Laura Bolin Carroll’s concept that “the more we know about how to analyze situations and draw informed conclusions, the better we can become about making savvy judgments about the people, situations and media we encounter,” essential to her main points. She believed that understanding how to process certain situations properly is the to success. Knowing the audience, purpose, and restrictions of the rhetoric you are being exposed to could help make the correct informed decisions; potentially saving you a lot of trouble. A good example of why understanding the audience could help you is with “sports gambling websites” (Draft Kings). If you’re relaxing on a Sunday night, enjoying a good football game, you need to understand that you are the prime target audience for sports-betting commercials. They know that people who watch sports are more likely to fall into their online trap due to them being more competitive, emotional, and willing to place money on their favorite teams. A sports fan armed with this information might think twice before foolishly pouring his savings into their pockets. In addition, knowing the “purpose” of the rhetoric is also extremely helpful in making best informed decisions. In the case of sports betting websites, obviously their purpose is to lure people into their scheme, create an addiction, and to acquire as much profit off each individual as possible. Since their main purpose is to take an individual’s money, it is almost certain that said individual is going to lose any investment he puts in in the long run. With this information in mind now, no sensible sports fan would be willing to start betting their money. Lastly, but most importantly in making good conclusions on rhetoric is knowing it’s limitations. Sports betting sites in particular are limited in the fact that they can not false advertise. So, knowing that they can’t say “every individual will profit off their bets,” they had to improvise. What they came up with is commercials that show one “lucky winner,” who managed to bet the odds and take home the jackpot. Obviously anyone in their right mind would want to play this game too if it was actually that easy; but what they don’t know is that this “lucky winner” spent months calculating specific algorithms to try and predict which players will help him bring home the jackpot. With that information in mind, the “lucky winner” scheme doesn’t seem so appealing anymore, right? Being armed with the ability to decipher rhetoric for what it really is can be the difference between making a good decision and a life-ruining one.