Cai Rong Li

Assignments/Rhetorical Analysis

Assignment #2: Rhetorical Analysis

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Cai Rong Li

Profesor Rice-Evans

ENGL 110

For this rhetorical analysis assignment, I choose to write about the automotive company, Tesla. Tesla is an automotive company that only sells electric vehicles and related products such as solar panels & solar roofs. Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, often post on Twitter to communicate with the public. One of his posts about Tesla stated “Tesla does not advertise or pay for endorsements. Instead, we use that money to make the product great”. This may just be a short Twitter post but Elon Musk is able to use ethos, logos, and kairos present Tesla as a great company. Elon Musk used ethos by stating facts about his company. We don’t see Tesla commercials on videos or advisements on the street because Tesla spends nothing on their advisement. However, we still heard of Tesla at some point due to its huge influence in the current automotive market. In addition, Elon Musk used logos to further persuade Tesla’s potential customers to purchase Tesla vehicles. Since Tesla doesn’t spend any money on advertisements, people will begin to wonder how Tesla become so famous and sold out most quantity of electric vehicles every year. Musk’s use of logos will directly lead the audience, potential customers, to think that Tesla vehicles are top quality and it is worth it to purchase one of their models. Furthermore, the use of kairos helps Elon Musk reach his message to the audience. For example, he made Tesla follow a direct-to-consumer model, which sells their vehicles at the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). Ever since the pandemic, car dealerships sell vehicles way above the MSRP so they can gain more profit from the customers. Therefore, the rhetorical strategy, kairos, that Elon Musk used matches the messages that he is trying to audiences. After people see that Tesla is a trustworthy company, they will eventually make their decision to purchase Tesla vehicles which eventually leads to Tesla being the automotive company that sold out the most electric vehicles every year.

Digital Receipt #6/Digital Receipt #6

Digital receipt #6

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My question after reading the article “Bad Ideas about writing and digital technology” is how texting ruins a student’s grammar skills if students are just texting informally to others. Why does grammar matter when texting? Nowadays, people often use abbreviations and made up words to better express their feelings while socializing with other people.

WLLN Draft/WLLN Draft

WLLN Draft

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Picture of JFK airport

Language and literacy are things that people use throughout everyday life. I learned my second language through immigration. 

I immigrated to the United States during my early years in elementary school. Before I immigrated to the United States, I didn’t know a single English word. I didn’t enjoy reading at all since I had a hard time understanding the content of the book due to my lack of vocabulary at the time. Even though my English improved over the years, thanks to my teachers’ reading activities, I still couldn’t find reading interesting for me. It was until 5th grade that sparked my interest in reading books. My 5th grade teacher assigned a research project on ancient civilizations and we need to read textbooks about civilization and eventually create a booklet based on the ancient civilization. At first, I was frustrated because I don’t understand why I need to read books about things that were from thousands of years ago and have nothing to do with me.

“I came, I saw, I conquered”

– Julius Caesar

However, I soon changed my mind about this research project and I became interested in a topic that I thought I would never be interested in before. As I started reading about my assigned ancient civilization, Rome, I found myself lost track of time and continuously reading until the bell rang. The description and images of the Roman civilization from the textbook attracted my interest into learning more about Roman culture. This is the first time that I read nonstop without getting distracted by external factors. While I created the booklet for the project, I found myself actually enjoying the process because I am doing something that I like. After the project, I started to read books about other civilizations and led me to play games based on ancient civilization backgrounds. From the game, I met people from different parts of the world with the same interest and we would roleplay as ancient civilization groups and play against other groups. 

Picture of the game

From this research project, I gained more than just a new interest that carried on throughout my life but the willingness to try things that I didn’t like from my first impression. This experience impacted me significantly because it inspired me to try new things that seem challenging such as badminton and coding, which now became my favorite sport and major. 

Digital Receipt #2/Digital Receipt #2

Digital Receipt #2

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Based on “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Towards Rhetorical Analysis” by Laura Bollin Carrol, people use rhetorical analysis in daily life to communicate with other people without even realizing that it was used. Rhetorical analysis can be used to solve problems and help people interact with one another. For instance, I use rhetorical analysis to decide where to eat with my friends. Before going to a restaurant to have dinner, I would search up the rating of restaurants and view their comments on social media platforms. This would help me have a basic understanding of how the quality of the service the restaurant provides to its customers. In addition, I would view the images of the environment and food to see if I like the environment and the food served by the restaurant. If I am satisfied with the restaurant after viewing these factors, I would suggest the restaurant to my friends and try to persuade them to eat there. In order to persuade them, I would present them with images of the most popular dishes served by the restaurant and encourage them to try it out since it looks very delicious. If there’s videos of people visiting the restaurant on YouTube, I would also watch the video to have a detailed outlook of the restaurant before visiting the restaurant. Video is a more effective way compared to looking at posts because it will show the audience a direct review of the restaurant and help people make their choice more effectively. Looking through social media posts become essential in people’s life because it gives people ideas and inspires people to try different things in the world that they might not try without looking at the post. In today’s society, social media platforms play a major role in all topics such as politics, fashion, sports, and games. Videos and posts on social media help everyday people make their choice and influence one another to support their beliefs.

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