This semester I would like to write about the importance of immunizing newborns. I would mainly like to target expecting parents. There are five constituent parts of rhetoric that classical rhetoricians have distinguished including style, memory, delivery, invention, and arrangement. One of the most important rhetorical terms for this topic is style. It is crucial for first time parents to understand what they are reading. If the text is too demanding, too complicated or unclear, the writing will not be effective. It is important to have the readability to be at their level (maybe less than a medical professional). This term of style might limit how much detail can be placed within the text. Some examples of texts might be brochures, emails, websites, or news articles.
Another rhetoric term that is important is memory. If the audience is able to read and comprehend the piece, all is lost if the audience cannot recall what they read. Many rhetoricians believe there is an inclination of persuasion related to rhetoric. In this case, I would like to convince my target audience of the importance of immunizing newborns for their safety and health. Memory is important so that expecting parents can act upon this issue. Expecting parents might also already have an opinion on this issue, so it is necessary to address their concerns in an appropriate manner.
Perhaps the most crucial aspect of rhetoric is delivery. After all, the quality of the piece is irrelevant if it does not reach its target audience. Each topic will have a different most effective mode of delivery. For the immunization of newborns issue, the most effective delivery modes include, but is not limited to, brochures, emails, websites, and news articles. Each method will reach a slightly different portion of the expecting parents population.
Invention refers to the actual message of the piece. It consists of three subsections: rhetorical analysis, three appeals, and research. All the data, research, and studies relating to newborns’ immunization will fall under this term of rhetoric. This is important because of the amount of negative information towards this topic. Not only does the positive information have to be accurately relayed, but the negative information has to be adequately disproved. It is possible that this is confusing to expecting parents, which is where delivery and style come into play.
Arrangement is the final constituent part of rhetoric. This refers to the organization and formatting of the piece. Arrangement helps the target audience understand the writing in its entirety. Clearly, the five components of rhetoric all hold great significance. With only one of these parts deficient, the piece will be lacking and will become less effective.
This is an incredibly important and polarizing topic the is growing ever more relevant by the day. I think overcoming the misinformation circulating online will be the greatest challenge you face in your project. You will need to appeal to readers’ sense of logic by disproving counterarguments in a stepwise fashion. It will also be helpful to explain the difference between correlation and causation.
Immunization of infants is an important issue that is unfortunately a divisive topic. Two challenges this issue is facing today are a lack of awareness by parents on its importance and the propagation of misinformation by celebrity personalities and deceitful organizations. It will be important to tailor your rhetoric so that both parties can understand the importance of immunization as well as the consequence of not immunizing.
It will be vastly easier to convince those unaware. It is imperative to have a good vehicle of delivery so that as many people as possible can be educated on this issue. By establishing yourself or your organization as a credible source of information or expert in the subject matter, most will be convinced by the evidence you provide. This will also help if you appeal to their sense of reason with well supported arguments. For the boastfully misinformed, though, you may want to also appeal to their emotions. Arguing about the dangers they pose on not only their child, but also other children they interact with, could be fruitful.