Running header: ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 1

Analysis of a rhetorical text

With a focus on rhetorical situation
Miguel A. Algara
University of Texas at El Paso















ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 2

Analysis of a rhetorical text
With a focus on rhetorical situation
Scientific papers are one of the most important resources for every researcher in any
branch of science. These papers are usually published in peer-reviewed journals related to
research area of the author. The main purpose of scientific papers is to publish new discoveries,
but in order to do that, these discoveries must be proven. However, not all new discoveries can
be proven conclusively, after all, some branches of science, such as chemistry, deal with particles
so small that they cannot even be seen with microscopes. In chemistry some discoveries cannot
be proven absolutely even after multiple experiments. Yet, all of these experiments add some
evidence for the existence of these new discoveries. It is, then, the responsibility of the author to
present these pieces of evidence in a convincing, or persuasive, manner in order to convince
other researchers about the validity of their discovery. This type of persuasive writing is called
rhetorical writing. In this paper I will analyze a scientific article written by a team of researchers
from the Chemistry department of UTEP (for more information about this article, please see
appendix A). These researchers created a new structure of gold nanoparticles, and the purpose of
their article is to convince the readers that they did indeed create this nanoparticles, but since
their existence cannot be confirmed by common means, they use rhetorical writing to convince
the readers. In this paper I will analyze whether this rhetorical writing was successful or not. I
will do this by analyzing the rhetorical situation of the scientific article, as well as the use of
appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos.
Literature Review
Humans have used rhetoric since Ancient Greece, where the philosopher Aristotle
defined it as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.
ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 3

(classics.mit.edu, n.d.) This means that the main purpose of rhetoric is to convince the reader of
something, whether that is that the world is not flat, or that copper-mediated gold nanoparticles
exist. Aristotle also defined the three main kinds of persuasion: ethos, pathos, and logos.
According to him, ethos depends on the personal character of the speaker, while pathos
depends on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind, and logos depends on the proof,
or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself, (classics.mit.edu, n.d.) At that
time, over 2,000 years ago, rhetoric was centered on oral debates. In our present time, however,
the concept of rhetorical writing has grown considerably. Grant-Davie (1997) redefined some of
the major concepts surrounding rhetorical writing, which he referred to as the rhetorical
situation. According to him, rhetorical situation has four main constituents: exigence, rhetor,
audience, and constraints (Grant-Davie, 1997). He then defined exigence as the matter and
motivation of the discourse, rhetor as the people responsible for the discourse, audience as
the people with whom the rhetors negotiate to achieve the rhetorical objectives and finally he
defined constraints as factors in the situations context that may affect the achievement of the
rhetorical objective, (Grant-Davie, 1997). Furthermore, Grant-Davie states the importance of
analyzing the rhetorical situation in order to better understand a rhetoric. For example, the
rhetorical situation not only gives the reader relevant context about the rhetoric in the form of the
exigence and constrains, but also gives the audience a way to assess how effective is the rhetors
argument.
Discussion
The first two constituents of Grant-Davies (1997) rhetorical situations that I will analyze
are exigence, and constraints. Exigence is related to the motivation behind the rhetoric. In the
case of Dr. Noverons article, the motivation is twofold. First, we can think of the events that led
ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 4

to the research of gold nanoparticles, which are the publishing of papers in theoretical chemistry
predicting the existence of transition metal nanoparticles. The second part of Dr. Noverons
motivation is his expected response to his work. Although publishing new knowledge is in itself
valuable, Dr. Noveron also expects to get more funding given the importance of gold
nanoparticles would have in the electronics industry, since gold is an important component of
several electronics.
The constrains are other factors that may affect the objectives of a rhetorical text.
Constrains are not only the factors that may hinder the rhetor, but those factors that are beneficial
as well. Within the field of organometallics, in which this scientific article was written, there are
two main constrains. The evidence of other metal nanoparticles, and the lack of evidence of
copper and gold nanoparticle interactions. The evidence of other metal nanoparticles is a positive
constrain, for it establishes the idea that metal nanoparticles exists. Chemists have always
believed in patterns, such as those found in the periodic table. In the periodic table, the elements
that belong to a group behave similarly. Thus, if nanoparticles of one transition metal exist, then
it must be a possibility that nanoparticles of different transition metals exist because they belong
to the same group in the periodic table, and thus have similar properties. On the other hand, there
is a negative constrain. Gold-copper nanoparticle interactions have never been observed.
Although this does not guarantee the impossibility of these gold-copper interactions, it does
make the reader skeptical, which means that the rhetor must provide more evidence.
The other two constituents of rhetorical situation that Grant-Davie (1997) described are
the rhetor, and the audience. These two constituents are closely related, since persuading the
audience is the main purpose of the rhetor. First I will analyze the rhetor. The amount of work
required to publish a paper in a peer-reviewed journal is staggering, because of this it is not
ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 5

surprise to see multiple researchers involved in the same article. This is the case with Dr.
Noverons paper. Although there are multiple researchers involved in this article, I will focus my
analysis of the rhetor on Dr. Noveron, since he is the main author. The rhetor is an important
constituent of rhetorical situation in scientific articles because the credibility of the author is very
important. Also important about the author is their motivations, and their discourse communities.
The authors motivations were analyzed in a previous paragraph, so I will instead focus on the
authors discourse community. The authors discourse community has a direct effect on the
authors writing style, genre, lexis, and goals, thus they have a direct effect on the rhetorical
situation.
The audience is perhaps the single most important constituent of Grant-Davies (1997)
rhetorical situation. After all, the main purpose of the rhetor is to persuade the audience, so if
there is no audience, the rhetoric is useless. In Dr. Noverons rhetoric, the audience is part of a
rather small area of chemistry called organometallic chemistry. The vast majority of the audience
will be highly educated researchers. The audience might read this paper simply for the new
knowledge it contains, however it is more likely they read this paper in order to find new ways to
apply gold nanoparticles into their own research. The high level of education makes the audience
difficult to convince without compelling evidence. This means that this audience will ignore any
persuasion attempts based on emotion.
Pathos is a style of persuasion which uses the audiences emotions in order to convince
them. As I said before, scientific communities of all areas, not only chemistry, are extremely
unlikely to accept arguments based on emotions. Thus it is no surprise that Dr. Noverons paper
makes no attempt to appeal to the audiences emotions. The tone of the paper is somewhat
monotone, and the vast majority of the paper is written in third person. The lack of first person is
ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 6

also an attempt to remove pathos, for it forces the audience to objectively judge the content of
the paper instead of reverting their thoughts to the author. On the other hand, this does not mean
that the author does not use ethos as a form of persuasion.
The use of the speakers character as a means of persuasion is called ethos. Use of ethos
in the scientific community is hard to see at first glance. After all, the authors mention their
name, as well as their university affiliations, only once throughout the whole paper. On the other
hand, they do not include any titles such as Dr. or PhD next to their names. Yet, ethos is actually
a very important within scientific communities. As previously mentioned, Chinese articles are
sometimes ignored because the journals they are published in have bad reputations. Thus, in
scientific communities not only the reputation of the author matters, so does the reputation of the
scientific journal in which the article is published in. Finally, another important use of ethos in
scientific articles is the use of sources. By referencing papers that have already been accepted by
the scientific community, the author is able to use the good reputation of the sources. In Dr.
Noverons case there is extensive use of sources, as we can see in the last page there are 17
sources in the reference list. Thus, by using all of these sources the author is adding more
credibility to his own work. Furthermore, not only does these sources add credibility, they are
also used as evidence. The use of evidence as a means of persuasion is the topic of the next
paragraph.
Logos is the single most important style of persuasion within the scientific community.
Even the greatest minds in the history of chemistry have had their ideas rejected due to lack of
convincing evidence. One such case was that of Avogadros molecular theory, which has not
accepted until 10 years after Avogadros death, because the evidence at the time was
inconclusive. In todays chemistry, peer-reviewed journals are also centered around evidence.
ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 7

All respected journals will reject papers that do not provide enough supporting evidence. Thus, it
is no surprise that Dr. Noverons paper focuses heavily on logos. Despite the fact that these
particles cannot be irrefutably proven, the article includes evidence gathered from many different
experiments, such as Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). I will not go into excessive
detail about how TEM works, but it is in essence an extremely powerful microscope. It uses a
beam of electrons to interact with the specimen being researched. This interaction creates an
image, which can be captured and analyzed using specific computer software. To put things into
perspective the width of a human hair is 1,000 nanometers. A normal microscope can detect
samples as small as 100 nanometers, whereas a TEM can detect samples as small as 0.1
nanometers. This means that a TEM can actually get images of the atoms that make up a
particular sample. In this way TEM is one of the most important pieces of evidence in Dr.
Noverons paper. Furthermore, as I mentioned before, the sources used in the article are also
part of the evidence since the papers used as sources contain many more experiments, therefore
they add even more evidence for the existence of copper-mediated gold nanoparticles. For
example, the very first source mentioned was Gunter Schmids Nanoparticles: From Theory to
Applications (2004), a book that contains extensive evidence for the existence of many different
kinds of nanoparticles. Although Schmids book does not contain any evidence for the existence
of gold nanoparticles, it is still a very important source. It is this heavy use of logos that really
strengthens the whole article.
The persuasiveness of a scientific article is a function of its evidence, and in this case, Dr.
Noverons article provides plenty of it. I believe that due to all of the evidence, coupled with
several references, are the main strengths of this scientific article, and it is due these strengths
that this article is indeed a good rhetorical text. Furthermore, I also believe my analysis of Dr.
ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 8

Noverons article will help the readers of my paper apply the same analytic techniques to other
paper they read, and this will help them separate those texts that provide no proper evidence
from those that due.
















ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 9

References:
Aristotle (n.d.). The Internet Classics Archive | Rhetoric by Aristotle. The Internet Classics
Archive | Rhetoric by Aristotle. Retrieved April 19, 2014, from
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/rhetoric.1.i.html
Grant-Davie, K. (1997). Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents. Rhetoric Review,
15(2), 264-279. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/465644
Schmid, G. (2004). Nanoparticles: from theory to application. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH.












ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 10

Appendix A
Cu(II)-mediated formation of gold nanoparticle clusters
Brenda M. Porta, Md Tariqul Islam, Julio Padilla, Peter Cook, Juan C. Noveron*
Department of Chemistry, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX, USA
79968-0513
RECEIVED DATE
The synthesis and coordination chemistry of 35
nm gold nanoparticles (AuNP) covered with the
tridentate 11-diethylene-triamine-undecane-1-
thiolate ligand (L
Tri-N
) on their surface is reported.
Copper (II) ions mediate the formation of discrete
AuNP clusters, which can disassemble upon
removal of the Cu(II) ions via ligand-exchange
reactions or redox processes that reduce Cu(II)
to Cu(I). Metal-mediated AuNP clusters with
reversible behavior programmed with
coordination chemistry will pave the way to novel
redox- and ligand-triggered nanoscale functional
systems.

Gold nanoparticles are excellent scaffolds to
construct supramolecular architectures at the
nanoscale.
1
Current methods allow for the
preparation of Au-NPs with predetermined size and
shape and monodispersity.
2,3
The ability of thiol-
containing molecules to bind on their surface has led
to hierarchical supramolecular architectures with a
wide variety of applications as biosensors,
4

drugdelivery,
5,6
and photoelectrical systems.
7,8
In
recent years, bimetallic Au-NPs have attracted
attention since they exhibit different catalytic,
electronic and optical properties when compared to
the monometallic counterparts.
9,10
Bimetallic Au-NP
have been reported using Fe,
11
Zn,
12
,
Ag
13
, and Cu
14,15
as the second metal. More recently,
AuNPs with pendant terpyridine ligands on their
surface have been shown to have the ability to
coordinate Fe
2+
ions and form metal-mediated cross-
linked Au-NP networks that comprise Fe
2+
ions at the
interstitial space between the AuNPs.
16,17
The
inherent potential in this new approach is on the
great variety of ligands and transition metal ions that
can be employed that could allow for molecular
engineering of the interstitial space in AuNP clusters
and develop second-sphere coordination
environments of the metal ions. Herein we report a
new family of functionalized Au-NPs containing
tridentate amine ligands on their surface that allow
for Cu(II) ions to mediate the formation of discrete
Au-NPs clusters that split up upon redox- and
ligandexchange reactions.
Figure 1 shows the synthetic pathway to L
Tri-N
, the
ligand-coated AuNP (1), and the Cu-AuNP cluster (2).
The synthesis of L
Tri-N
was accomplished from the
iodine
ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 11


Figure 1. Synthetic pathway to 1 and 2.
oxidation of 11-mercapto-1-undecanol that gave the
corresponding disulfide. This was followed by the
tosylation of the hydroxyl groups and the
nucleophilic substitution of diethylene triamine to
generate the disulfide form of L
Tri-N
. The preparation
of 1 was accomplished by the addition of the
disulfide-L
Tri-N
to a stirring solution of
tetrachloroauric(III) acid in anhydrous methanol
followed by slow addition of sodium borohydride.
The mixture turned pink-red immediately, and after
being stirred for 3 h at room temperature the
product was isolated by centrifugation and washed
several times with methanol.
Addition of a solution of Cu(OTf)
2
, where OTf =
trifluoromethanesulfonate, to 1 dissolved in
met hanol gives the product Cu-AuNP cluster 2.
Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) measurements of 1
in methanol gave an average hydrodynamic diameter
of 35 nm with a size distribution between 20 50
nm, Figure 2a. Exposure of 1 to a 10 M of Cu
2+
in
methanol generated discrete clusters (2) that
exhibited an average hydrodynamic diameter of 250
nm with a size distribution between 100 400 nm,
Figure 2b. When 1 was exposed to 20 M or higher
concentrations of Cu
2+
ions, larger assemblies (>2
m) formed, which are probably aggregates of the
smaller clusters.

Since Cu
2+
ions are known to coordinate to two
diethylenetriamine moieties and form a bis-
octahedral complex with six N-donors,
18
we presume
that this is the dominant coordination structure that
they adopt in 2.
TEM, SEM, and Optical Microscopy analysis of 2
confirmed that the clusters are discrete and appear
to be formed from the aggregation of smaller
nanoparticle clusters, Figure 3. Chemical analysis
performed with SEM revealed the presence of Cu and
Au in 2. A thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of 2,
revealed the loss of 13% of mass between 110 and
175
o
C, which corresponds to the expected quantity
of L
Tri-N
.
The Cu-AuNP clusters of 2 revert back to individual
AuNP upon redox- and ligand exchange reactions
with NaBH
4
or glutathione (GSH, 1 mM), which are
known to reduce Cu(II) to Cu(I) in N6 ligand
environments and cause the exchange of the thio-
ligand (L
Tri-N
) with GSH respectively.
Fig ure

2 . Hydrodynamic diameter

of ( a) 1

and (b) 2

in methanol.

ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 12

In conclusion, we reported the synthesis and
characterization of a new type of gold nanoparticles
functionalized with tridentate amine ligands on their
surface and studied the use of coordination
chemistry with Cu
2+
ions to generate discrete Au-NP
clusters reversibly. Metalmediated AuNP clusters
that use coordination chemistry to control their size
and the chemical environments at their interstitial
space may find applications as novel drugdelivery
systems with redox- and ligand-triggered content
release properties.
Acknowledgment. We thank Rami Al-khatib for
help with the TEM. Funding from the NSF-CAREER
0748913 grant and the ACS-PRF 44703-GB3 grant are
gratefully acknowledged.


REFERENCES
1. Schmid, G. Nanoparticles: From Theory to Applications, 2004,
Wiley-VCH, New York.
2. Daniel, M. C., Astruc, D., Chem. Rev. 2004, 104, 293.
3. Grzelczak, M., Perez-Juste, J., Mulvaney, P., Liz-Marzan, L., Chem.
Soc. Rev., 2008, 37, 1783.
4. Rosi, N.L., Mirkin, C. A. Chem. Rev. 2005, 105, 1547.
5. (a) Paciotti, G.F., Myer, L., Weinreich, D., Goia, D., Pavel, N.,
McLaughlin, R.E., Tamarkin, L., Drug Delivery, 2004, 11, 169. (b)
Paciotti, G.F., Kingston, D. G., Tamarkin, L., Drug Dev. Res., 2006, 67,
47. (c) Kim C. K.; Ghosh, P.; Pagliuca, C.; Zhu, Z.J.; Menichetti, S.;
Rotello, V.M. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131, 1360.
6. Sandhu, K. K.; McIntosh, C. M.; Simard, J. M.; Smith, S.W.; Rotello,
V.M. Bioconjugate Chem., 2002, 13, 3.
7. Yamada, S., Yasaki, T., Akiyama, T., Terasaki, N., Nitahara, S., Thin
Solid Films, 2003, 70, 438.
8. Kuwahara, Y., Akiyama, T., Yamada, S., Langmuir, 2001, 17, 5714.
9. Teo, B.K., Keating, K., Kao, Y.H., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1987, 109, 3494.
10. Bracey, C. L., Ellis, P. R. and Hutchings, G., J. Chem. Soc. Rev., 2009,
38, 2231.
11. Yamada, M.; Nishihara, H., Chem. Commun., 2002, 2578.
12. Manea, F., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 6165.
13. Shon, Y.-S., Dawson, G. B., Porter, M., Murray, R. W., Langmuir,
2002, 18, 3880.
14. Del Castillo-Castro, T., Composites: Part A, 2007, 38, 107.
15. Bond, G.C., Catalysis Today, 2002, 72, 5.
16. Arumugam, P.; Patra, D.; Samanta, B.; Agasti, S.S.; Subramani, C.;
Rotello, V.M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 10046.
17. Shenhar, R.; Jeoung, E.; Srivastava, S.; Norten, T. B.; Rotello, V. M.
Adv. Mat. 2005, 17, 2206.
18. Murphy, A.; Mullane, J.; Hathaway, B. Inorg. Nuc. Chem. Lett. 1980,
16, 129.
Running head: ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 13


SEM of 2 derived from a 20 M Cu
2+
methanol
solution.
SN_Synopsis_TOC
Cu(II)-mediated formation of gold nanoparticle clusters
The synthesis and characterization of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) covered with the tridentate ligand 11-
diethylenetriamine-undecane-1-thiolate is reported. Reversible Cu(II)-mediated formation of AuNP clusters was
investigated with Dynamic Light Scattering, Transmission Electron Microscopy and Scanning Electron
Microscopy.







REFERENCES
Fig ure

3 .

Micrographs of 2 . ( a)


( d TEM ) , (e) SEM and (f)

Optical Microscopy of

2

prepared from exposing

1

to 10

M Cu
2+

in methanol. (g)
ANALYSIS OF A RHETORICAL TEXT 14




1.
Schmid, G. Nanoparticles: From Theory to Applications, 2004, Wiley-VCH, New York.

2.
Daniel, M. C., Astruc, D., Chem. Rev. 2004, 104, 293.
3.
Grzelczak, M., Perez-Juste, J., Mulvaney, P., Liz-Marzan, L., Chem. Soc. Rev., 2008, 37, 1783.
4.
Rosi, N.L., Mirkin, C. A. Chem. Rev. 2005, 105, 1547.
5.
(a) Paciotti, G.F., Myer, L., Weinreich, D., Goia, D., Pavel, N., McLaughlin, R.E., Tamarkin, L., Drug Delivery, 2004, 11, 169. (b) Paciotti,
G.F., Kingston, D. G., Tamarkin, L., Drug Dev. Res., 2006, 67, 47. (c) Kim C. K.; Ghosh, P.; Pagliuca, C.; Zhu, Z.J.; Menichetti, S.;
Rotello, V.M. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131, 1360.
6.
Sandhu, K. K.; McIntosh, C. M.; Simard, J. M.; Smith, S.W.; Rotello, V.M. Bioconjugate Chem., 2002, 13, 3.
7.
Yamada, S., Yasaki, T., Akiyama, T., Terasaki, N., Nitahara, S., Thin Solid Films, 2003, 438-439, 70.
8.
Kuwahara, Y., Akiyama, T., Yamada, S., Langmuir, 2001, 17, 5714.
9.
Teo, B.K., Keating, K., Kao, Y.H., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1987, 109, 3494.
10.
Bracey, C. L., Ellis, P. R. and Hutchings, G., J. Chem. Soc. Rev., 2009, 38, 2231.
11.
Yamada, M.; Nishihara, H., Chem. Commun., 2002, 2578.
12.
Manea, F., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 6165.
13.
Shon, Y.-S., Dawson, G. B., Porter, M., Murray, R. W., Langmuir, 2002, 18, 3880.
14.
Del Castillo-Castro, T., Composites: Part A, 2007, 38, 107.
15.
Bond, G.C., Catalysis Today, 2002, 72, 5.
16.
Arumugam, P.; Patra, D.; Samanta, B.; Agasti, S.S.; Subramani, C.; Rotello, V.M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 10046.
17.
Shenhar, R.; Jeoung, E.; Srivastava, S.; Norten, T. B.; Rotello, V. M. Adv. Mat. 2005, 17, 2206.