Running Head: ADOPT US KIDS

Rhetorical Analysis on Adopt US Kids

Manuel Santilln
Adrian Rodriguez
Brenda Pacheco
University of Texas at El Paso

ADOPT US KIDS

Adopt US Kids

Adopt US Kids is a project of the Children's Bureau, operated through a cooperative

agreement between the Bureau and the Adoption Exchange Association. This organization raises
awareness about the need for foster and adoptive families for the children in need. Adopting a
child from foster care is a great way to help a child and for a family to grow. They also help by
supplying information and connecting families seeking to foster and adopt a child.
Adopt US Kids has a very strong sense of ethos as they constantly encourage people to
foster or adopt a child. One way Adopt US Kids does this is by their campaign "You dont have
to be perfect to be a parent" where they describe any stable person who is willing to give love
and care for a child, qualifies to foster or be a parent. Adopt US Kids also gives more detailed
information for a person or couple who is in search of adopting or fostering a child, where they
can find the information of ask questions through the phone, Adopt US Kids' web page, or even
through social medias like Facebook.
Adopt US Kids helps families in every step of the process for both, adoption or the foster
of a child, from the beginning of the process, to providing services and advice for families
interested or involved in the adoption or foster of children, which helps by encouraging people to
get involved. Another example in how Adopt US Kids encourages people to get involved or help
a child is by their National Adoption Recruitment Campaign. In the campaign they promote
adoption and foster care and also raises awareness for the youth. In their campaign's website,
Adopt US Kids shows pictures of the children with their new families, and also show videos of
the families new beautiful experience.

ADOPT US KIDS

When talking about adoption, the main mode of persuasion is pathos which is to persuade
an audience by appealing to their emotions. About US Kids mentions how children enter foster
care because they have been abused, neglected or abandoned. This would get people emotionally
involved and make them want to help in any way they can. There are also pictures of kids
holding a poster that says After 1031 days in foster care, today, we were adopted. This quote
shows some emotion towards the kids since they have been on the program for a long time and
finally get the opportunity to have a family.
About US Kids also puts several pictures of happy families to show the audience how it
would be like if they were to adopt kids. Everything would be better because they would all be a
family and will no longer have to be alone without knowing what being loved by your family
really is. There are thousands of children and youth in foster care who will love you just as you
are meaning that no matter if you are not perfect, you would still be a great parent as long as the
children can have the opportunity to say that they have a family.
The choices of wording demonstrate pathos since they are trying to get the audience to
feel pity. For example, by saying this, foster children are no different from children who arent
in foster care: they are learning and growing, like to play and hang out with friends their age, and
need the love and stability a permanent home provides. That makes the audience think about
how children should have normal lives even though they may be adopted, they have the right
to live like every other child.
There are a few statistics on this Adopt US Kids' website for example the number of
children in foster care in the US which is 400,000 and range from infants to 21 year old.
Information like this lets the audience know that the website is trustworthy and that they know
about the foster children around the US. It also mentions how each year, approximately 20,000

ADOPT US KIDS

youth will age out of the foster care system when they turn 18 or 21, or when they finish high
school. These children are at risk of serious consequences like poor education outcomes,
homelessness, or being unemployed.
"Out of the 400,000 children in foster care, more than 100,000 of them are available to be
adopted." The more statistics and facts the website has, the more it attracts people. It would not
be the same if it just tried to persuade the audience without giving any evidence that it really
helps people in need of a family. Many people need to be shown that what they are doing is real
so that way they can be a part of it too.
Adopt US Kids did an outstanding job in their website by providing a large amount of
information for the people who are interested in helping to better shape the future of a child. Not
only does the website say how their adoption system works or what is necessary for adoption or
foster care is, but it gives us stories and background information about the children's past, thus
making its viewers more emotionally appealed to help with the adoption and the care of a child.
Adopt US Kids also provides stories from families who have adopted someone, which helps
people get more convinced that anyone who has love to spare, can be a parent.

ADOPT US KIDS

References
"AdoptUSKids." AdoptUSKids. N.p., 2002. Web. 01 Oct. 2016.

User, Super. "Home - Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, the Modes of Persuasion Explanation and
Examples." Home - Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, the Modes of Persuasion Explanation and
Examples. N.p., 2015. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.