RHETORICAL AND VISUAL ANALYSIS:
How the Child Welfare System Works
Michelle D. Sandoval
English 1311
The topic that I am writing my analysis on is not an article, but rather a long fact sheet on the inner workings of the Child Welfare System. More importantly, the emphasis is on Child Protective services and the process and channels that an investigation will go through in the instance of a complaint. The unknown authors of this compilation of facts emphasize mostly on the use of ethos and logos with minimal usage of pathos.
Perhaps the most dominant use of rhetoric in the article is that of logos. The data is presented in a way that uses many points of reference. The website providing the information, childwelfare.gov, serves as an information gateway of resources for those seeking information on the child welfare process. There is no one person listed as the author. This might make a person or critic question the credibility of the information presented. However, there are many reliable resources and facts listed as references. The website makes reference to links such as U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Family, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, etc. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act or CAPTA of 1974, can also be verified. Information is presented in a fact based manner and is to the point. The article describes the purpose or goal of the child welfare system and then proceeds to break down the information by topic or concern. After a thorough breakdown of each topic, the article is summarized with a brief recap and ends with a list of references. There is no reason to believe that the information presented is not credible in any way.
The language used in the article is well written. It may not be written in large, hard to understand grammar that might come across to the audience as patronizing. Rather the words are written in an easy to understand manner. The audience should be able to tell by the use of articulation that the author or authors of the website are educated individuals. By using easy to understand vocabulary, the article makes the information less confusing or overwhelming. This demonstrates the author’s use of ethos.
Use of pathos in the article is not highly emphasized. The information is not presented in a way as to evoke much emotion. There is no use words meant to produce feelings of anger or sympathy. It’s possible that the article is written in such a way for the purpose of keeping the information seeker composed. The topic itself focuses mainly on the issue of child protection and intervention and what the steps are should an individual want to step in. This subject alone can be considered a delicate subject that needs to be approached in a composed manner.
Visually, the website and corresponding article are formatted in an easy to read way. It is not cluttered with numerous pictures or over the top fonts. When trying to put emphasis on a topic or question, larger fonts are either italicized or placed in bold type. This tool can be of assistance to the audience if they happen to be seeking out specific information without having to read the article in its entirety. That is just a general visual analysis of the article. Use of rhetorical appeals in the visual sense is based mostly on that of logos and ethos. As with the text, there is not much emphasis on the use of pathos.
The slew of information provided in the text might be somewhat overwhelming to some readers. For this particular audience whose attention might be hard to grab, the authors have provided a helpful step by step chart that coincides with the article. The representation of the chart is a prime example of the use of ethos. Its main purpose is to simplify the text and summarize the information in an easy to follow format.
Although references are used throughout the text, the chart portion of the article does not focus too much on those aforementioned references. Aside from a footnote at the bottom of the page, there are no inserted references cited. However the article itself is heavily loaded with references throughout. It may be assumed that by the time the reader has begun to analyze the chart, references have already been accounted for. Because of this, logos has carried over from the text to the chart.
Lastly, we come to the visual use of pathos. As with the article, it does not appear that the authors are attempting to generate any type of strong emotional response from the audience. There are pictures of happy children and happy adults which would lead one to believe that this is the place to find the information needed to keep kids happy and safe. There are no photographs of any violent or graphic nature that could possibly anger the audience. Bold colors are not used either. Instead, the main colors are hues of grey and light blue with black and grey text, a tool that might be used to set and atmosphere of serenity possibly.
Given the topic, it appears that the information provided from the website childwelfare.gov has one main purpose, to educate its audience in the process of the child protective services process. The creators have chosen to do so by dealing strictly with the facts and substantiated data. They have chosen not to appeal to the emotions of their audience and are relying heavily on facts, statistics and credibility.
