Running head: MORE THAN JUST SYNTAX

More Than Just Syntax

Ivan Mota-Aguilar
Senaida Navar
Rhetoric and Composition 1301

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More Than Just Syntax

In the past years, technology has become an essential part in every field of study, for
example computer sciences contribution to biology to search through sequences in data looking
for patterns in the DNA. Also, in physics the scientists use computer programing to simulate
their experiments to try to predict the outcomes. This is why the demand for people that knows
how to program a software has growth in the recent years. First of all, computer programing is
the process of taking an algorithm (a set of rules or procedures) and encoding it into a notation in
a programing language so that it can be executed by a computer. In other words, creating a
sequence of instructions to enable the computer to do something. That is why some of the
abilities that a programmer has are Analytical skills, Concentration, Detail oriented and
Troubleshooting skills. Nowadays, computers are the future and in order to be part of the future
everyone needs to know how to program. The purpose of this paper is to analyze most of the
aspects of a short film, such as the three rhetorical appeals (pathos, ethos, and logos) used, the
constrains and exigence and at the end of the paper all of the aspects of the visual will determine
whether the short film is convincing the audience of its purpose or not.
Genre
The type of artifact that will be used in this rhetorical analysis is a short film called code
starts. the short film is about computer programming and computer science, it describes very
vague what programming is about and how easy it is to learn. Also, this visual is explaining how
you can make everything you want using coding skills and a computer, because coding and
computers are being used in every field of study. During the film the author uses interviews
made to very outstanding well-known celebrities of the software development world to convince
the audience and fulfill the purpose of the short film.

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Logos
The way the author uses logos is by providing statistics of the increase of computer
science jobs over the next 10 years there will be 1.4 million jobs in computer science and only
about 400 thousand qualify for those jobs (Leslie, 2013) This explains that in this field of study
there are a lot of jobs available for the people that are willing to pursue this career, this is trying
to convince the audience letting them know that computer science is a good choice because of
the many available jobs. Also in one part of the short film a normal teacher at Mount View
Elementary explained using percentages how computer programing improved his students
learning outcomes we integrated computer science with this programing and I saw my score go
up 30% (James, 2013) This is describing to the audience how programing helps the students to
develop critical thinking and problem solving skills and that programing can help not only
students but everyone to develop those skills.
Reader or Audience
The intended audience for this short film is everyone from all ages that is interested in
computer science or computer programing or that just would like to learn how to program or
code. The purpose of the short film is to convince everyone that is interested in computer
programing to learn how to code and to pursued a career in computer science of computer
engineering. The short film tries to convince the audience by showing a lot of the benefits of
coding such as, make whatever you want from scratch, develop all your ideas into one thing, and
develop your own ideas and see it working. That is why at the end of the short film the people
that are being interview express that everyone can learn how to code, that you do not have to be a
genius to code, that you only have to know start small and be determined to follow your ideas.

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Pathos
The way pathos is used in the short film is first, by having a soundtrack with a fast,
energetic beat that is used to give the listener or viewer the feel of enthusiasm and passion about
programing and the things that you can create with code. Also, the short film appeals to the
audience emotions when Valve technical artist, Bronwen talks about the metaphor of the blank
wall with a bunch of doors that when you start opening more and more doors a light starts to
come in, and when you finish a program the whole room is full of light because you fully
understand the structure of your idea that you completed. This symbolizing the happiness that a
programmer has when he sees his finalized software and that the audience can have the same
feeling of happiness if they decided to start coding.
Rhetor or Author
The author of this short film is Lesley Chilcott, an award winning filmmaker,]
documentarian, and producer. Before Chilcott started making documentaries, she produced and
directed hundreds of TV commercials and she was the producer of three Academic Awardwinning documentaries. This adds credibility to the author because of the experience he has from
all of her documentaries. The motivation of the Chilcott to direct this documentary is the fact that
she already worked on a documentary related to coding called the CODEGIRL where
programing caught her attention and she discovered all of the benefits of programing and how
coding can be used to make whatever you want in a computer, so she decided to get involved in
this short film to try to convince more and more people to learn how to code and to pursue a
career in computer programing.

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Ethos
The credibility of the short film is supported by the celebrities that appear in it, due to the
fact that most of them are very well-known successful software developers, therefore the fact
that they are talking about how programing is like and the benefits of making your programs and
learn to code, makes a lot of sense. The celebrities that are being interview are Bill Gates
(Microsoft founder), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook creator), Jack Dorsey (Twitter creator), Tony
Hsieh (CEO at Zappos), Gabe Newell (Valve creator), Ruchi Sanghvi (Facebook engineer),
Elena Silenok (Clothia creator), and Hadi Partovi (Code.org creator). This affecting the audience
that if these people are explaining that you do not have to be a genius to code and that everyone
can code most people of the audience will believe them. Also will.i.am and Chris Bosh appear in
the video and because they both are not software developers support more the idea that everyone
can learn to program.
Constraints and Exigence
Some of the limitations of the short film are that most of the people already have an idea
of what coding is like for example, the boring job of being more than twelve hours putting code
into a computer. The reason that cause this short film to occur and the problem that the author is
responding in this short film is that nowadays there is a big demand for people that knows how to
code. Coding is a skill that is increasingly being demanded by the labor market due to the
technological advancements such as artificial intelligence and the develop of the quantum
computers. That is why what is waiting to be done is to convince students to pursue a career in
computer science to reduce the shortage and to continue the advance in most of the fields of
study where computer programing plays a big role.

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Conclusion
Lastly, after analyzing every element of the short film we can determine that the author
effectively convinced the audience of its purpose that is convince them to learn how to code and
to pursue a computer science or computer engineering degree. This is because during the short
film the author uses the three rhetorical appeals very effectively, for example for logos he
described the statistics in the increase of computer science jobs to prove that it is a good idea to
pursue a career in this field. Also, the author also used pathos to make the audience excited about
learning to code and the benefits of it. Last the people that the author used to support the purpose
of the short film because the audience already know they are a credible source. In summary, the
author did a good job convincing the audience in the short film "Code Stars" and I did not
identify any rhetorical weaknesses.

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Reference
[CodeOrg]. (2013, February 26). "Code Stars" - Short Film. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU1xS07N-FA