Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetoric is the study of how writers and speakers use words to influence an audience.
Therefore, a rhetorical analysis is an essay that breaks a writing piece into parts and explains
how this parts work together to create a certain effect. It is important for authors to use rhetorical
strategies because a good use of them can make it easier for the audience to connect and
understand the author's purpose. In this essay I will analyze the rhetorical strategies that Kristy
Jo Hunt's article "Eat To Live, Live To Dance: Preventing Eating Disorders in Dancers" uses. In
this case, the author intended to inform and persuade the audience about the importance of
adding a class on proper nutrition to the curriculum of dancers of all backgrounds. The specific
goal of Hunt's article is to convince the audience of the importance of dancers to have the
necessary nutritional information in order for them not to fall into society's pressure of having to
have a ultra-thin image, just to be perceived as a professional dancer or as one that fits the
schemes through developing eating disorders. Since the title and the abstract, Hunt was very
clear in making the audience aware of her article's goals. Her rhetorical strategy were successful
do to her use of effective techniques. Such as her appeal strategies, ethos, pathos, and logos.
Now I will continue my analysis of Hunt's appeal techniques through the article. In this
article, the ethical appeal is used to establish the author's own credibility. The author (Kristy Jo
Hunt) established credibility on her article due to the fact that she was herself a dancer and she
portrayed not only her struggles with bad eating habits, but she included her dance colleagues'
eating ordeals as well. Since she was really affected by bad eating habits, she searched for a
solution or a method to educate dancers about proper nutrition and exercise. All of this, allowed
Hunt to find a Nutrition Model which provided dancers and/or any other individual interested in
achieving their desired body appearance with an educated guide to follow. Such model was

originated by Bill Phillips (a former body builder) who successfully tested it and who earned the
recognition of the International Journal of Sports, Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism in 1996
where it was published. By this information that Hunt provided for us, we can see how she
The article also used the pathetic appeal by engaging the audience into feeling emotions
such as acceptance and approval for her ideas expressed in the texts. Hunt achieved her goal of
getting the reader's sympathy towards dancers through letting us see how society is guilty of
pressuring dancers into portraying a certain image (the ultra-thin image). The media has also
been guilty of picturing professional dancers and models as being extremely thin individual and
have been really harsh in criticizing those individuals that fall out of that image.
Hunt also used the pathetic appeal by allowing us (the audience) to relate and feel
empathy towards dancers. She allowed us to see how dancers are judged by their physical
appearance and how society wants them to fit the pre-established stereotypes created for them.
Thanks to Hunt we can put ourselves in any dancer's shoes and see how unfair their search for
success can be. Finally, the author uses the logical appeal by using facts and giving reasons to
support her idea of following the body for life model. We can see this when Hunt informed us
about the International Journal of Sports and Exercise Metabolism publishing Bill Philips' Body
for Life Model. The author also used the logical appeal when she mentions a study done by
Candow and published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism
in 2006 informed the public about the success of the Body For Life nutrition model against the
American Heart Association and another sedentary life style plan, where the Body For Life plan
proved to help individuals lose twice the body and stomach fat compared to the other two plans.
Hunt also showed statistics about dancers feeling pressured by society and the percentages of
dancers with eating disorders.

Overall, Hunt made a good use of the techniques of the rhetoric strategies to make a
strong case to persuade us that her idea was the best to prevent eating disorders in dancers. There
was a good flow from her introduction through each body paragraph all the way to her
conclusion. Next I will analyze Hunt's body paragraphs and conclusion.
Since a good introduction should lead into your argument it should be start by providing
the reader factual data and brief history of your topic, I can easily say that Hunt's introduction
was pretty effective. Hunt's introduction provided us with an overview of her proposal to educate
dancers with the proper nutrition model in order to prevent them from falling into damaging
eating disorders. She briefly referred to the Body For Life model which she referred to as the
best nutrition model to follow by dancers. Since the introduction she started providing us with
major reasons why we should considered Bill Philips model (Body For Life plan) over any other
plan. Her main reason to support such plan is that the International Journal of Sports Nutrition
and Exercise Metabolism considered Philips's model significant enough to publish
According to famous writers, each body paragraph must have it's own topic sentence and
it should be coherent and following an order. Therefore, I can say that Hunt's body paragraphs
presented a good transition as well as a good flow of ideas. She provided us with the problem
(dancers eating disorders and distorted images of themselves), dieting setbacks, what she thinks
is the solution for the problem (educator intervention), in addition to a detailed explanation with
the highlights of the Body For Life model, and finally the role of educators in the
implementation of a nutrition class in the dancers' curriculum.
A conclusion should briefly restate the author's main argument, as well as related to its
importance in the real world. Having said that, is easy to agree that Hunt was successful with her
conclusion because not only she stated her main argument, but she successfully persuaded us (at

least me) that there is a huge problem rooted in absurd stereotypes created by society and
reinforced by the media in which dancers are believed to be professional depending on their
body image. Such negative beliefs lead dancers to harmful eating disorders in order to maintain
their ultra thin bodies and unfortunately not only their physical health is threatened, but also their
mental and emotional states are extremely affected too. Hunt made it clear that unless our
society, the media, and the dancers are re-educated about what a healthy image is, dancers will
keep on torturing themselves damaging their health, their minds, and even dying due to living up
to societies wrong image of a dancer's body.
In conclusion, it is extremely important that writers use the rhetorical strategies in order
for them to be able to make us (the audience) understand and make a connection with their text.
By all the information mentioned above, we can say the author of "Eat To Live, Live To Dance:
Preventing Eating Disorders in Dancers", Katie Jo Hunt, has successfully used all the rhetorical
strategies in order to have an effect on its audience. She has used the ethical, pathetic, and logical
strategies effectively throughout the article. She made her audience understand that dancers often
have bad eating habits because they want to obtain the "perfect" body of a dancer, which is
causing them to damage their physical, mental, and emotional health. She finishes with the
conclusion that this problem is always going to affect dancers since the age of nine, and maybe if
instructors/educators used the Body For Life Nutrition Model, it might help dancers to live a
healthier life and prevent eating disorders. She made us understand and connect to her text by her
context of the text as well as using the three rhetorical appeals, as I mentioned before. Overall, in
my opinion, I believe that Hunt has made this a successful informative article by using all the
strategies possible to create an effective understanding on the audience.