Rhetorical Analysis on “Human Trafficking: Closer to Home Than You

Think” By Terri Luttrell

Article:
https://bankingjournal.aba.com/2020/01/human-trafficking-closer-to-home-than-you-think/
By: Dezi cockrell

The article “Human Trafficking: Closer to Home Than You Think” is written by Terri

luttrell, a seasonal AML professional who wants to inform people on what human trafficking is

and how its affecting people. It was written on January 6, 2020 and published to the Banking

Journal. Terri is trying to reach out to the new generations and tell them the full story of how

complex and big the human trafficking world really is. It all comes down to people thinking “It

wouldn’t happen to me.”. When in reality, people are being taken from everywhere including

your own city. Luttrell’s use of logos, pathos, ethos, her tone, and her organization really sustain

the points she is writing and makes the information stick with the reader.

Terri Luttrell goes though different sections in the article, it begins with talking about

how Human Trafficking is happening right under peoples noses and the business is booming.

Profits for human trafficking are 150 billion a year. She also writes about some of the myths of

Human Trafficking and where people have it wrong, such as human trafficking doesn’t happen in

the U.S. and its only sex trafficking. She continues by speaking of how widespread it is in the

world. It happens to any age, race, gender, nationality. Luttrell mentions an organization that

helps survivors after they have escaped and are trying to find a stable financial security. The

Financial Crimes Enforcment Network works to identify if any human trafficking is happening

and stop them from stealing an important information. Luttrell tells of who the victims are and

why they would be chosen. She also tells who the traffickers are and what they have to gain. She
describes and tells the most common types of human trafficking, the two types are sex and labor.

The last part of the article was about victim sign indicators and what to look for.

In “Human Trafficking: Closer to Home Than You Think” by Terri Luttrell it gives the

new generations a great deal of information on human trafficking in a very educational way by

using logos, pathos, ethos, organization, and tone.

Terri Luttrell uses logos in her article by putting in statistics and studies, these make the

article more trustworthy and more impactful. Throughout the whole article there are many

statistics that give you a hit of reality that human trafficking really happens. In the very

beginning of the article and at the end of the article it gives a statistic that 25 million people are

victims of human trafficking right now. This is a big number making it more prominent to the

readers so they know how concerning it is. It is also repeated to give a reminder at the end that it

is happening and it's not just a few people. It also gives a statistic about the amount trafficked in

each type saying ” ...with 59 percent of victims trafficked for sexual exploitations according to

the UN report...one out of three victims globally are trafficked for forced labor, and 7 percent for

other purposes, including for the removal of organs…”. These stats give an idea and an image of

how some forms of human trafficking are worse than others. Some of the quotes are also

followed by a citation of the source, some examples of this are the department of state, the

United Nations office, National Human Trafficking hotline, National Domestic Workers

Alliance, and more. When the article is cited the article becomes more reliable and trustworthy

since work was put into writing the article. Having a cited source from a well known company

makes the quotes mean something more than just words. The cited articles and the statistics add

to make the article more credible.

 The emotions of anger and sadness brings out the concern of what is being talked about

in the article, human trafficking. At the start of the article it gives a deep definition, “human

trafficking is the crime of stealing a person’s freedom for profit, and it continues to be a

widespread global problem.” This definition mentions words like crime, stealing, and freedom.

These are words that people associate with emotions. For instance, people link the words crime

with fear and anger. When putting words that bring out emotion the reader is more likely to feel

those emotions and become more connected with the article. Some quotes in the article use deep

concepts to involve peoples emotions to give them a picture in their head, one quote says, “You

could be encountering human trafficking in your backyard—no matter where you live or the size

of your financial institution.”. This could give someone a feeling of surprise and sadness while

giving them the image of someone around them being involved with human trafficking . Quotes

that are really out there could get the reader more involved and make them think harder about the

situation. Emotions play a huge part in this article because it's such a sad and crazy topic and

making the reader feel those feelings is important.

Luttrell shows ethos in this article by the “about the author” at the end of the article and

the quotes from different dependable resources. The information on Terri luttrell tells about her

being a professional AML and talks about programs she has helped develop such as the

BSA/OFAC program. These programs show how she is good at what she does and puts in the

work. She mentions these programs in the article when talking about helping human trafficking

survivors with finacial situations. Knowing her past experiences with research in human

trafficking, people can trust her writing and be comfortable with it. She also used trustworthy

sources that help the reader feel like they can rely on this article. She quotes these articles from
government officials and scholarly papers. The people who come across this article would be

able to say this is a credible source by the citations and the person who wrote it.

Luttrell’s organization makes this article more effective in providing information.

Information on a complex topic like human trafficking comes in bunches. When the information

is split and organized into certain parts it is easier to take in. Luttrells uses subheadings like what

is human trafficking, the global landscape of trafficking, who are the U.S. victims, and more to

organize the article in specific sections. Also no matter how good your writing skills are, your

article or story can’t live up to its potential if it’s not well organized. This organization style gets

the reader to take in more information and understand it better which is helpful when it comes to

a topic with lots of information.

The serious and straightforward tone used in the article helps the reader realize the

importance of the topic. The tone can change the story by giving it a voice. As a reader goes

through this article they get a sense of the urgency with the topic. It talks about the truth of

human trafficking and how the victims could be chosen and it talks about the traffickers that

could take them. “It's possible that trafficking may never be visible in plain sight.” and

“traffickers might use violence, fraud, manipulation, or false promises of well-paying jobs or

romantic relationships to lure victims”. These quotes from the article take on a more serious tone

for the reader to register the scary reality of human trafficking. You could just write words down

but it’s the tone that sets up how you perceive it and take it in. She wrote this article to get people

more aware of the situation and using this specific tone achieves that goal by getting the reader

to pay attention.

In “Human Trafficking: Closer to Home Than You Think” Terri uses rhetorical elements

such as ethos, pathos, and logos. He does this to really get to the reader and help them
understand the importance of knowing whats really happening in the world such as human

trafficking. She also uses great organization to help break up all the many details of human

trafficking. The more serious tone helps set the vibe of the article giving it a more genuine and

concerned voice. The author uses these rhetorical elements to get the reader's attention and to get

them to better understand about human trafficking and how its affecting people.

words :1224

Revised words: 1386

Works Cited:

https://bankingjournal.aba.com/2020/01/human-trafficking-closer-to-home-than-you-thin

I fixed a few things in this project to help create a more solid and complete essay! I

fixed sentences in all the places where human trafficking was capitalized incorrectly. I fixed

all the spelling errors that were messing up the sentence flow. I went through and added

sentences to places that needed more information. For example “ You could just write

words down but it’s the tone that sets up how you perceive it and take it in.” I added this so

that I could explain more of how the tone affects the article. Another example would be

“Having a cited source from a well known company makes the quotes mean something

more than just words.” I added this to help conclude the paragraph on logos.