Week 8- Jesus Medina

After reading “Backpacks V. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis” written by Laura Bolin Carol, I learned that we see rhetorical analysis everywhere we go. The main place where we see rhetorical analysis is the media. Wether you are on social media, watching t.v, on a web page, or looking at a billboard, something or someone is trying to persuade us to do something. Which is why it is important for us to understand how rhetoric works. Because if we don’t, we’ll let the media shape who we are since we’d be getting persuade all the time. In the text, I also learned what exigence is. “Exigence is the circumstance or condition that invites a response”, according to the text. I never knew what exigence was but after reading the text, I realized how important it is since it is what makes a person speak or act on, in the context of a rhetorical moment. Another thing I learned after reading the text is that without realizing, we judge and make conclusions about people after making a quick analysis on their style and small actions we see them do. One quote that stood out to me was “Media is constantly asking you to buy something, act in some way, believe something to be true, or interact with others in a specific manner. Understanding rhetorical messages is essential to help us to become informed consumers, but it also helps evaluate the ethics of messages, how they affect us personally, and how they affect society”. The significance of this quote is that it lets us know that since these rhetorical messages are all around us, it is best for us to understand them. Once we understand them, we can see how it affects us and the people around you. One way in which this essay will affect my rhetorical analysis is that I will now go more in depth about the word choice being used and how it affects the overall speech.