Running head: ANALYSINS SCHOOL HANDOUTS

An Analysis of Santa Barbara Fire Departments School Handouts

Dennis A. Pater
Antioch University
2014

Running head: ANALYSINS SCHOOL HANDOUTS

Abstract
This paper is a research paper with an analysis of the Santa Barbara Fire Departments school
handouts regarding elementary, middle and high school students. The research that has been
conducted has been by interviewing the person responsible for the release of these handouts and
by collecting and analyzing the writing artifacts itself. This paper will demonstrate how the
content of the various artifacts differ from each other depending on the intended audience of the
handouts.

Running head: ANALYSINS SCHOOL HANDOUTS

An Analysis of Santa Barbara Fire Departments School Handouts

Writing is not only one of the most efficient and used communication tools but it is also
considered to be an art since it provides room for expression just like music, dance or visual art.
By mastering the powerful art of writing, one will be able to inform, persuade, or entertain its
intended audience in the most efficient way possible. In this essay Im going to analyze three
writing artifacts in form of brochures from the Santa Barbara Fire Department and determine
how the artifacts differ from each other depending on the audience. Despite the content, in order
for written communication to be effective, it has to be visually appealing, persuasive, and apply
to the right audience.
I have collected writing artifacts from the Santa Barbara Fire Department that are used to
inform students on how to prevent and handle situations of emergency where topics such as
traffic, fire and drugs are introduced. I have been in contact with David Sadecki who is
responsible for the public information of given by the Santa Barbara Fire Department, including
the writing artifacts in form of handouts brochures that I have collected which is targeted
towards elementary, middle and high-school students. In an interview with David, Ive asked
him questions about the different artifacts including the purpose of them, their content, structure,
and more importantly how the information and design of the handouts varies depending on the
targeted audience.
The first brochure which is in regard to elementary-school students, covers safe street
crossing, safe use of fire, and how to react in case of emergency such as a natural disaster or a
fire. The second brochure that is targeted towards middle-school students basically covers the
same things as the first artifact but it also mentions the dangers of drugs and fireworks. The third
and last brochure, which is in regard to high-school students, puts less emphasis on fire and

Running head: ANALYSINS SCHOOL HANDOUTS

natural disasters and focus more on how to how to be a responsible driver and the dangers of
driving under influence of drugs or alcohol.
Before I start analyzing the writing artifacts I would like to explain some of the
terminology that I will be using in this essay. While analyzing those artifacts I will use terms
such as ethos, pathos and logos which all refers to different ways of persuading someone. Ethos
means to convince someone based on credibility or ethics of the persuader, such as a persuasion
attempt made by fire fighter where he uses his expertize of the subject as the base of his
argument. Pathos on the other hand means to persuade someone based on emotions. For example
if a writer is trying to convince someone to not drink and drive, he might express anger or
frustration as part of the argument. The last term Logos means to persuade someone based on
logic where tools such as facts and statistics can be used to craft an argument.
One can really tell that the first artifact is made for children. Not only is the language
very simple and short, but also the greater deal of the handout consists mainly of pictures and
cartoons to capture the childrens interest. The handout manages to deliver its messages in a very
simple and educational way by showing colorful pictures with step-by-step instructions on how
to handle an emergency such as a fire or an earthquake. The pictures, among other things,
illustrate a teacher in a classroom environment asking her students to demonstrate how to act in
different emergencies. As the teacher brings up one scenario after another, the children in the
illustrated picture respond by taking physical actions such as hiding under the classroom table in
case of an earthquake or by screaming for help and call 911 in case a traffic accident or fire.
At the same time as the pictures are delivering the major part of the information given by
the handout, there are also small talk-bubbles with short conversation to complement and assist
the pedagogical aspect of the demonstrated pictures. When I talked to David at the Santa Barbara

Running head: ANALYSINS SCHOOL HANDOUTS

Fire Department and got in deeper conversation with him about the first writing artifact, I asked
him if maybe the pictures could be misinterpreted because of the lack of detailed information
often provided by a paragraph of text, which this artifact had very few off. In his response to
that, he mentioned that although the handout seemed to lack information, they were meant to be
explained by a teacher or a fire fighter. David explained that children of that age wont be able to
learn these important lessons if you just lecture them by talking for a straight hour, neither by
having them reading a huge chunk of text (D. Sadecki, personal communication, November 10,
2014). Before the instructor goes over the handout, he will explain that there is a small quiz on
the back of the handout in an attempt to make the learning process into a little game .The
instructor then goes over each page with the students and explain what is happening in the
pictures as the children look at them.
In order to persuade its audience, the handout uses mostly ethos and less pathos-based
arguments. The way ethos comes to use in the artifact is mainly by the illustrated teacher in the
pictures. This is because the illustrated teacher comes out as an authority or an expert in a way,
by being an adult and answering all the questions from the kids. Since the artifact is meant to be
introduced by an instructor, ethos also comes to play when the instructor has the opportunity to
share their personal experiences. Pathos also takes place in the handout in form of pictures. One
picture in particular illustrates how a young boy forgets to blow out a candlelight before taking
his dog on a walk and gets to witness his room on fire as he returns. This picture is gave me the
impression that we should not forget that fire is dangerous while the picture captures feelings
such as fear, stress and sense of loss.

Running head: ANALYSINS SCHOOL HANDOUTS

The second writing artifact, which is targeted towards middle-school students is much
different from the first artifact we looked at. This artifact goes beyond the most simple safety
procedures and goes further on to address ethical and moral dilemmas including the subjects of
group pressure, drugs and cigarette smoking. Instead of putting focus on the pictures itself, this
artifact puts more emphasis on the text around it. Each picture comes with a paragraph or two
that explains the image. While much of the information in the text is meant to be informative and
to place a context for the picture, moral and ethical questions are also pointed out to the reader in
form of bullet points. Questions such as how someone would react and how someone should
react in the presented scenarios are discussed. According to David, the best way of getting the
important points across to middle school students is by having the students think for themselves
and to make sure the students fully understand the potential consequences of diverse actions such
as tossing a lit cigarette in the trash. This is done partly by showing more graphic images to the
older audience.
One thing that captured my attention, which makes this artifact specifically targeted
towards middle-school students, is that the handout used a picture of a young teenager playing a
racing game on his computer to illustrate a point on how to be safe in traffic. In the text followed
by this picture it explains that some people literally drives like it was a computer game with no
consequences and one should therefore never rely on drivers to follow the traffic rules. By using
this specific picture for the example, it makes it more appealing to the children in the class
because most of them can relate to the computer game world and from that point of view
understand the perspective of reckless driving since they have never driven an actual car
themselves.

Running head: ANALYSINS SCHOOL HANDOUTS

In order for the message of the second artifact to get across in the right way, the author
has chosen to use mostly pathos and logos. Pathos takes place since the graphic images are
meant to persuade you to do, or not to do something by scaring you in a sense and therefore
using emotions to strengthen the argument. By asking the audience questions such as how
would you feel like if this happened to you is also a way of using pathos in an attempt to trigger
some type of feelings as part of the argument. Logos can be seen in the text by the numerous
statistics and data that is being presented in form of charts or text. The data presented is mostly
in regard to traffic accidents and accidental fires.
The third and last artifact, which is related to high-school students, was less visually
appealing since it contained more text and less pictures but was more persuasive and specific.
What made this artifact very different from the other ones was that it was mainly about traffic
and the issue of driving under influence. By addressing those issues the potential audience gets
narrowed down to address a little older audience in specific. This artifact was by far the most
serious one and puts a lot of emphasis on individual responsibility and a good set of morals by
among other things listing the potential legal penalties certain actions such as drinking and
driving can result in. One thing that can be noticed in this handout which makes it more relevant
to high-school students is the recommendation of smart phone applications, social media pages
and drug/alcohol counseling centers. There is also a section in the back where a student can fill
out his personal information in order to get news mail and invitations to enroll in non-profit
organizations to help the community.
In order to be persuasive this artifact is mostly using arguments in form of logos but
also a little bit of pathos. Logos can be seen throughout the whole artifact as statistics on general
traffic accidents are compared with traffic accidents caused under the influence of alcohol

Running head: ANALYSINS SCHOOL HANDOUTS

throughout the handout. The artifact also uses the law and penalties in an attempt to discourage
people from drinking and driving. Pathos can be noticed in one specific article this handout
mentions where a young teenager speaks about the combination of drinking and how it caused
him to accidently crash and kill one of his best friends who was sitting in the passenger seat. This
article was clearly made in order to persuade teens to not drink and drive by using the sad article.

In conclusion, all of the artifacts were very different from each other and it could be
noticed by the correlation of pictures and text, the language itself, the topics and especially the
arguments. As I was going from one handout to another I also noticed that the different artifacts
served different purposes. The first one was more or less only informative and practical while the
second and third were more about persuading the reader to make a change in behavior and to
become a more responsible person.