In this podcast, I will be analyzing the rhetorical effects of the article "There's absolutely no reason to declaw your cat" by Linda B. Rosenthal. The article is about (as you can probably tell from the title) the reasons why you should not declaw your cat. I chose this article because it has a very strong stance on the topic of declawing. Rosenthal is actually a New York State assemblywoman trying to get cat declawing banned in New York with her bill, so she has to communicate well in order to convince people of her point of view. Because Rosenthal has such a strong opinion, she uses a lot of different communication techniques to persuade her intended audience. Furthermore, people have a lot of different opinions on this topic, so Rosenthal has to use a lot of rhetorical appeals to try to persuade her audience, or maybe even people who disagree with her. Do you have a cat? Would or have you already gotten your cat declawed? If you are ok with cats being declawed, maybe the rhetorical decisions Rosenthal makes could change your mind, maybe they won't. There's only one way to find out though, take a listen and see if Rosenthal uses good enough appeals to get her point across!
works cited
Rosenthal, Linda. “There’s absolutely no reason to declaw your cat.” CNN, 8 June 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/08/opinions/theres-absolutely-no-reason-to-declaw-your-cat-rosenthal/index.html. Accessed 28 Sep. 2020.