Rhetorical Analysis

Thesis: Technology, such as texting, while driving is unsafe and can be a hazard to teen drivers and others.

In the Knox News opinion column, there was an article found titled “Twits texting, tweeting behind the wheel.” The author of this article, Ina Hughs, is arguing that texting, MP3 players, and other electronic devices are unsafe to use when behind the wheel. She is writing to inform teenagers and other drivers about the dangers of driving while texting. Even though Hughes makes some excellent points in her column, she may not be the most qualified person to be writing about the dangers of texting and how tempting it may be. Hughes indeed has a cell phone, but she had the texting enabled on her phone so she does not text with it. The only information that she gets that makes her qualified to write this article would be the fact that her eleven-year-old grandson just got a cell phone. Even with this information, it still does not qualify her since her grandson cannot drive. She did though get facts from reliable magazines and researchers to back her up. Hughs’ format of her article shows a lot about whom she is and her qualifications. Just about every paragraph she either has some sort of statistical evidence or an example of why texting and driving is bad. She does not have any real connection to the audience she is trying to address. The author uses logos a lot in this text to support her many claims as to driving while texting. One thing she mentions is, “according to the New York Times, one in five drivers admits to texting while driving on a somewhat regular basis, and they say they won’t stop because they are ‘literally addicted.’” This claim reinforces her purpose of texting while driving by giving statistical evidence of why it is so dangerous. So many people do it. “According to research, every time you get a text, tweet, instant message, or call, ‘your brain squirts out a little dopamine- the pleasure chemical- and left to our own devices, we spin out of control.