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Jenna Fain

Professor Gonzalez

ENC 1102

14 January 2024

Stylus Writings Reading Response

“The Art of Deception” by Natalia Colmenares is a complex research paper with the main
idea of deception on the modern internet. More specifically, scam emails on the internet. I
believe the author is extremely successful in conveying this message as the paper is worded
extremely well. Not only that but the author makes extremely good points about phishing
through research studies. Looking into techniques that scammers might use to phish was an
extremely great idea. Specifically, mentioning how many scammers will use the wording “please
respond immediately” to draw the target into their trap (Colmenares, Natalia. “The Art of
Deception.” Writing and Rhetoric, 2019, cah.ucf.edu/writingrhetoric/stylus/issues/10-2/the-art-
of-deception/). The author collected their data through numerous articles as well as primary
sources who have been targeted. I believe the author makes a great point. I am also someone who
has been targeted by scammers in many ways and it is more common than people might think.
So yes, I agree with Colmenares ideas. In the text, the author goes over many of the different
sites that have scammers attempting to phish. They use large companies that would be important
to users and tell them that there is a problem. This supports my views that it is easy to be
scammed based on how much one values their online services. Specifically, the author mentions
FedEx (Colmenares, Natalia. “The Art of Deception.” Writing and Rhetoric, 2019,
cah.ucf.edu/writingrhetoric/stylus/issues/10-2/the-art-of-deception/). This is a company that
ships packages to people. Many people awaiting their packages would want to fix whatever issue
that might arise so that they can successfully receive their items. The only real-world event that
this text might have reminded me of is the exact same as what the text was about. Which is
essentially scammers on the internet. I believe that this could be influential to writing studies as
it was sophisticated and relevant to modern life.

The second research paper that I read was “Medical Influencers: A Rhetorical Analysis of
TikTok’s Genre Features” by Keziah Olajide. The main idea of this text was that TikTok is an
extreme method of communication that influences the way information is received. I believe the
author is successful in conveying this message as they go into deep detail of how TikTok filters
and sends out information to influence the mass viewer. The author used their own research
methods of studying experts and influencers that share health information on the app. In the
research, the author went on their own feed and found videos that were relevant to the study on
different levels of viewings and compared them (Olajide, Keziah. “‘medical Influencers: A
Rhetorical Analysis of TikTok’s Genre Features.’” Writing and Rhetoric, 2022,
cah.ucf.edu/writingrhetoric/stylus/issues/13-2/medical-influencers-a-rhetorical-analysis-of-
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tiktoks-genre-features/). I believe the author makes some valid points and I agree with their
opinion. I agree because I am also someone who uses TikTok and I get fed this information and
influenced as much as the rest of the public. In the text, the author states “By actively shaping
information in a manner that users can immediately relate to, genres like videos and short clips
are commonly used to communicate specific lexis or complex ideas associated with the content
creator's niche.” (Olajide, Keziah. “‘medical Influencers: A Rhetorical Analysis of TikTok’s
Genre Features.’” Writing and Rhetoric, 2022,
cah.ucf.edu/writingrhetoric/stylus/issues/13-2/medical-influencers-a-rhetorical-analysis-of-
tiktoks-genre-features/) which supports my view as well that the media is shaped in a way to
make it as appealing as possible to viewers. The text reminds me of issues with what all is being
shoved down children’s throats on the internet. Many are so infatuated with these influencers
that they are missing out on their own childhood. I believe the authors research can be a great
asset to writing studies about the way social media, more specifically TikTok, influences adults
and children or the public in general.