Texting & Driving

I found a Clemson 103 video project on the danger of texting and driving. The video was uploaded nearly two years ago so I wasn’t sure of the quality, but I went for it. The author uses many different rhetorical strategies to support his argument on how dangerous texting and driving can be. The author also goes around campus interviewing multiple people and seeing what their opinions were on texting and driving. The author’s argument is that texting and driving is very dangerous, in fact more dangerous than people who are under the influence of alcohol and/or marijuana. The video succeeded communicating his idea clearly. He breaks it down by few facts and statistics in the begging, then leads to the interviewing, finally concluding into getting pulled over for the offense. The video also was intended for all of those who do text and drive, and to spread the awareness of the severity of the risk. The video doesn’t have the best acting, but it gets the message correctly passed on. It is illegal to do it, just like any other felony in this country. This video appealed to pathos because the driver in the last season starts to feel very hostile towards the policeman. The author also used ethos in the beginning with his statistics and facts, showing he has some knowledge about the danger of texting and driving. Logos is used widely in his argument that texting and driving is amongst one of the most dangerous and death coming acts one may do. Last, the point of view from what was told changed around throughout the video, which I thought helped in a sense of organization and creativity. The author could have showed his face and introduced the topic in the beginning, but he uses propaganda like criticism to help raise his argument in awareness.