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Sydni Burge

Professor Gardiakos

ENC1102

20 January 2023

Reading Response to Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis and Creating,

Using and Sharing Information in Research Communities

When considering rhetoric, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

is, in my opinion, one of the most prominent examples of pathos, and Aristotle’s appeals in

general, in our culture. ASPCA uses videos of distressed animals and soft and slow music to

invoke a feeling of melancholy in the viewer. ASPCA is not the only organization that aims

to use the pathetic appeal to bring the audience in, St. Jude Children’s Hospital also

frequently utilizes it in a similar way. They use parent testimonials and uplifting story that

could not be accomplished without donations. Their inspiring yet empathy inducing stories

entice those watching to support their organization. Both organizations appeal to the

audience’s empathy in order to make people want to donate and support their cause. In the

case of ethos, ASPCA brings out Sarah McLaughlin and St. Jude brings out doctors and real

patients, both providing a sense of credibility to encourage the audience to trust the source.

Additionally, pulling out the actual videos of suffering animals, actual cancer patients and

statistics in their advertisement provides an additional layer of trustworthiness, nobody will

donate if they don’t trust you with their money. Overall, both ASPCA and SJCH are avid

users of the artistic appeals in their ads.

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Rhetoric is often used outside of advertisements. For example, in a research community,

such as the anthropology department at my university. I learned in my anthropology class

last semester and my archaeology class this semester that anthropology is divided into four

subfields- linguistics, cultural anthropology, archaeology, and paleoanthropology- all with a

shared main goal of providing anthropological knowledge to students and demonstrating said

knowledge to the next generation of anthropologists. Within the four subfields there are

separate goals. In the linguistics department the general agreed upon goal is the pursuit of

researching learning and evaluating world languages. To achieve this they research,

transcribe, and interpret different languages and study everything from phonetics to

morphology and lexical structure. Their work is kept secure in online museum databases in

order to preserve languages at risk of dying off. Cultural anthropology has the shared goal of

documenting human culture. This is often done through field work, known as participant

observation, and documented via ethnography. Periodically, people in a cultural

anthropology department will analyze artifacts and remains to publish papers concerning new

research done on culture around the globe. An Archaeology department’s main goal is to

understand the ways human culture has evolved through studying material remains. The

primary difference between a cultural anthropology department and an archaeology

department is excavation. Excavation is archaeology’s primary form of field work, and

departments create studies based on what they will find in an excavation session. Often,

anthropology professors are archaeologists who work on field when school is not in session,
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and they publish the studies when they’re home and teaching again. Archaeology departments

strive to preserve cultural artifacts they find excavating in museums. Paleoanthropology

departments have the primary goal of learning about hominids through the fossils found in an

archaeologist’s excavation. In fact, many paleoanthropologists are also practicing archaeologists,

as they must excavate to find the hominid fossils. Paleoanthropologists work exclusively with

extinct hominids and aim to discover new species, or habits of extinct species that have been lost

to time. Recently, it was discovered that Neanderthals held funerals, gave gifts to their dead, and

provided medical care to those in their community. In short, anthropology departments at

universities (as are most science departments) are often ran by those who actually do hands on

work in the field, and they serve to provide expertise to those getting involved in the field for the

first time.

Research communities are built on a foundation of rhetoric. The ethics, expertise on the

matters at hand and studying the topic in depth provides a sense of ethos and logos to those on

the outside of the community looking in. Being in a research community, or even just reading

their papers or studies can build more awareness of the work put into the end result, aka the

knowledge. I think it was very forward-thinking of Cassie to dive into the podcast community

and do the research before she started, because of how well-equipped she wound up being.

Cassie also knew more about how the community worked going in, so she could make more

connections with those in the community and thus she would feel less alone. I think we, as
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humans, are so inclined to join groups because we want to feel like we are a part of something

bigger than ourselves. You truly know you are a part of the group when you are actively

included in the group’s purpose, whether it be, in this case, actively researching to excavating

abroad.

Works Cited

Anders, Kathy and Cassie Hemstrom. “Creating, Using and Sharing Information in Research

Communities” Writing Spaces vol. 4, no. 11, pp. 184-198

Carroll, Laura Bolin. “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis.”

Writing Spaces, vol. 1, pp. 45-58