Running head: ANALYZING GENRES OF OFF-SHORE DRILLING 1

Analyzing Genres of Off-Shore Drilling

Joshua Miranda

The University of Texas at El Paso

ANALYZING GENRES OF OFF-SHORE DRILLING 2

Abstract

In this paper, two genres will be analyzing to determine how the use of rhetoric devices help

them to persuade their audience. Rhetoric devices are mainly used to help the author to create a

believe on the public to think the same way he thinks about a topic. For the most part many

authors use Ethos, which is the credibility given to the author, Logos, which are the facts about a

certain topic that helps with the credibility, and finally Pathos, which are the emotions an author

uses on his audience to persuade them.

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Analyzing Genres of Off-Shore Drilling

Determining if Off-shore drilling should be allowed, has been a topic that many

politicians, engineers, environment agents, and citizens had argued since the Oil Spill in the Gulf

of Mexico in 2010. Every opinion towards this topic has a method to persuade their audience,

very commonly they use rhetoric devices such as ethos, logos, and pathos. When analyzing an

interview given by Tony Cox to a professor at the University of Alaska, and an article in a

newspaper where a U.S Congressman talks about off-shore drilling, there can be a comparison

between the two to determine what devices where used the most.

Interview

In the Interview given by Tony Cox, host of NPR News, to Professor Rick Steiner, there

is different devices being used to archive persuasion to the audience. To start off, there is proof

that the rhetoric appeal of Ethos is one of the devices being used. When Tony Cox is about to end

the interview with Professor Steiner, he mentions “Rick Steiner is a conservation consultant who

is the University of Alaska’s marine adviser for the Prince William Sound region,” which gives

credibility to all the opinions he made to all the question they asked him (President Obama gets

tough on off-shore drilling, 2010). If he did not have a title that makes Professor Steiner stand

out from the rest of the professors his argument would not be valid since there would not be a

background that demonstrates that he knows what he is talking about.

Next, in this interview there is also the use of Logos, which is another rhetoric appeal that

is very commonly used next to ethos because it provides the evidence needed to make the speech

credible. When Professor Steiner talks about the response plan of the company he gives some

facts such as “…within 72 hours that would be capable of recovering something like 450 million

barrels of oil a day… Obviously that [did not] happen,” he is using Logos to prove that even
ANALYZING GENRES OF OFF-SHORE DRILLING 4

when the company had a plan when there was an oil-spill they did not execute the plan and

millions of gallons of oil were spilled ((President Obama gets tough on off-shore drilling, 2010).

Not only did he use facts stated by the company who spilled the oil, but he also talks about how

marine life is affected and some of the statistics about the drilling happening. With this amount

of information backing up his argument about how the President is taking he correct

measurements to deal with this issue.

Now, the interview was aired on the internet on a broadcast called NPR News. By the

looks of the genre, this interview is targeted to teens and adult who have access to the internet

and are interested in environment. During the dialogue of Tony Cox and Professor Steiner, the

use of rhetoric devices was used to convince their audience to look at the oil spill with the same

point of view as they did. Ethos and Logos are both an effective way to persuade audiences since

they provide the credibility most professionals need, but to help engage their audience there

should be a little more Pathos so that the target audience can create emotions about what is

happening, and the damages made. The reason why they target teens and adults with internet

access is because they are the ones who enjoy hearing and watch the news about what is

happening to the world. Kids are not really their target audience because children would not be

able to understand the long-term damages that happens when there is a spill and the diction of

the interview would have to much less academic for the kids to understand.

Newspaper Article

In this newspaper article the discussion is about the ending the ban towards off-shore

drilling. This article also contains the rhetoric devices to persuade their audience that the end of

the ban is a good thing for Texans. The U.S. Congressman, Jeb Hensarling, creates his credibility

not only by working as a congressman but by him engaging in the community of Texas to collect
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signatures to end the ban. Jeb Hensarling mentioned in is article “I returned to Texas to give

them the opportunity to engage in the fight for energy freedom,” were he establish that he did not

only stayed behind a desk in an office to make changes, but he actually travel to help his

peoples’ needs (Hensarling, 2008). The way this gives credibility is by being engaged in the fight

with the people because that converts him in a witness and he knows everything that happened.

Congressman Hensarling also uses the rhetoric form of Ethos in his article to help with

his credibility. One of the important facts he uses was “After receiving over 1,500 letters form

the residents in the 5th Congressional District…,” and this addition to the article will not only

amaze the audience because of the number but it also provides information about how many

signatures they needed to make the whole ban possible (Par. 4). Having Logos to convince an

audience is quite of necessary because that provides the public with some extra information they

can later use for a discussion or argument they are having. The only problem in this article is that

Jeb Hensarling did not use enough Logos to inform his audience about the process about the ban,

but he did use more than enough of Pathos to make up for the minimum use of Logos.

This article contains more Pathos than any other rhetoric device mentioned before. He

mentions in his article “This is a huge victory for hardworking Americans,” to make their

audience to be proud they won the fight and to give them hope (Para. 8). Jeb Hensarling also

talks about how his fight to allow off-shore drilling to help those families in need to create jobs

by making more “American made energy”. Both, his diction and the way he portrays himself,

create an emotion to the audience that is persuading them that ending the ban was a good thing

and good things are going to happen because of this event. Not only that but those emotions can

also help him look good to the community and their thoughts towards Jeb Hensarling can be

more positive than before.

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Now, this article is on a newspaper which means that the target audience is mostly adults

and the elderly. The reason why they target this group of people is because they are the only ones

that mostly read the newspaper to stay informed about what is happening in their state. Children

and teens are not being target because they do not read newspaper to keep up with politics and

laws, instead they worry about school and other occupations they have. In this article, the use of

rhetoric devices was effective since the target audience was adults and elderly since they are the

ones who think about their families when taking decision. The author of this article clearly used

pathos to get into the audience’s emotions to believe that the end of the ban was a good idea, but

if only he would have used more Logos in his writing the act of persuading would have been

stronger than what it was before.

Comparing the Genres

The first genre talks about the damaged made by the oil spill and the action taken by the

president. To persuade his audience that the damage was fatal, the speaker used mainly Ethos and

Logos. For the second genre, the U.S. Congressman tries to persuade Texans that the end of the

off-shore drilling ban was a positive thing and that many Americans would benefit from this. To

archive this persuasion, he uses mostly Pathos and a little of both, Ethos and Logos. What makes

both genres affective to their point of view is that one has a negative response toward an issue

while the other one has a positive response to the end of a law. The only reason why the

interview was not as effective as the article was because even though it contains plenty of facts,

it was missing the use of Pathos that would create the emotions necessary to make the audience

see that the spill was catastrophe. Besides this small detail, both genres used the rhetoric devices

adequately to persuade their audience about the event that was happening in that time.
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Conclusion

To conclude, both genres use the rhetoric devices correctly to persuade their audience to

see the event in their point of view. If there was equal amount of all three rhetoric appeals, Ethos,

Logos, and Pathos, the persuasion process would have been easier, and the audience would of

engage better to their opinion. The use of these devices to persuade are used every day all around

the globe, and when someone identifies them is easier to know on who to believe, crate their

individual opinions, and to persuade people to think the same way.

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References

Hensarling, J. (2008). Happy for end to off-shore drilling ban. Malakoff News (TX), 99(43), 4A.

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President obama gets tough on off-shore drilling (2010). National Public Radio. Retrieved

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