Titled “Travel Safety: Always Consider the Source”, the text is a blog post about

travel safety, written and published by Kate on her website called “Adventurous Kate”.
Being published online on a personal website that discusses travelling and is sectioned into
different categories of travel suggest that the author has established a specific target audience.
Subsequently, the target audience is specifically solo female travelers, as is evident in the
logo of the website “travel for independent women”. However, this particular blog post is not
written specifically for solo-female travelers as it is not mentioned particularly in the text and
can be found relatable by all travelers. The author discusses the judgemental, inaccurate
advice and concerns solo-female travelers often receive from multiple sources, persuading
them to always reconsider the source of the information when making the decision of
travelling. Through appeals, rule of three, anaphora, comments section and hyperlinks, the
author retains the readers’ curiousity and encourages engagement.
Through the use of appeal to reason and appeal to character, the author persuades the
readers into believing and agreeing with her point of view, while retaining engagement and
interest in reader . The blog is written in first-person point of view, in which Kate delivers
how she thinks inaccurate information is spread by the sources which she presents in her
arguments. In an attempt to establish a reliable tone, the author uses examples along each of
her arguments to back up her point of view and appeal to readers reasoning. This is evident in
the lines of “In the United States, a country will appear on the State Department’s travel
warning list even if the nation’s troubles are limited to one small region. That’s the case in
the Philippines, where the terrorist organizations MILF and MNLF have been known to carry
out terrorist activity in the Sulu Archipelago and the south of Mindanao.” Here, the author
contrasts the situation in Philippines by introducing an example of United States. The author
uses this additional example to underline the main idea of how inaccurate travel warnings can
become due to generalizations and to consequently persuade the reader to come to such
conclusion. Guided by the line “a country will appear on the State Department’s travel
warning list even if the nation’s troubles are limited to one small region”, readers get to
realize how travel warnings are made carelessly, hence recognizing how unreliable and
ineffective it is to follow or consider a source as such. Since the example of United States is a
solid and reliable reason for the reader to share the author’s point of view, the author achieves
the purpose of appealing to reason and persuading the reader to agree with her. In addition to
the use of appeal to reason, the author appeals to the readers character. This is done by the
use of a short reference to a personal anecdote for the purpose of persuading the reader to
acknowledge how the author shares a similar view to them. For instance, in the lines “Believe
it or not, somebody said those words to me when I planned my first trip to Southeast Asia.”,
the author shares a personal experience with the readers to establish a sense of relatability. By
this the author makes it seem like the reader is having a chat with a close friend who is
sharing her own experience, hence establishing a chatty tone. This sense of relatability, in
addition to the chatty tone, makes the text easy to follow for the reader, without being
overloaded with information. Accordingly, the use of appeals, both to reason and character
builds up author’s overall purpose and keeps the readers engaged in the meanwhile.
Through the use of rule of three and anaphora, the author constructs memorability
which engages the reader in advance. To sound memorable, the author uses rule of three in
the line “they’ve only thought of those countries in the context of war, violence, or ethnic
cleansing,.” Here, the 3 nouns which are similar in context are used to point out the sad
reality of how it was only these words that were engraved in people’s understanding of
particular countries. By emphazing the 3 words which all evoke fear and discomfort when
heard together, the author forces the reader to recall the negative picture they have created in
their mind about these countries. Chiefly, the combination of the three words and the
emphasis placed on them, appeals to the readers emotional and visual senses, which guides
the author in making the three words prominent and memorable. Therefore, the author uses
rule of three/group of three to place more emphasis on particular words- which are “war,
violence, or ethnic cleaning” and to make her message memorable. Additionally, the author
uses anaphora to drive emphasis and to intensify the memorability of the message. The use of
anaphora is apparent in “The Concerned Loved One” section, where the author lists four
questions one must ask themselves when listening to a concerned love one. In these four
lines, each two lines begin with the repetition of a phrase- in the first two, it begins with
“does this person travel” and in the last two it begins with “has this person been to this
destination”. For instance, in the first two questions that are listed, the second one begins with
“does this person travel” but conversely it is the extended and detailed form of the first one as
it includes more specification. This is done so that the questions follow a systematic and
organized structure which will be easy to follow and thus keep in mind. The repetition of the
beginning of the sentence constructs memorability since when a piece of information is
repeated it gets imprinted in the readers mind, making them remember it better. Thus, by the
use of rule of three and anaphora, the author establishes memorability in readers’ minds.
Through the use of comments section and hyperlinks, the text makes use of
interactive elements, which allow the reader to engage with the blog on a closer level. As
with most blogs, the blog “Travel Safety: Always Consider the Source” makes use of
interactive components which builds a closer bond between the writer and the reader and
improves user interaction. This is done through the use of comments section that allow the
reader to share feedback or share their views on the author’s perspective. By this, the reader
is encouraged to participate and feels as though their opinion is valued. As the reader is also
able to view other peoples comments that are placed on the bottom of the page and have an
overall discussion on what they are presented with, the layout also promotes a greater sense
of community identity-users do not have to worry about standing out individually. Therefore,
the reader is able to engage with the blog through commenting. Overall, the author makes use
of the comments section to build a community and to understand the target audience on a
deeper level. Additionally, the author uses hyperlinks in the text which take the reader to
other blogs of the author which are related to travel or travel safety as well. The use of links
to other sources hint how the author has more information on a particular point. For example
a hyperlink is made in the line “Likewise, they may lump Jordan in with more troubled
countries in the Middle East like Syria, when in reality Jordan is an extremely safe place to
travel.” for the purpose of showing the reader that the author has information on the topic and
hence is credible. Moreover, the use of hyperlink enriches the engagement of the text since if
the reason why Jordan actually is safe interests the reader, the reader can make use of a blog
particularly about it without taking the time to search and find it. By this hyperlink, the author
provides the readers with an additional information source that does not overwhelm the
reader but instead sparks more interest. The readers get to feel as though the reader does not
only deliver her thoughts for persuasion but also to introduce them with more information.
Therefore, the use of comments section and hyperlinks, their engagement is encouraged and
the reader’s interest is retained.
Conclusively, the text aims to deliver the issue of receiving unwanted and inaccurate
advices by sources that are limited. Moreover, the text encourages engagement in the text
through persuasion that is made with appeals, through memorability that is made with rule of
three and anaphora and through engaging the reader and through interactivity that is made
with comments section and hyperlinks. Guided by the engagement, the author is able to
successfully achieve the purpose of persuading the reader to always consider the source and
make remarkable effects in the readers.