RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

Elements

Viviana Rey

1301 RWS

10/20/17
 Introduction

This paper will analyze the rhetorical elements used by the authors of the article

Argumentation methods in educational contexts: Introduction to the special issue (Rapanda,

Chrysi, and Macagno, Fabrizio 2016). Taking in consideration the authors knowledge,

experience, and domain over the topic, their credibility will be assayed, paying close attention to

the issues they mention, always keeping in consideration the three principal rhetorical elements:

logos, pahos and ethos.

Chrysi Rapanta and Fabrizio Macagnos thesis is a reflection about how arguing different

topics in the classroom is considered as a helpful tool in many situations, as in a way of thinking,

a way of teaching or a way of collaborating. It is crucial to motivate the students to express their

ideas, argue, reflect and develop their own critical thinking in order for them to be capable of

expressing their ideas and persuade an audience to make their opinions be acceptable.

One of the greatest issues in our educational system is that students no longer feel the

motivation no develop this critical thinking, a lot of students are only interested in following

dictated rules in order to get their degree and be done with school as soon as possible (Rapanda,

and Macagno 2016, 2). The lack of motivation is molding students that are not fully prepared to

face the hard reality of life after school, this leaves them without the necessary preparation to

express their ideas in a way that will be more accepted and without the capacity to back up their

opinions (Rapanda, and Macagno 2016, 2).

These situations that the authors analyze in their article come together as one big issue

used in advantage to prove their thesis, by supporting it with as much evidence as they can and

providing us various points of view to have a wider understanding of their statement and what it

consists on (Rapanda, and Macagno 2016, 7).

 Logos

From beginning to end, Rapanta and Macagno use logos by presenting all of their

sources, basing most of their article in studies and researches already done, but with credible and

valuable information related to their thesis. By this, they support their thesis statement by giving

their audience solid evidence appealing to a scientific reasoning and critical reasoning in every

page of their article (Rapanda, and Macagno 2016, 1-10).

We are presented to different types of studies, all of them talking about the same topic,

but with variable points of view, which are not necessarily contradicting each other, but mostly

providing different evidence in order to emphasize different aspects of the same topic. Some of

them take as their main topic a more scientific focus, based on help students elaborate better

arguments and develop their critical reasoning, but some of them focus on the psychological and

social side of the issue, but also have as their purpose to help students develop an adequate

critical thinking as well by trying to understand what is it that socially, mentally and

psychologically affects the most the understanding and developing of students.

The authors also mention some of their own studies to support their thesis. This adds

even more credibility to their article, because by this they are letting us know about the

experience they have with this topic, and how much they know about it just by taking in

consideration all of their work (Rapanda, and Macagno 2016, 8).

Different dialogues, models, theories and all types of argumentations, all of them- or at

least most of them- born from past studies, analogies, and approaches to the topic with the same

finality, to provide the scholars in education with the adequate tools to make teaching and

learning easier and more effective than it is now by developing new ideas for methodological

and empirical applications.

 Ethos

Both of the authors constantly appeal to ethos throughout the article. They leave us with

plenty of reliable sources to verify by ourselves the veracity of the information they used. As

mentioned above, the credibility of the authors work became evident the moment they were

confident enough to use their own work as a reference for their article (Rapanda, and Macagno

2016, 8). They were confident enough of their knowledge and preparation to use it as a source as

reliable as the rest of the books, magazines and articles they used to support their thesis

statement.

Besides this, they prove to be qualified to be capable of proving what they are discussing,

Chrysi Rapanda by having different degrees (B.A, M.A and PhD) and multiple investigations

previously done and some articles of her own published. Fabrizio Macagno proves to be

prepared as well, by being a post-doctoral in a university where he manages their research in the

field of argumentation and philosophy of language, in addition to having focused his whole life

as a researcher to the crucial topic of a semantic approach to reasoning.

All of this was verified by making an online research of both of the authors, to check

their credibility and past works.

Pathos

The authors do not appeal so much to pathos. They present proof about their subject, and

do not use elements such as images or personal opinions about the topic. Having in consideration

that most of the information in this article is based solely on other articles, books, and alternative

sources and theories, it may not necessarily mean that they did not try to make their audience

experience something while reading their work though.

As it happens in any lecture, the author is always going to try to make us feel something

when we read their work, whether it is a positive or negative emotion. In this case we are shown
various proofs about how the scholarly system needs to motivate students to participate more, be

more inclusive, be rational and critical, and this, as students, make us feel like we may not be

giving our best or that we may be part of the problem, and feeling like this will make us want to

improve ourselves. The same will happen to professors and parents. The authors may have not

included direct emotions in their work, but it will inevitably make us feels the urge to change,

and think about every theory discussed in the article.

What they do do that appeals to pathos is to provide us articles that do appeal more to

pathos. Although they do not rely directly on emotions, some of the articles they present tend to

do this in their statements (Rapanda, and Macagno 2016, 4).

Overall Analysis

Even though there are no counterarguments, the authors do mention some fallacies, not

necessarily about their article itself, but about other articles that are focused on fallacies. As

mentioned by Van Eemeren, Grootendorst, & Snoeck-Henkemans (2002) A fallacy is a

derailment from the rules of a critical discussion, a speech act that hinders somehow the

resolution of a dispute within an ideal model.. In other words, a fallacy is an argument that can

be reasonable and accepted in some context, but in others can be deceptive.

So even though the authors evidently do not point out their own fallacies, they give us the

definition and examples of what it means, in order for us to make our own critic and try to find

them by ourselves in this article, the sources, the educational system or anything we may want to

discuss.

This article persuasive in its own way. The first thing that comes to our mind when we

think about something that is persuasive is something that tries directly to manipulate us. It

may be with images, exaggerating the facts or making emphasis in the most delicate parts of a
lecture, the ones that could easily cause an effect in the audiences emotions. But even though

this is not the case of this article, it inevitably makes the audience feel concerned about how

many researchers are concerned about the lack of participation and poor critical thinking of

students, its causes and are desperately looking for new ways to improve it.

Conclusion

The authors made a good job according to the intention they had: To create awareness

about the educational issue they present. By not relying so much in emotions but mostly in facts

and studies they create a feeling of confidence and admiration in their audience, which helps the

reader to trust in the authors credibility.

 References

Rapanta, Chrysi, and Fabrizio Macagno. 2016. "Argumentation methods in educational contexts:
Introduction to the special issue." International Journal Of Educational Research 79, 142-
149. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed October 20, 2017).