Rhetorical Analysis 

 

Dahely Nunez

City College of New York

Writing for the Sciences

Ms. Conroy

September 21, 2020

 

 

Abstract

     Possessing knowledge of how veganism can be beneficial not only for your health but for the environment as well, Grant Lingel from Siteint Media decided to write an article on 20 powerful reasons why people should become vegans, ‘20 Powerful Reasons You Should Go Vegan.’ The article goes into detail on the health benefits and the environmental issues and how veganism can help the environment. Grant Lingel uses his experiences and known facts in the article to give the readers a learning opportunity and a wake-up call. The article is easily accessible because it comes from the web with no fees to pay to read it. Throughout the article, the author gave examples of diseases caused by diet while talking about fasting. 

 

     The article ‘Veganism: 20 Powerful Reasons You Should Go Vegan,’  by Grant Lingel, is a persuasive and informative article from Sentient Media, with visuals that present numerous reasons why people should go vegan, how veganism works, and ways to become vegan. Sentient Media is a non-profit organization that is continuously spreading awareness around industrial agriculture and its impact on animals, humans, and the environment. The rhetorical elements used in the article were audience, purpose, language, medium, arrangement, stance, and genre. These elements helped to clearly give information on veganism and also persuade others to become vegan.

     This article aims to persuade readers to become vegan. Elements used to persuade successfully were texts, images, and also a video. The way the visuals of smiling people eating vegetables help the text with that is by giving a positive image of veganism. In the article, there is a video on animal rights, which explains why the reader should become vegan. The element used as logos, which helped the article aim by allowing the reader to evaluate what they just saw and exposes them to what the animals go through and how they can feel vegan. The article asks what veganism is to make sure that the reader knows exactly what he is talking about. After, the author gives multiple examples of how being vegan is beneficial for your health and the environment. Lastly, the author asks the reader if they want to become vegan and advises on transitioning. “You’re convinced, right? You want all the benefits described above. So, how do you become a vegan?” (Sentient Media). By asking this question, it causes the reader to evaluate what they read and determine if veganism is something worth trying. Veganism is presented as a solution to multiple causes such as health issues, climate change, water pollution, animal abuse, etc. The article reads as a persuasive speech as well.

     The author of the article is Grant Lingel. The article is from the non-profit organization, Sentient Media, that spreads awareness on industrial agriculture and how it is harmful to animals, the environment, and humans. This source is reliable for veganism because the author is vegan himself, has experienced the health benefits from it, and the organization dedicates it’s time to give knowledge of veganism and research it. The genre of the article was the usage of the media. This was a great way to reach the idea of veganism to many people worldwide and by giving information on the benefits in a simple manner. “Plant-based diets are rich in fiber, which helps aid digestion” (Sentient Media). As shown, the language is not difficult to understand, and anyone can grab the concept that the author is trying to achieve.

     The article’s purpose, which is the element telos, is to persuade the reader to go vegan for their health, animals, and the environment. The author achieved this by giving examples of how veganism will improve you internally, “ Plant-based diets are rich in fiber, which help aid digestion. Additionally, all that rich nutrition will help you build lean muscle and dissolve fat” (Grant Lingel). Not only does the article give logical advice, but it also uses the element ethos to make the reader feel for the animals, “ We turn animals into objects rather than understand them as the sentient beings they are” (Grant Lingel). The target audience wants to become vegan, those who are already vegan and people who may not know what veganism is and wants to find out about it. The article is written in an understandable way that the everyday person can understand. By choosing to stick with simplistic language, people will understand the concept, and there will be a chance of becoming vegan. In the article, the author also asks if you want to become vegan and gives advice. This will appeal to the audience because if the author were to say go vegan instead of giving reasons, examples, and encouragement to be vegan, the article would not be effective. The audience will always be someone interested in the idea of veganism, and it can also reach someone who has no idea what veganism is. The exigence of the article is the improvement of what veganism can accomplish. The author’s motivation for the article is to motivate others to become vegan and spread awareness on the benefits and the harms of industrial agriculture.

     The author knows the health benefits of becoming vegan because he himself is vegan and has experienced the benefits. The author’s stance on veganism is obvious by his word choice, which is, “What many people don’t realize is that veganism contributes to saving lives other than those of cows or chickens” (Grant Lingel). The quote clearly shows that the author’s stance in the article is that veganism is what everyone should learn about and participate in. Also, humans are naturally not predators. There are environmental and health benefits from veganism (Grant Lingel). The stance is clear because the article mentioned that the human digestive system could not process meat properly and mentioned that humans do not have long, sharp teeth to eat meat. The word choice that the author used when mentioning veganism, “powerful” and “healthier,” gives an image to the reader of what becoming vegan can do for themselves and their environment.

     Veganism has multiple benefits, not only for health purposes but also for environmental purposes, and has evolved over the years. This article by Grant Lingel aims to spread awareness on being vegan and reasons to become one by using rhetorical elements, audience, purpose, stance, language, genre, medium, and arrangement. This article effectively gave multiple reasons why people should become vegan and gave comforting advice on transitioning. The author gave informational motivation to transition their diet based on logic,  the benefits to your body,  gave emotional examples on why people should become vegan for the sake of the animal’s lives, and this was effective because it gives multiple different points of view and allowed the reader to understand both important aspects of veganism.