Draft of a Rhetorical Analysis of a Public Document Assignment

Mitzi M Best

ENG-105

August 10, 2016

Jennifer Chinn

Draft of a Rhetorical Analysis of a Public Document Assignment

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention website was expertly constructed to get the word out about ADHD and how to seek out help for it.  Their site and the information within it conveys its message regarding ADHD to educators, parents, and policymakers.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has the credibility, the use of ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to the intended audience.  

The web designer asserted the ethos approach into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, being the credibility of the CDC to inform the public on disorders, illnesses, or studies the CDC has discovered.  According to, the CDC internet site, there are two social allegiances.  The Division of Human Development and Disability and the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities build on the credibility of the CDC (CDC, 2016).  Also, the site states CDC 24/7: Saving Live, Protecting People (CDC, 2016).

The logic in the layout of the website was a great use of logos to grab the attention of educators, parents, and future parents effectively.  The site logically starts with signs and symptoms that the suited audience would likely go to look at first.  A downloadable fact sheet is available regarding ADHD.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site inevitably ends with how to seek help.  However, the very end leaves information for adults with ADHD, and there is one link for Policy Makers (CDC, 2016).

Furthermore, the web designer used pathos through pictures of children and media to appeal to the audiences’ emotions.  Pathos seems to be a high rhetorical effectiveness for this website.  The pictures of the kids stand out more than the words reading over the site.  The writer of the site was able to accomplish his or her purpose with visual pictures of children at play, parents meeting with doctors, along with other media to inform about ADHD.   Another way the designer appeals to emotions is with the colors used throughout the site.  The shades of purple were used and is a preferred color for most children (Color Wheel Pro, 2015).

According to process hints and ideas to complete the rhetorical analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website in regards to ADHD, made the process easier to complete (Graff, 2010, p. 378, fig. 1).  The CDC has social allegiances and knowledge of the topic ADHD.  This site gives a plethora of information that any educator or parent could find and/or use should there be a child with symptoms of ADHD.  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention web designer was able to reach out to these particular audiences by the classical approach of ethos, logos, and pathos strategies (Hoefer and Green, 2016, p. 133 para. 1).