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Rhetorical Analysis
I recently did a rhetorical analysis on the Michigan Scholastic cycling Association website. Before I discuss my analysis, I would like to provide the link here: https://www.miscabike.org/ This website was made to attract bikers and people looking to help a nonprofit organization through athletic abilities. Therefore the audience is most likely going to be bikers looking to join a community or athletic coach is looking to do some volunteer work in their free time. Throughout my analysis of the website I was able to find some key strategies that the website uses to showcase its purpose. Those strategies are the use of ethos, pathos, logos, and the use of a multimodal element.. The website did an excellent job using these strategies because I was able to easily identify the purpose of the website. Without these strategies it would have been very difficult to understand the website and what it was trying to achieve and most visitors of the website would not likely even consider joining the nonprofit.
In the MiSCA website, a very prevalent strategy seems to be the work of pathos. Pathos is an appeal made to an audience by emotions in order to evoke feeling. There are a few sentences particularly that stood out to me in regards to pathos. In the sentence; “The Michigan Scholastic Cycling Association (MiSCA) is empowering youth and families by creating a community of cyclists who otherwise may not have found the sport," (Warren). we can highlight certain words in the sentence that address the pathos elements. Words such as “empowering youth and families” and “otherwise may not have found the sport” describes what the organization is doing to help individuals and families. Empowering the youth is a typical example of how organizations want to help struggling individuals and families in different circumstances. There are many struggling young people that need help to find a purpose in life and hope for a future. In this organization, mentioning them helps not only individuals but families realize that programs like this will help them have a better future. Therefore it draws them in and why they should join the organization. Stating the phrase “otherwise may not have found the sport” verifies that without their support and help it would not be possible to help improve the lives of young people and their families. Additionally, the website states, “MiSCA has programming focused on getting more
This is the website image when you first enter the site. If you click the image it will take you to the MiSCA website.
girls active in the sport by creating girls-only events where girls feel welcomed and ensuring girls are included equally in all aspects of the organization," (Warren). In the society we live in today women are still fighting for equality and this organization speaks particularly to that. This website uses pathos by talking about an emotional and real battle in society with women and the rest of the world. This website not only uses pathos but it also produces its purpose with the use of logos.
Logos, or a strategy using facts and figures, is a huge part in identifying the purpose of the Michigan Scholastic Cycling Association website. If you look at the bottom right side of the website it has a badge that says 2019 top rated great nonprofit. This award signifies how well the nonprofit is seen by society and the rest of the world. Putting this award on their website gives it more credibility and shows why the audience invoked should become a member of the organization and financially support the nonprofit. In the first paragraph of the website, it states “MiSCA now serves more than 500 kids and 200 coaches throughout the state with new clubs/teams forming all the time," (Warren). Stating the statistics behind the organization also gives it more credibility and more reasoning of why readers of the website should join the program as well. 500 kids and 200 coaches is a huge number of people participating within a Michigan organization like this one. By adding logos to its website it not only establishes its credibility but also gives the site a more clear purpose . By stating that they have a large number of people joining the program it signifies why anybody as a reader of the website should join the program as well. One might argue that the website statement mentioned also has a little ethos in it.
Ethos is used as a means of convincing an audience via the authority or credibility of the persuader. In this case the website uses reviews to show credibility. If you look on the website on the right hand side towards the bottom you can see multiple reviews about the program and a link so that you can see further detail on the reviews. Each review has the reviewer’s name and star rating that the reviewer gave the nonprofit next to it. By listing this on their website they are able to show direct sources of people who are in this organization and have participated in the organization whether they were members or coaches. This reinforces why someone should join and the whole purpose of the Michigan Scholastic Cycling Association. On the website it states that “all our coaches and team volunteers are required to complete and pass an NCSI background check.” Because it is a certified background check, it reaffirms the credibility of the coaches that are participating in the nonprofit. This shows that it is a trusting company and that all children involved are going to be safe. In a world like today is important to have that credibility because of all the child abuse and other horrible things happening to children. The NCSI background check is a thorough check and well-known by people. Therefore putting it on their website attracts the company more people and children to join their nonprofit.
At the top of the Michigan scholastic cycling Association website the first thing we will see is a video called “what Michigan Scholastic Cycling is all about.” The video begins by speaking about why people join the nonprofit organization and how it is beneficial to the children. The video presents different members of the organization narrating their personal experience within the Michigan Scholastic Cycling Association. The video also addresses the safety of children participating in the organization such as providing bike parts, extra bikes, and any supplies they might need. The video ends with the coaches talking about their experiences and why they wanted to be coaches for the nonprofit. Providing a video in the website portrays a lot of information in a short amount of time because there is not only people voicing their thoughts and opinions but also there are a lot of visual elements to the video. The video presentation was able to successfully portray the purpose of the organization. Therefore using multimodal elements like a video is a successful strategy when trying to portray the purpose of this organization or nonprofit.
The Michigan Scholastic Cycling Association website uses multiple strategies to attract people to join their nonprofit organization. As I previously mentioned it uses the ethos, pathos, logos, and multimodal strategies. The main purpose of this website is to attract more members for the Michigan Scholastic Cycling Association whether they are just cycling members or coaches as well. Through a rhetorical analysis I was able
2019 Top- Rated nonprofit Award
to identify my overall evaluation of the purposes achievement. In my analysis, while visiting the website, I was able to identify the purpose signifying the website successfully portrayed their purpose for having the organization and creating the website. Through careful analysis I was able to identify that the audience of the website are most likely going to be bikers or people looking to join an athletic organization. Some possible audiences could also be coaches or athletic people looking to help an organization. They would have to be people that had Internet access and wanted to find a nonprofit or organization like this one. The website overall did a successful job in addressing not only male but also female individuals that would be interested in joining such a group like this. Overall I believe the website did an excellent job in defining its purpose and portraying it.
With any type of organization or project the audience must be able to successfully understand the purpose of the organization or project being done. This nonprofit would not appeal to everyone but it would to its audience which are most likely going to be bikers and athletic coaches looking to participate in a group such as this one. By using specific strategies as I have previously discussed such as pathos, logos, and ethos in the website this organization in my opinion was able to successfully define its purpose and showcase it. Without all three of those strategies I believe the website would not have been able to create its purpose for the audience. The use of the video in their website also helped the audience understand exactly what the MiSCA nonprofit is all about. The Michigan Scholastic Cycling Association clearly uses rhetorical tools to establish its purpose and help the invoked audience understand its nonprofit organization.
Works Cited
Warren, Sean. “Everyone Plays Every Minute.” Michigan Scholastic Cycling Association, MISCA, 2020, www.miscabike.org/.