Week 1 Assignment 2

Read the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s page on ADHD; the link is provided below. Use the close reading techniques described in Chapter 1 of the e-book. It may be helpful to print off the page and annotate the text. Then, summarize the website in 200-250 words. Your summary should be similar to the example provided in Chapter 1 of the textbook.

Your summary should answer at least three of the questions below:

1. What key facts or details does the CDC share about ADHD?

2. In addition to the facts, what impression does the CDC create about ADHD? In other words, how does it make readers feel or what does it make readers think about ADHD?

3. What would motivate the CDC, which is a government institution, to post a page about ADHD?

4. Why, in your view, is the Web page a good or bad method for the CDC to distribute information?

5. How do you think the average reader would react to the CDC’s page about ADHD?

(Hint: Do not try to summarize every detail. Focus on the main points the page is trying to convey. It is helpful to think of the CDC’s page in terms of its sections, rather than its many facts.)

During the week, read and respond to your classmates’ summaries. Did you emphasize the same points in your summary that they did? Did you have the same impression about ADHD after you summarized it? Why or why not?

Link to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s page on ADHD: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/facts.html

NOTE: If you click on the link and it will not open, paste the link into the browser.

Week 1 Assignment 3

In the rhetorical analysis assignment, you will be expected to demonstrate an understanding that every text is created for a unique situation and audience. You will need to act on this by analyzing the decisions made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on their website about ADHD. This includes the persuasive appeals the CDC uses.

Aristotle believed that speakers and writers used three kinds of persuasive appeals. Logos is an appeal to the audience’s powers of reason or logic. Pathos is an appeal to emotions or senses. Ethos is the personal appeal, charisma, or credibility of the speaker or writer. These three appeals are known as the rhetorical triangle because all three sides work together to make a text effective or not.

In your own words, explain the concepts of pathos, logos, and ethos and why they are important appeals to recognize in a text. Next, use the CDC’s page about ADHD to analyze the ethos, logos, and pathos in the document.

Consider the following questions in your response:

· What do you think about the logic presented in the document?

· What do you think about its emotional appeal

· What about its appeal to authority or credibility?

· Does the CDC effectively present each of the rhetorical appeals? Why or why not?

Link to Centers of Disease Control’s website: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/facts.html