go get the vaccine right away. Synthesis: One cluster titled Flu are mainly centered around the main words of symptoms, infection, bacteria, sick, influenza, life threatening, and cold. The word of symptoms is clustered around what symptoms a person possibly can get when they get the flu. It gives you descriptive words such as rest, liquids, cover your mouth and with tissues. The second cluster titled Prevention has some repetitive relationships of covering mouth, get rest, and liquids. The mini supplements that are in each cluster is mainly the words of can, is, and you. The most intriguishing relationship that is shown in my three present clusters is the whole relationship between the topics about of how the flu can be life threatening,

how it is an infection, and how it is important to get the flu vaccine. It gives people the motivation to get the flu vaccine so that they dont get the flu, because it can be life threatening. Discussion: What does the Department of Health want people to do and take away from this informational artifact? What is the motivation to get the flu vaccine? The one clear question behind the motivation behind this informational packet about flu prevention is that the abstract theme is that flu can be taken as a form of despair and being miserable. Many people have died from having the flu, so it can be a dark abyss. There are simple things that you can do to prevent this dark abyss by just getting vaccinated, which can save your life, and prevention is the easy step. There isnt much expansion on this informational packet except that it is motivating people to get the flu vaccine, and to be alert about preventing the flu by easy steps: covering your mouth, get plenty of rest, drink plenty of liquids, wash your hands, stay home if you are sick, and stay healthy . The motivation to get the flu vaccine, if you dont want to get seriously ill, or you can possibly die from it. The other motivation is that the Department of Health wants people to go, get the vaccine, and prevent getting sick as much as possible. Also, what can happen if they dont get the vaccine, and the risks that come along with the flu shot. It is to alert people about the positive side of the vaccine and the negative part, which is if they dont decide to get the vaccine to strengthen their immune system, then they will be more vulnerable to a cold and the flu.

References: Foss, Sonja K. Cluster Criticism Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice. 4th ed. Long Grove, IL: Waveland P, 2009. 63-9. PDF file. "The Flu." Influenza (Flu) Information- Vermont Department of Health. Vermont Department of Health, 2013. Web. 9 Feb. 2013.