Date: 1 May 2015

Assignment: Major Revision

Rhetorical Analysis Cover Letter
The following essay is a rhetorical analysis of the movie trailer for Paper Towns,
based on a best-selling novel by John Green. In this paper, I was asked to make a major
revision, meaning, taking a different stance on the effectiveness of the rhetorical analysis.
Therefore, my objective of analyzing how the producers decisions influenced the
effectiveness of advertisement in his preview was compromised through the excessive
use of pathos, or appeal to emotion, while neglecting to incorporate logos and ethos. In
order to finish writing this paper late at night, with a finite amount of coffee, I found it
absolutely necessary to write in a slightly biased tone in order to effectively make
constructive criticism. After having picked apart this preview to the point of insanity, and
in this case insanity equates with the lack of caffeine, I have become realize that this
movie trailer fails to incorporate a balance of more than one rhetorical strategy.
As I did chose a more opinionated tone, I found writing this rather difficult for me
because I began to notice myself drifting into a more colloquial tone, when I really
needed to remain professional. But then, one might wonder if it is truly the delirium that
results from writing a paper at two in the morning. Im sure an English professor would
understand this more than anyone else I know. However, I found this essay rather thought
provoking for myself. I realized that the first few times I watch a preview, I remain
convinced, however, it takes a few times of watching something to where I begin to
notice logical fallacies in ones argument.

In order to complete this essay, I found myself trying to broaden my

understanding of ethos, pathos, and logos by effectively researching certain instances that
might parallel those that were in the preview of the movie. After not having practiced
writing a rhetorical analysis essay in over a year, I found this quite helpful in writing a
stronger analysis. When doing this, I often found myself forgetting relating the rhetorical
devices back to the rhetorical patterns and how the patterns help support the argument.
I understand that this essay is probably even worse than the original and I
apologize greatly for that. Honestly, I would really like some advice on how to remain
more professional when incorporating bias. Im such an opinionated person that this
seems to be a constant battle I face on a daily basis. And again, I must ask the following
questions: Since this rhetorical analysis is based on the appeal to the emotion of the
audience, do you personally think that it holds a strong argument? Would you be
convinced to watch this movie?

Rhetorical Analysis
We, as humans, have this tendency to be overly intrigued by other peoples
emotions. Despite the type of emotion we currently witness, our continued observation
mentally stimulates us because we want to dig deeper. In a sense, our primitive instincts
convince us to passively investigate as the story unfolds, so we can respond to our
environment appropriately in attempt for survival. In our modern-day society, businesses
understand the psychology of this all too well especially when it comes to advertisement
or film industry. However, in the upcoming film Paper Towns, a story based on a bestselling novel by John Green, the producer clearly attempts to persuade his audience to
view the film in theatres in his movie trailer through the excessive appeal of pathos. By
the end of three minutes, the producer effectively exhausts his audience as he drags them
through a rollercoaster of emotions and thus, convincing his audience to not view the film
because he lacked to incorporate basal amount of logos and ethos necessary to make a
valid argument.
The preview begins with the narration of the main character, Quinton, recounting
his experience of falling in love with his neighbor, Margo. Within the first couple of
sentences, the audience can tell that the main character resembles a young nave boy that
has faded into the background all throughout school, until just recently as he explains
the way I see it, everyone has a miracle. Mine was living next to Margo Ross. Even
though he remains hopeful and the audience can sense that, it seems to resemble the
outlines of any other generic teenage love story weve heard before. When trying to
convince an audience of purchasing overpriced movie tickets for your production, the
emotion has to be relevant, yes, but not overly used.

If, by chance, the viewers have not been lost already, the movie trailer progresses
for another two and a half minutes, so, bear with me. The producers make an effort to
include the rhetorical pattern of compare and contrast by having Quinton explain that his
first love was his miracle in order to continue to appeal to pathos. When he describes
the effervescent personality of his first love, Margo, oddly, it still falls under this generic
experience of awkward first encounters with a high school crush. Even though a majority
of his audience can relate to this experience either currently or in the past, this concept of
slightly non-conventional first love since the birth of the performance industry itself in
Greece.
The story begins to unfold as Quinton explains how Margos life was a series of
unbelievably epic events as we see her falling in love and kissing her boyfriend, bowing
on stage, and socializing with friends. Unfortunately, the audience cant help but be rather
disappointed in that shes just a normal teenager engaging in normal teenage activities.
However, the pitch in Quintons voice and his elongation of certain words allude to his
utter fascination with her, which strings the audience along by a mere thread, as the mood
and intention remains endearing.
It is unequivocal that the producer understands that we, as human beings, have
this tendency to be overly intrigued with the thrill of excitement as he chooses present the
audience with a plot twist. In the middle of the night Quinton is greeted by Margo as she
climbs through his window asking him to borrow her car in efforts to get revenge on her
newly acclaimed ex-boyfriend as he cheated on her. The wild ideas that are presented
in the preview finally reflect what Quinton has been claiming since the beginning of the
movie, however, the arrival of these actions were rather late unfortunately.

At the very end of the preview, the music begins to slow and the film goes black,
alluding to a tragedy. As the camera begins to slowly refocus, Quinton is without Margo,
but is greeted by surprise by an investigator, which one would also assume to be a
tragedy. However, Quinton narrates Margo always loved surprises, so she decided to be
one, which reassures the audience too quickly that her disappearance was intentional.
Unfortunately, this becomes to be rather anticlimactic because, again, it fits the generic
scheme of a teenage runaway story and we also know by the complacent tone of Quinton
that he is going to find her because he truly does love her passionately. Therefore, the
producer failed to persuade their audience in spending money on the movie because they
were unsuccessful in instilling curiosity that would resonate with the audience.
Throughout the preview, it is unambiguous that the producers understands the
value and art of incorporating the rhetorical device of pathos within preview in order to
convince his audience in pursuing the later viewing of the full film. However, the
producer features an absurd amount of emotion at inappropriate times, which becomes
rather ineffective. The producer could have been more successful by creating a balance of
all three rhetorical devices of ethos, pathos, and logos, which could have improved the
organization of the preview making it more interesting.