Rhetorical Analysis #THE LAST ONE.

Topic: An encounter with a salesperson.

Scenario, as happened to me the last time I was at the mall: The saleswoman for some weird kind of lotion tries to nab me and Margaret as we walk out of some clothing store by saying, "Let me rub some of this on your hands! It has shea butter in it; it will make your hands feel like new!" I say, "No thanks," and we walk away.

#1: What is the saleswoman's goal?
To sell us her product, meaning the fancy lotion.

#2: What is her argument?
We should try some of her product because once we do, we'll be unable to not buy the product because we'll be so in love with how it will make our skin feel.

#3: Who is her audience?
Her broad audience is anyone who walks past her at the mall; her more specific audience is women who like to wear yummy-smelling lotion or men with wives/girlfriends who like to wear yummy-smelling lotion.

#4: How does she sell her argument?
The saleswoman was mostly relying on ethos to sell her argument; she only had a few brief seconds to build up her credibility before Margaret and I walked away, and the main way she did this was by trying to get us to try the lotion for ourselves. Her argument was that if we tried the lotion, then we would know for ourselves that we couldn't not buy it. She thus tried to use the product itself to establish her credibility by claiming that if we tried it, we'd fall instantly in love with it.

She thus also relied on pathos to sell her product by telling us that if we tried it, our hands would feel like new. She relied on her belief that we, as average college-age girls browsing the mall, naturally want yummy-smelling, smooth hands. She was therefore trying to create in us a sense of beauty or maybe maturity, and by trying to rub the lotion on us herself she was probably trying to create in us a sense of being coddled and pampered, which she hoped would warm us up to her and her product.

STAR
Sufficient--nope. All she had to go on was her own advertisement, which evidently didn't work since Margaret and I didn't try on the lotion. She offered us no evidence other than her own advice that we should even try the lotion, which wasn't sufficient evidence to persuade your average person to try on the lotion.

Typical--Margaret and I are both fairly reasonable, and we didn't accept her evidence, so I would say no, it wasn't typical.

Accurate--nope. She didn't present enough evidence to combat our counterargument that we were busy and that trying on the lotion would be an inconvenience.

#5: Effective?
Nope. Margaret and I didn't give the lady any time to explain her product because she didn't sell it well enough in the few seconds she had to convince us. Analysis: fail.