Alexandra Niblo

Rhetorical Analysis of Advertising - Prompt 4

12/6/2020

Appealing Through the Web

Big, small, private, or public; colleges come in all shapes and sizes. During senior year

for high school students, there is added pressure for making the decisions on which college

students will attend. While applying in the fall, colleges are promoting themselves in an

appealing manner to try to grab the attention of hopeful in-coming freshmen. Through their

various websites, each college attracts students in their own way by promoting what makes their

school stand out when compared to the rest.

For Alex Niblo, her top choice college is the University of Virginia. When going to the

universities main website, resources are listed on how to find out about academics, admissions,

health, and athletics. When scrolling through the page, UVA is promoting how they are dealing

with COVID-19 as it is a concern for college students along with sharing information on what is

going on while on campus. This shows hopeful UVA students that the university is doing their

part when it comes to COVID-19 which is appealing to students need to feel safe and ethos

through credible sources. Like Alex Niblo, students want to feel safe while attending their

school. By sharing what is going on on campus, it gives incoming freshmen a feel of what life is

like on campus, triggering one's emotion, pathos, and how they could be having fun and getting

involved. All-in-all, by UVA using bright images, appealing news, and sharing information

about campus life, it attracted Alex Niblo and the advertising led to her wanting to become a

student at UVA.
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While UVA’s website used Fowle’s Advertising Appeal, the need to feel safe, and

appealed to students' ethos and pathos, other schools are also attracting students in their own

ways. Clemson University, Washington & Lee, Radford University, and The University of

Alabama also have their websites set in a way to appeal to rising freshmen. While each school is

different whether they are public, private, big, or small, their websites each relate to one another

in that they each make it easy for students to learn about the school. By having banners with

information for academics, admissions, and campus life, it is easier for students to access which

makes them more inclined to learn about the school. Each school also tries in some way to

appeal to the need to achieve. When going to college, the focus is to obtain a degree. By listing

the majors and minors a school offers, students can achieve their end goal: getting a degree in

their interest of study. While their websites all try to appeal to the need to achieve, they also

promote their schools natural beauty. From having images of the campus to short clips of life on

the grounds, they all try to show that while academics is the focus, life on campus is enjoyable.

As they all have similarities in their websites, there are also differences. With all having

pops of color and bold words, the colors are all different in that they relate to the schools colors.

Each home page also is different as they provide different ranges of information. While the

banners are all similar, the actual information on the page varies. While most have a section for

the news on campus, it is filled with different information varying from information on COVID-

19 and how the school is handling it to news on community service projects or admission

information. Some of the universities also have a logos appeal by incorporating statistics about

the school though its rankings and average class size. One of the most obvious differences would

be that each university includes their own logo and saying. The appealing aesthetic that each

logo has can attract a student and make them more interested. When looking at a logo, most can
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identify what school it is without the name being present which shows the popularity of the

school itself.

Advertising is mostly thought of in a sense of selling a product, when in actuality, it is

everywhere. Colleges try to boast themselves above other schools to try to attract students to

enroll in their institution. By creating websites that appeal to students ethos, logos, and pathos,

and even a handful of their Fowle’s Appeals, it turns heads and increases students interest in

their university. Through the layout of the pages, the design, the information provided, and even

the colors used, students look at the pages and determine if the university would be right for

them. It is how colleges try to sell themselves to

students.

Rhetorical Analysis Paper

Peer Edit
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Writer’s Name: _Alex Niblo__________________________

Peer Editor’s Name: _______Grace Mayo_______________

1. Highlight the thesis. Is the thesis valid and written appropriately? Explain.
It is a very well written thesis statement and allows for a smooth transition

2. What evidence is used to support the thesis?

Alex uses a personal experience and relates it to UVAs website

3. How could the writer make the evidence more convincing?

The other schools she listed were all big schools I would throw in some other
types of schools like community colleges.

4. Is the paper 2-3 pages (double spaced)? Yes or No

5. List the examples of strong, precise words the writer has used –
a.inclined e.academics
b.appeal f.emotion
c.statistics g.pressure
D. promoting h.ethos,logos,pathos
(Hint to the writer – If the peer editor cannot find at least 8 strong words, you need to improve
word choice)

6. Is the conclusion effective or is it rushed? _____effective__________

● What could the writer do to make the conclusion stronger? Allow it
to be more full circle

7. Did the writer analyze: pathos- __y____yes ______ no

ethos- ___y___yes ______ no
logos- __y____yes ______ no