Rhetorical Devices Used In The Washington Post And USA Today

869 Words4 Pages

Essay 1 The Washington Post and USA Today allows their readers to become engaged with news stories that are produced by their writers using rhetorical devices that appear in provocative titles, biased opinions, and making the reader feel like they’re included by using the terms (you, and I). The Washington Post and USA Today have huge fan bases that draw readers to their websites every day. What keeps their fan base robust is the way they engage the reader by establishing provocative titles. The Washington Post, being a very political site, its easy to draw readers in with their titles. For example, ““DNA, Vindication and the damage done” A lesson from New York in how police should – and should not – investigate rape”. (“The Washington Post”1). …show more content…

You can do this by using many types of rhetorical devices to catch the readers interest. The Washington Post and USA Today provide mostly all opinionated articles, which means its all about the writer and what they have to say opposed to what is true. Some if not most of the articles from these two publishers are biased. Which means they side with a half more than the other, usually in an unfair way. For example, written by The Post View Editorial Board the article “Republicans can win elections. But they can’t govern.”(The Washington Post Editorial Board). This is meant to catch an eye of a non-Trump supporter, or a democrat, but there’s a chance a supporter, or a republican saw the article and clicked on it as well. By using a antanagoge such as “If GOP leaders had allowed the majority of Congress to work its will, the shutdown might have been avoided”, it would have come off as biased, because some people even non-supporters might have not agreed with that statement. The rhetorical device in the article allows for interest to be sparked, but by using an oxymoron for the title it not only caught the eye of one type of reader but caught the eye of both types of

Open Document