Chris Donnelly

ENC-2135
9/19/15
3rd Draft

Conservation and Preservation in the National Parks

The three artifacts I have chosen to examine in my rhetorical analysis are all online
articles from various websites which deal with the conservation of our national parks. The first is
a comparison between the two often confused terms of preservation and conservation. It
discusses the history of the two, including their origins, descriptions, and important leaders of
these differing philosophes. The author, writing for the website southern fried science, also
brings up the advantages and disadvantages associated with them and ends with a section on
modern day preservation, looking at what aspects of each side we utilize today. Next is an
article from the National Parks Preservation Conservation that lists their five steps to saving the
national parks. This one is less informative, instead it serves as a call to action and promotes the
ideas of the organization. Combining paragraphs of information with images and lists of bulleted
statements, it keeps even a bored reader engaged long enough for them to get through its twelve
pages. Lastly is the most recent of the three online articles, a report on how the repaving of roads
surrounding old faithful with a car tire based asphalt will improve the absorption of ground water
to help maintain the geysers regular eruptions. This is the shortest of the three articles, it gets
strait to the point and is followed by a few photos from the roadways renovation.
The authors of these three articles vary greatly. One is a young marine scientist who
works to develop relations between the communities and the environments of coastal cities and
towns in order to protect the environment. She is enthusiastic about her work and hopes to share
this excitement with her readers. The second is a staff writer for the tech website Gizmodo.

Chris Donnelly
ENC-2135
9/19/15
3rd Draft

Although his primary interest is technology, he likely had some motivation that caused him to
write an article on a national park.
Finally the third author is the National Parks Conservation Association as a whole, and
although the actual authors of this last article are unknown, it is easy to tell the position of the
organization. Two of these artifacts were published on a science or technology based website, so
the targeted audience may be more interested in those areas than conservation, despite it being
the topic of the article. The third artifact was published on the NPCA website, and may have also
been printed out as a pamphlet to be handed out to guests of parks or those attending information
sessions.
Although the articles are all similar in topic and to a point even purpose, the intended
audience of these three authors are all very different. The conservation vs. preservation artifact is
aimed at either older viewers who are more likely to be interested in reading from a science
journal, or people of any age group and background who are doing research for a project of some
kind. This has the potential to be the largest demographic, as the information is presented in a
way to be useful to anything from a school science fair project to a higher level research paper.
The Gizmodo article is unique in that the topic of the artifact is more distant from the regular
content of the website than any of the others. The intended audience here is the same as it is for
the rest of the articles hosted on this site, young to middle aged adults interested in technology of
all sorts, ranging from medical advances to computer hardware and even endangered species
protection. The third artifact, coming from the NPCA, is written up and presented in a very
family friendly way. It is intended to be read through by a family together, as it provides

Chris Donnelly
ENC-2135
9/19/15
3rd Draft

information adults will find interesting while also giving kids something to look at with its
illustrations, graphics, and quick bullet point facts.
The culture these articles were written in each provide a different perspective on not only
their purpose, but also how effectively they can achieve it. The author of the southern fried
science article is a scientist herself, and actively works in the field helping to improve humanenvironment relationships. She is deeply engaged in this culture, however because of the
medium of her writing being a science journal and the historical nature of the topic this
enthusiasm doesnt shine through much.
The Gizmodo article is written within a community of technology enthusiasts, and this
culture has more influence on how the piece was written than either of the other two. It forces the
author to put less emphasis on the park itself or on the history of the geyser or the trails around it,
and to focus on the improvements made with the repaving. Finally the NPCA brochure was
written by members of the National Parks Conservation Association, these people are not only
very passionate about the subject but also experts on it. Their optimism shows through the article
as they concentrate almost entirely on what we can do to fix problems in the parks rather than the
effects of these problems.
Though the articles were all written years apart, they are all modern and the matters they
discuss havent changed since. The author of the Gizmodo article likely those to write it because
he is a supporter of the national parks and was excited to have an opportunity to include it into
his journalism. This artifact is the newest of the three, posted to the site on September 4th, 2015.
Being so recent, it can even be seen as a response to the type of action suggested by the NPCA

Chris Donnelly
ENC-2135
9/19/15
3rd Draft

article. That piece was written in 2006 in anticipation of the centennial of the National Park
System. It was written to provide solutions to many problems which it identifies in our parks, as
well as to motivate us as citizens to take actions to help them. Lastly, the conservation and
preservation artifact was published in 2011, and while seemingly not in response to anything it
could be that the author had recently experienced something that drove her to want to educate her
readers on environmentalism.
Constraints in these articles vary from limiting the depth of the topic to suppressing the
passion that can be shown through the writing. In the Gizmodo article the author cannot go to indepth into the national park itself because of the website hosting his work. He may have wanted
to discuss why innovations like this one are important to the health and future of all of the
national parks, but was unable to. In the conservation vs preservation article the author is
restricted by the fact that the piece is about the history of two environmental movements and not
anything about conservation today. This prevented her from bringing her expertise on the matter
into her writing. Finally the third artifact is constricted by being written by multiple authors.
None of them were able to put their own voice into the piece as they all had to conform to
writing as the NPCA as a whole.
Overall the online article genre is restricted by being limited to visual media like text and
images. By presenting some material as a video or broadcasting it as audio the audience can pick
up on the tone of the speakers voice. Small cues like this enhance the effectiveness of the
artifacts appeal to emotion, and to a lesser extent credibility and logic.

Chris Donnelly
ENC-2135
9/19/15
3rd Draft

The genre of an online article suits the two shorter artifacts well, however the way that
the longer artifact from the NPCA site is formatted, it may be best used as a presentation
accompanied by a speaker or as a printed reference sheet. None of these three articles would
work as a different genre because they are mostly informational. Unless extensively modified
they couldnt be made into plays or novels because they dont have plots or characters, so their
current genre is really the only option.
Multiple rhetorical appeals are utilized in each of the articles, with all three types being
used in two of them. Pathos is the least common one, only being used in the NCPA brochure.
Appeals to emotion can be seen throughout the artifact as it describes threats to the future of the
parks and how we can save them. It gets the audience worried for the future of the national parks
before ending with a pledge it asks for you to sign and send in to them. This is in hopes that even
those who normally wouldnt fill out this sort of form will decide to do so shortly after reading
about the dangers the park faces.
Next is ethos, which appears in all three artifacts, though the way it is used differs
slightly. The NCPA and preservation vs. conservation articles both create appeals to authority by
speaking from the position of an expert on the topic, whether that be a scientist or a conservation
organization. In the Gizmodo article, the author is only an enthusiast in the subject, however this
still puts him at a level above the average reader. Instead of an authority figure he is more of a
knowledgeable colleague.
Lastly we have logos, used extensively in two of the articles and less so in the third. The
Gizmodo and NCPA articles rely heavily on logos, the former because it is the easiest way to

Chris Donnelly
ENC-2135
9/19/15
3rd Draft

reach its viewers considering it is hosted on a tech site, and the latter because it needs to provide
verification that the threats it describes are actually present. The third artifact makes use of
logical appeals not through data but facts. The article is based on historical events and while it is
mostly informational it uses these facts to get the audience interested in conserving the national
parks.
Overall, the genre chosen to compose these artifacts in was the correct choice, while there
are some benefits to be gained from other genres they would be less effective as a whole. The
articles each fulfil their authors purposes, appealing to their varied audiences by presenting
arguments best suited to them. Rhetorical appeals were used extensively, with all three variants
contained in two of the three and the other utilizing all but one. The way the appeals were used
depended on the intended audience, and each combination of these strategies was successful in
getting the point across to the audience.
http://gizmodo.com/excellent-way-way-to-keep-old-faithful-from-looking-tir-1728719360
http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=11746
http://www.npca.org/assets/pdf/whitepaper_final_lowres.pdf