Running head: RHETORIC ANALYSIS 1

Rhetoric Analysis: Dialogic Education and Technology

Jacob Heid

The University of El Paso

RWS 1301

Dr. Vierra

October 16th, 2018

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to help better understandings when it comes to the education

system and the benefits as well as disadvantages that come with using technology to help

students learn. This paper will focus on the findings that have been gathered from universities,

professors and other scholarly sources that explain the use of technology in modern teaching. All

the data in this paper was based off of the findings of other scholars who were able to provide

additional information. Based off all of the findings in these sources, it has been concluded that

in the education system, it is better for teachers and professors to be able to use technology in the

classes. Although there are a few disadvantages that may come along with this, such as students

not being able to access a form of technology, there are more advantages that come along with

teaching in the digital era.

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Rhetoric Analysis:

Dialogic Education and Technology

When it comes to a rhetoric appeal, it can be divided into 4 sections, ethos, pathos, logos

and audience. With these three strategies, it allows an author or even a speaker to be able to fully

capture their message and reach an audience. When an author uses these strategies, they are able

to reach their audience and capture their attention based off of the rhetoric appeal that they use.

According to Downs (2014), pathos is a strategic appeal that is used because that allows

authors to be able to reach the emotional side of people. When you are able to grasp someone’s

attention through emotion, then you already have them hooked. It allows authors to connect with

their audience on a deeper level and lets the audience sympathize with whatever argument or

point the author is trying to prove. When an author uses Logos, they are providing the audience

with reasoning and giving them factual information allowing the audience to be able to take them

more seriously. The factual evidence that the author provides, will make the audience trust the

information that they are being given and continue to make the audience want to keep reading.

Ethos helps an audience determine whether the author is credible and providing readers with

information that is dependable and reliable, thus allowing the audience to trust the source that

they are reading. All of these factors affect the audience because they are the ones who will have

the final say in whether the piece of literature is credible or not.

To support the claim that access to technology is essential in this new digital era, the

monograph from Rupert Wegerif was used. This monograph was intended to display how the

educational system has changed and become a new version of history, in the sense that now

technology is a necessity when it comes to learning. In modern education, there are many genres
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that are involved in teaching. Students now carry laptops, smartphones, tablets in order to be able

to fully participate in a class, technology has now become an essential genre in modern learning.

A genre is the way that something is classified. As humans we tend to divide things

naturally, we like to arrange things into subjects. Movies, for example, are filled with genres,

ranging from horror, action, thriller etc. Literature is divided the same way as well, there are

different genres and according to Ceylan (2018), people can be better at writing in different

genres. It is good to be able to have a variety of genres because it allows writers to be able to

express their creativity as well as try and express themselves in many different ways. Each genre

is different from the next so not only do writers benefit from this, but the readers do as well. This

gives readers a variety of options to read depending on their personality. There really is not right

way to express the definition than a genre but if you had to narrow it down, you could say that is

the category in which an element is placed.

Discussion

When it comes to writing, we do not always take into consideration who our intended

audience is, we usually just write. According to Ede and Lunsford (1984), when you consider the

audience, it gives the writing piece a more real feel to it, those who consider the audience when

writing they encourage real world writing because it generates a more realistic approach. When it

comes to Wegerif (2007), in his literature, it seems as though the main audience that he may be

directing his writing towards is educators. He is discussing how much the education system has

changed and describing the difference in the histories as well as the difference in learning time

with technology rather than without technology. Because he is able to identify who his audience

is, it allows the writing to feel clearer and gives it a more realistic and understanding approach.

By using educators as his audience, he is able to cover the main points that would be asked by
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someone who does work in the education discourse community, as well as help readers to see

that by allowing technology into the education system, it may allow the process of learning to be

a lot easier for students as well as help make the process easier for educators.

Ethos is the rhetorical appeal that authors use when providing factual evidence, through

this author are able to be taken more seriously and provide more believable claims. Factual

information is a key point in this monograph, Wegerif does provide the evidence to back up his

claims as well as make his claims believable, and that is the education system has come a long

way and changed over the course of time and now involves the usage of technology. Wegerif is

from the University of Exeter and worked with ‘Springer’ when getting the book published.

Through the use of ethos (pg. 4) he is able to provide back up to his claims as well as create a

more believable argument. Technology is developing new systems in the genre of education and

allowing a much easier form of expanding our knowledge. Through the use of ethos, Wegerif is

able to provide a more believable argument and educate readers through his use of evidence.

Based off of his experience in working at the university, it allows the audience to take his claim

more serious and believe what they are reading. Working at the university gives him the

credibility that is needed to keep the audience engaged and believe what he is saying. By stating

that the teaching system has changed and elaborating how technology is being used in teaching,

helps readers to visualize the claim better.

Pathos may be a little difficult to discover when it comes to writing a very factual piece

of literature. However, Wegerif was still able to provide some emotional appeal to his claim and

help to give readers another perspective on his claim. Wegerif states that technology allows

children now to be able to learn fast, but the only challenge is the speed at which they all learn

(pg. 4). Every child learns differently and at a different pace and some may be affected
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differently when it comes to the digital age and learning with the use of technology. Although his

use of pathos may not be the most heart wrenching use, it still allows readers to see the benefit

that technology may have on the younger generations and see how children may benefit from

this in the future. Not only did Wegerif choose to focus on the general population when it came

to learning, but he focused on the younger generation and elaborated on how they are affected in

both positive and negative ways from learning through technology. Not all children learn at the

same rate and when using technology, it may and may not benefit the younger generation.

Because some students learn faster, they may be able to pick on whatever they are being taught

through the computers, however, those who learn with more hands-on experience, may suffer

from this. Through the use of pathos, Wegerif is able to communicate this to his audience and

help them to sympathize with the part of his claim that revolves around children.

As for the piece of literature as a whole, the entire book is based off the logos appeal.

Wegerif is constantly trying to persuade readers as well as get them to understand how the world

has entered this new era of leaning, by elaborating on the way that the teaching system is now

and how it differes on how it was back then. Before the teaching system was all based on books

and now it is all about technology and using it to help make teaching and learning easier for both

parties. Now we are using technology in our education and expanding our knowledge digitally

and entering a new version of history (pg. 12). Wegerif list the facts of this new age and provides

the evidence to support his claims, such as using the children as an example and well as other

rhetorical appeals. Although Wegerif does compose his book entirely on facts, one of the

benefits that came along with discussing a topic like this is that the audience can relate to the

claims that he is making. The entire book is a logos appeal and through that Wegerif is able to

communicate his claim to the audience.

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Conclusion

The education system has grown a lot over time, it has gone from nothing but books and

notes, to being able to access any piece of information through the use of technology. As a result

from the rhetoric appeals that Wegerif uses, he is able to communicate this to his audience and

help them to understand the benefits that may come along with teaching in the digital era as well

as some of the disadvantages that may come along with it.

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References

Ceylan, M., & Baydic, B. (2018). Examination of Reading Skills of Students Who Are Poor

Readers in Different Text Genres. Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, 13(2),422–

435.

Downs, D. (2014). Rhetoric: Making sense of human interaction and meaning making. Writing

about writing: A college reader (Third Edition ed., pp. 457-487). 75 Arlington Street:

bedford/ st. martin's.

Vierra, P.J. (2018). Genres [Lecture].

Wegerif, R. (2007). Technology, education and enlightenment. In P. Dillenbourg, & Swiss

Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland (Eds.), Dialogic education and

technology (Volume 7 ed., pp. 269-299) Springer.