Draft Thesis Statements

In this post I will construct potential thesis statements for my essay regarding "Stimulating Controversy"

Frank Schulenburg. "US Declaration of Independence Draft" Jan 31 2011. Public Domain.

Pertinent Information

Author
Gad Alon, PhD & PT. He earned his master's degree from the Medical College of Virginia and his PhD from the University of Maryland.

Purpose
The text he writes discusses the current issues associated with electrical stimulation in physical therapy.

Audience
Other physical therapists, patients considering the treatment, medical students

Ethos
Tone, word choice, unbiased information

Logos
Expert opinion, examples, clear transitions

Pathos
Repetition of key words

Thesis Statements

1. Due to his expertise in the field, Gad Alon composes a quality article of the promising possibilities for the proper use of electrical stimulation in physical therapy while also discussing the set backs that currently abide with the treatment.

2. In his compelling article on electrical stimulation in physical therapy, Gad Alon discusses how the treatment can be used in an effective and proper way.

My current thesis statements are pretty broad. This is because the article itself does not have one specific direction but instead talks about the downsides of electrical stimulation but ends on a positive note which makes the argument of my essay difficult to define.

Reflection
I reviewed Kelly's and Morgan's blog posts. Both of them constructed very nice thesis statements. From reading their posts I realized that these statements are a little different from the cookie-cutter ones I was used to writing in high school. I also realized that my particular article has a looser argument than that of my peers. Both of theirs takes on a concise direction while mine is less concrete. I think in my essay I should take what the author says and tweak it into more of an argument.

Analyzing My Audience

In this post I will answer the questions found in Student's Guide about analyzing the audience of my text.

Unknown. "Eaton’s employees in auditorium at a War Bond Rally, 1943 (Toronto, Canada)" 1943. Public Domain

Who am I writing for? What are the audience's beliefs and assumptions?

I am writing for students in the medical field and patients in physical therapy that are interested in learning more about the controversy on electrical stimulation in physical therapy. The audience believes in beneficial uses of their money, highly qualified therapists performing the treatment, and the well being of the patients being performed on.

What position might they take on this issue? How will I need to respond to this?

They will most likely see the benefits of using e-stim but also see circumstances in which other methods would outweigh it due to outside factors such as cost and qualifications. I will need to respond to this by statistically showing how effective e-stim is and that because of this those factors should be reconsidered.

What will they want to know?

They will want to know the reasons behind the setbacks and how we can overcome them to make the treatment more useful as a whole. 

How might they react to my argument?

They will most likely agree.  I will provide the evidence used in the text and reiterate the statements the author makes to show the reasons why they should agree.

Are there specific words, ideas, or modes of presentation that will help me relate to them in this way?

I can use the idea of the well being of the patient being the most important factor and that the outlying issues with the treatment should not play as big of a role as people have been making it.

Reflection

I analyzed Morgan's and Jayni's posts. Both of my peers had very specific audiences with a lot of knowledge behind the topics they're discussing. Morgan predicted her audience to react with sympathy and agree with her argument because her argument is about physical punishment in children. I found this interesting because I felt that every audience would feel sympathetic about this.
Jay's audience is specifically chemical engineering students. She found that her audience would agree with her argument if she used facts and science to prove her argument. After reviewing my peers posts I found that my audience is a little more broad and the information I will supply contains different types of values and beliefs that varies between my audiences.

Cluster of Stimulating Controversy

In this post I will create a cluster of the rhetorical strategies, rhetorical situation, and cultural ideologies included in my text

Screenshot taken Oct 6 2015

In my cluster, I've summarized the rhetorical strategies, rhetorical situation, and the culture's ideology  taken account for in my article. I did this by separating these three topics into separate branches and further explaining them from there.

You can find my cluster here.

Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies in Stimulating Controversy

In this post I will analyze the rhetorical strategies in my text of choice.

Unknown. "Analysis" Unknown. 

Appeals to Credibility or Character

Which items on the bulleted list of "Appeals to Credibility and Character (Ethos)" can you recognize in your text?

Word choice, tone, information on the author's expertise, and appeals to values or beliefs shared by the audience.

How and why would the author use these strategies?

The author uses word choice and tone to create the overall feel of the text. The information on the author's expertise is used to give the content credibility and the appeals to values/ beliefs shared by the audience is used to describe the issues with electrical stimulation in a way that the audience can relate to and create an opinion about.

How do these strategies affect the audience's perception of the author's credibility and character?

By providing that the author has a PhD and PT it tells the audience that he is authorized to give information on the topic and has a lot of prior knowledge of the treatment.

How does the use of these strategies impact the effectiveness of the text's overall message?

These strategies enhance the effectiveness of the message because it gives the content much more depth and meaning when there is other background to what the author is trying to portray.

Does the author seem to have any biases or assumptions that might impact their credibility?

The author seems to favor the idea of electrotherapy. He claims that in the right setting it is very effective but a lot of the problems lie in outside sources that do not have to do with the treatment itself.

Appeals to Emotion

Which items on the bulleted list of "Appeals to Emotion (Pathos)" can you recognize in the text?

Repetition of key words and tone of voice are the only ones I could recognize.

What emotional responses is the author attempting to create?

The author does not attempt to create much emotional response in the readers.

What is the actual result?

The author mostly just presents the facts in the controversy and lets the readers create their own emotional response due to their own personal opinions.

Are these emotions effective or ineffective for this particular audience?

I would say it's effective because it allows the readers to think for themselves instead of having the author sway the readers to think a certain way.

How do these emotional appeals affect the credibility of the author or the logic of the text?

It makes the text more credible because the author doesn't need to persuade the readers a certain way. The content alone helps the reader form an opinion which makes it very credible.

Appeals to Logic

Which items on the bulleted list of "Appeals to Logic or Rational Decision Making (Logos)" can you recognize in your text?

Historical records, interviews or expert opinions, and effective organization of sentences.

What response is the author attempting to create by employing these strategies?

The author is attempting to logically explain the current issues with the use of electrical stimulation. By explaining them logically, he's attempting to get the readers to think critically for themselves about the issues and for their own opinions.

What is the actual result?

The readers form their own opinion based on the content of the text and the problems discussed.

Are these strategies effective or ineffective for this particular audience rhetorical situation?

They are effective because explaining it logically allows for the readers to believe the content of the article and form their own personal belief on the subject.

Reflection

I reviewed Morgan's and Dylan's posts. Both of them were very different from my own. Morgan's was about the use of physical punishment in children for discipline which made her case very emotion-evoking. Dylan's author was Quentin Tarantino so his writing style didn't exactly need to follow any of the bullets from the rhetorical analysis in order for people to create responses. I think after reading their posts I can conclude that mine is effective and answers the questions thoroughly.

Analyzing Message in Stimulating Controversy

In this post I will analyze the message in my chosen article on electrical stimulation in physical therapy.

Alchimista. "Mail_blue. jpg." August 14 2008. Creative Commons  Attribution.

Bullet points most relevant to the goals of my texts author

Respond to a particular occasion or text - The author's goal is to respond to the outcomes of electrical stimulation. The occasion is the issues that come out of the use of electrical stimulation and the author is reacting to them in the text.

Reflect on a topic - The author is reflecting on the treatment of physical therapy by discussing the problems that have come up with it.


Bullet points that are not relevant to the goals of the author

Persuade an audience of something - The author's goal is not to persuade the audience. He simply states the current problems with the treatment and avoids persuasion by closing with a statement about how the current situation still has to be looked into and that there are no concrete answers yet.

Move the readers to feel a certain way - Similar to the bullet mentioned above, the writer isn't trying to evoke any emotion in the readers. He mostly states the issues with the treatment.

Nuances & Layers

The only layer I can see is the author being in favor of using electrical stimulation but also seeing the setbacks to the situation. Therefore he is not exactly sure how to display the information because both sides of the arguments are valid and it is difficult to display an opinion on the sublject.

Analyzing My Own Assumptions

In this post I will be analyzing my personal values in relation to my text of choice.

Unknown. "Outer Surface of the Human Brain" February 25 2011.  Public Domain

 1. What cultural or social values, beliefs, etc., do I share with the society or culture in which the text was written? 

Similar to the text, I believe that cost, health issues, and expertise in applying the treatment being used are important values. Due to the fact that I have personally experienced electrical stimulation in physical therapy, I can relate to a lot the concerns that come up throughout the controversy. I experienced difficulty in cost and effectiveness of the treatment as the article discusses. I also experienced lack of confidence in my therapists which made the treatment a bit nerve-wracking.

2. What cultural or social values, beliefs, etc., do I not share? Why not? 

In all honestly all of the beliefs discussed in the article were valid to me. I did not find an idea that I disagreed with.

3. If the text is written in a cultural distant or different from our own, what social values, beliefs, etc., connect to or reflect our own culture? What social values, beliefs, etc., can we not see in our own culture?

Social values discussed that relate to my current culture is the qualification of the physical therapist performing the treatment. Our culture values high quality medical care and ensures that all professionals in the medical field are highly qualified. Because physical therapist's confidence to perform the treatment is low, this is a main concern. There were no values in the article that did not relate to our culture.

4. If the text is written in our culture but in a different historical time, how have the social values, beliefs, etc., developed or changed over time?

Since the article was written in 2001, it is still considered pretty relevant in the medical field. Especially since I experienced the same dilemmas in 2014. From personal experience, I can confirm that the social values, beliefs, etc., have not changed since the article was written.

Reflection
I reviewed Alyssa's post and Nick's post. Reading my peers posts made me realize that I agreed with all of the ideas from my article. Alyssa discussed how her own culture couldn't apply to some of the text simply because she's a girl and her article had to do with the circumcision of males at birth. Nick discussed the overall society's assumptions on the topic which did not always agree with the topic. I realized that due to my personal experience with electrical stimulation it makes my assumptions easier to relate to the text and helps me understand the conflict overall.

Analyzing My Texts Cultural Setting

Below I will analyze the different types of cultural beliefs found in my text of choice.

Rdghalayini. "Unknown" April 5 2014. Creative Commons Attribution

When and where
The text was written April 2, 2001 to a website called Advance Healthcare Network for physical therapy and rehab medicine.

The author Gad Alon has a PhD and PT. He is titled the Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland. His research is focused on electrotherapy and neuromodulation.

1. What values, ideas, norms, beliefs, even laws of the culture play an important role in the text?
The text discusses the use of electrical stimulation in physical therapy. Many of the problems involved with the technique include cost and health of the person receiving the treatment. This indicates that the culture from which this article came from values effective use of their salary as well as their well being. People value saving money and being healthy.

2. Does the text address these cultural values, beliefs, etc., directly (by directly mentioning and responding to them) or indirectly (by presenting a scenario or narrative that addressing them)? 
The text directly addresses these issues. One of the main concerns with the technique is that insurance companies often don't cover the cost of the treatment. Even though the cost of the treatment does not affect the outcome of the treatment itself, the author addresses it as a major conflict because that is what the culture values.

3.What is the relationship of the text to the values, beliefs, etc.? Is it critical of these aspects of the culture? Is it supportive? Does it seek to modify these aspects of the culture in a certain way?
The values in the text are both directly and indirectly related. The health of the patient is directly related. This is because the use of electrotherapy directly effects the health of the patient. The cost of electrical stimulation is indirectly related. This value doesn't directly affect the effectiveness of the therapy but is a big factor when deciding to use it or not.