Evaluation of Rhetorical Situations

In this post I have found three articles that I will be analyzing the author, audience and context using the guidelines in A Student's Guide reading.

Jordan, Brett, "Rhetorical (1 of 2)" uploaded 8 July 2011 via flickr.com. Attribution 2.0 Generic

Far Out, Man. But Is It Quantum Physics?

• Author: The author of this piece is a graduate from M.I.T with a degree in physics. This gives him credibility in the subject because this article is centered around the degree he has. In addition he has also written other pieces on quantum mechanics and other physics related topics. 

• Audience: This piece is directed at a somewhat intelligent, scientifically read audience. The other side of the audience is a group of people who believe in quantum mysticism and other such ideas about quantum theory.

• Context: This piece was written on the New York Times website in the science section.  It was written in 2006 when the movie "What the @#$% Do We Know" was very popular and created a somewhat cult following. This lead to the idea of quantum consciousness which is what the article is about.

Quantum Consciousness Often Means Nonsense.

• Author: The author of this article is a physicist and also a science writer.  In addition to his numerous science articles with Slate.com he also will sometimes critique the scientif community as well as the misunderstood public about their interpretations of physics. 

• Audience: The audience of this piece is somewhat complex. For one it is directed at people who know about quantum mechanics or are somewhat familiar with the idea of it. On the other hand it is directed at people who believe in the idea of quantum consciousness. For both of these audiences, the author has something to say about both sides tending to side with the former rather than the later.

• Context: This article was written on slate.com. Slate tends to be a more liberal news organization which means that this article will most likely have some form of liberal bias. Not only that but this was written last year which is around the time when the idea of quantum consciousness began to take off.

Can We do Without Relativity?

• Author: The author is an author of a blog about how science and scientific theories are wrong. He also is not a knowledgeable scientist and does not hold any degrees in physics. This contradicts the fact that he is talking about something that he does not have a solid understanding of the science behind it.

• Audience: This pieces focuses on a very conservative audience. The people who read this article tend to discredit science because of its wily and far fetched ideas. The audience is also a group of people who don't understand the complexity of relativity and how are scared of what it implies.

• Context: This was written in The American Spectator which is a libertarian and conservative news organization. This means that it is harsh on science and liberal, both of which relativity tends to be backed by.  The author also puts this in the context of his book Questioning Einstein. 

EDIT: After reading through Micheal's and Bri's rhetorical situations I decided to take another look over my own rhetorical situations and analysis. Looking through all of our analysis was fairly similar specifically looking at how the each of the elements above works with the the text to make the texts rhetorical. One thing that I realized I should do after reading through Bri's blog was go back and make sure people were able to visit my chosen rhetorical situations.