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Aubrey Oliver
Ms. Salas
RWS 1301
3 November 2015
Rhetorical Analysis
As my semester topic approaches, regarding its relation to college student nutrition, Ive
picked an article that highlights the obesity epidemic in our college freshman classes and our
country. While one of the articles main focuses draws attention to obesity, it also seeks to
provide individuals specifically nurse practitioners, with ways to reduce this unhealthy
condition, starting with our college freshman. As this problem grows, our country has begun to
recognize this, and healthcare providers everywhere are looking for ways to combat it. However,
while obesity is one of the primary focusses in the article, as well as providing additional ways to
break this cycle, speaking about fighting obesity will not be the primary focus of this paper.
Throughout this paper, the article, Addressing nutritional issues in the college-aged client:
Strategies for the nurse practitioner, by nurse practitioner Sarah E Gores, will be rhetorically
analyzed. Throughout this paper, the use of certain appeals and how well they work within the
article, as well as the topic and the audience will be thoroughly analyzed,
As mentioned above, one purpose of this paper it to analyze the authors use of the
appeals ethos and logos throughout the article, otherwise known as credibility and logic.
One instance of ethos is presented in the beginning of the article, where the correspondence
section of the article explains who the author, Sarah E. Gores, is in relation to the essay topic,
which is centered on college student obesity. The correspondence section at the very top of the
document lists her profession, which is a family nurse practitioner. With an appeal to ethos that is

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reinforced with the writers profession as a NP, I believe that credibility is established within the
article, thus established for the audience.
As the author uses her profession to establish credibility, her use of quotes and research
also establish part of her logos. The entire article is based off of medical research thats purpose
is to provide nurse practitioners with techniques in order to combat obesity in the freshman
college class. For example she categorizes the article into points regarding the age group of the
studywhich are college students, traits of college students, health beliefs and so on. Each
category is backed up with researched evidence. In the category titled, Why College Students,
in regards to her choice of test subjects, Gores introduces the subject by adding her own thoughts
regarding obesity stating that, Healthcare providers can no longer deny that obesity is a raging
epidemic in the United States, (Gores, 2007). Immediately after she uses her own words, she
backs up her claims with documented research that proves her point, stating that, Recent
research found that (Hoffman et al., 2006) found that nearly three fourths of the participants
gained weight during their freshman year, (Gores, 2007).The other categories follow this same
pattern, where Gores offers who own input regarding the subjects and backs up her evidence
with research.
By securing her personal findings and input with well documented and cited research of
previous researchers, whose emphasis lays within the obesity crisis, it is evident that Gores is
nodding towards numerous reliable and credible sources. With her use of backed up quotes and
her mentions of earlier research, she appeals to logos. Alongside that, the way in which she
structures her research in order to make it easy and understandable for readers to follow along
with establishes her logos as well.

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Through the use of these appeals Gores is able to communicate her purpose, which is to
inform nurse practitioners of ways reduce obesity, by establishing credibility through her
profession and logos through her research and article structure.
With her accuracy regarding the appeals, Gores directs her article to the audience. While
the intended audience is indeed American nurse practitioners, I believe that Gores also uses her
research in order to provide others with ways to recognize and improve our countrys health
crisis. For example, within the article there is a section that states, The easiest way to assess
nutrition may be the food diary. Richer (2005) advocates...Using the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) pyramid may simplify nutrition evaluation. The Weight-Control
Information Network (2003) Web site has a useful tool to evaluate daily intake (available at
http://win.niddk.nih.gov), (Gores, 2007) Though packed with a seemingly complex lexis
exclusive only to nurses, many individuals can understand what Gores is instructing just by
reading this section a second time. Not only does she provide moderately simple directions and
steps that anyone whos struggling with obesity can follow, she provides a website accessible to
any and every one. Not just nurse practitioners.
However, though sections of Gores article can be geared towards laypeople, the primary
audience remains nurse practitioners. We can see instances in which she reaches out them
specifically in her, Primary care practitioners attitudes toward nutrition teaching, where she
speaks of nurses in their job description, saying, NPs are allowed to schedule more time with
each patient to focus on health promotion. Finally, this is an extension of the patient teaching
role, which comprises a substantial part of undergraduate nursing education, (Gores 2007).
Through Gores use of appeals and her to reach to her audience, her purpose to inform
nurse practitioners of the obesity epidemic seizing the country, as well as provide them and the

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public with ways to reduce obesity in our society can clearly be seen. Her profession as a nurse
practitioner establishes her credibility, as her relation to health and obesity are topics discussed
within the article and some of the primary research component within the text. Her use of
personal quotes based off of her own findings, as well as her own research reinforced with that of
previous researches before her establishes the first part of her logos. And her easy to follow
structure establishes the second part of her logos. Through the use of these appeals, her purpose
is clearly communicated towards her audience.

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Work Cited
Gores, G.S. (2007). American Academy of Nurse Practitioner. Addressing nutritional issues in
the college-aged client: Strategies for the nurse practitioner, 20,
1.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-7599.2007.00273.x/pdf