Sean Blanda, the author of “The ‘Other Side’ Is Not Dumb” article, says that most alternative points of view are often perceived by modern society through a critical lens. In most cases, a thought that does not coincide with the opinion of the evaluator is interpreted as wrong without trying to understand its reasonableness. Sean Blanda also highlights the online space and social media as a few of the most popular sources of information dissemination. In this regard, a critical approach is important and valuable. The author says that it is necessary to consider any point of view without bias to evaluate what a person is talking about and what idea they want to convey. Thus, someone can learn something new oneself if trying to understand other people who are not alike. In his article, Sean Blanda uses many rhetorical tools.
Sean Blanda uses the technique of hyperbole for deliberate exaggeration in order to enhance expressiveness. This can be seen in phrases such as “opinions of our friends or, more broadly, America”, “fundamental rejection”, and “not right about everything” (Blanda). Nowadays, for a modern specialist in any field of activity, in order to achieve the most effective communication, the ability to create professionally significant documents and have a culture of speech are a few of the mandatory requirements. Sean Blanda efficiently uses hyperbole to attract more attention, denote globality, and increase the scale of significance.
Throughout the development of mankind, the forms of organization of oral and written texts addressed to a large audience have improved. The rhetorical approach to the text allows to consider various aspects of its construction on a specific material, to identify the possible methods of speech influence, and to evaluate and choose the linguistic and speech expressiveness means. Sean Blanda uses excessive exaggeration of quantitative and qualitative properties of objects, phenomena, and processes as hyperbolization. This allows him to make the article more expressive and get the desired effect of influencing the impression and direction of the reader’s thought.
Another rhetorical approach that Sean Blanda also applies within the text is the use of rhetorical questions. A few examples are “Isn’t it possible that we’re not right about everything?” and “Isn’t it possible that you, reader of Medium and Twitter power user, like me, suffer from this from time to time?” (Blanda). The author uses rhetorical approaches to increase the engagement of the reader with the text. This technique allows you to increase expressiveness and make the reader think.
The author uses rhetorical questions throughout the text. The author does not answer all rhetorical questions on his own since it is expected that questions do not imply an answer since they are either obvious or philosophical. Throughout the article, the author seems to be talking with the reader and asking for personal opinions or encouraging them to reflect on the topic, and not just study the author’s point of view. Addressing the audience with a rhetorical question is an effective technique. It turns a monologue of a speaker or writer into a hidden dialogue with the audience as it activates the attention of listeners or readers. The audience is invited to participate in the conversation, in the discussion of the raised issue.
Among many other techniques, the author uses anaphora. Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of each sentence or other segment of speech. An example is “Isn’t it possible that you, reader of Medium and Twitter power user, like me, suffer from this from time to time? Isn’t it possible that we’re not right about everything?” (Blanda). Anaphora as a rhetorical technique is used to evoke emotions in readers, to attract the attention of the audience, in order to convince, motivate and encourage them to consider the author’s thoughts.
The author uses anaphora to add brightness to the text and to draw the reader’s attention to important theses. In the article, anaphora made it possible to place important semantic accents in the text to highlight what is important for the reader to pay attention to. Anaphora is used effectively to focus the reader’s attention on key images or expressions, to give the article “The ‘Other Side’ Is Not Dumb” more emotional components, to set a certain rhythm and to make the work more expressive and memorable.
In conclusion, the study of the bases of rhetoric gives a general direction and the basic rules for creating a text. At the same time, not only the language and style of works of the past can be applied to modern speech. Today science has to reckon with the accelerated pace of life and look for new models for creating professional texts and optimal communication algorithms that achieve communicative goals in the most effective way. In the “The ‘Other Side’ Is Not Dumb” article, the author effectively uses various rhetorical techniques to grab the reader’s attention, place semantic accents, and maintain the general style and idea of the article. By the end of the article, Sean Blanda conveys to the reader the idea that it is important to be relatively critical not only of the judgments and statements of others but also of his own.
Work Cited
Blanda, Sean. The ‘Other Side’ Is Not Dumb. Medium, 2016. Web.