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Running head: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

Rhetorical Analysis
Following the American Psychological Associations Guidelines
Mariana Ramirez
The University of Texas at El Paso

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RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

Battlefield: El Paso by Douglas S. Massey is an article that talks about immigration from
Mexico to the United States, the migration policy and a brief history about it. Massey is an
author who was written many other scholarly articles and book chapters, so he has experience in
knowing how to write an informative article. In this specific article, the audience for whom it is
intended ranges from American people, from those who have a higher authority to the average
citizen. Additionally, the purpose of the article is to show that an immigration boom has never
occurred and that current immigration policies are faulty and that they may need to be fixed.

If the reader doesnt know much about immigration and its policies, he or she is in luck. Massey
manages to give extensive information about immigration without saturating the article. Massey
(2009) wrote: Congress did quietly expand the temporary-worker program to meet the labor
demand (raising the number of Mexican visas from 12,000 in 1986 to 104,000 in 2000) (p.3).
Information like this is given all through the article in order inform one better about certain
policies.

The authors purpose is to inform the reader about how immigration has impacted the United
States of America and what relationship does El Paso, and other border cities, has to
immigration. Also, the article appears to become persuasive towards the end. Massey (2009),
wrote: Now we must face the reality of cleaning up our own mess (p. 7); this allows us to see
that the author believes that the United States is in some kind of a mess, and that people must fix
it, which appears to be a persuasion into doing that.

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RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
The articles intended audience is American people who have a higher authority, and average
citizens. The audience is not meant to be scholars, because the article doesnt use jargon that a
scholar would understand. Since the article has information about and from the Department of
Homeland Security, the audience may be politicians, officers, officials, and more people that
work in jobs that are related to the government. However, the intended audience are also average
citizens because immigration is a topic that isnt strictly for people that work for or in the
government, so they already have previous knowledge about what it is and this article allows
them to expand their knowledge more.

Ethos helps build credibility on an article, so it is very crucial in order to make it more believable
and trustworthy, it also helps to make an article become more persuasive and it also backs up
claims. Battlefield: El Paso uses ethos, because the author proves that hes someone who knows
about his topic, which is immigration. The author, Douglas S. Massey, is a professor of
Sociology at Princeton University whose main interests include immigration and segregation. He
has also written books about these two topics. According to Massey (1998), The remainder of
the figures used in this article, comes from data gathered by the Mexican Migration Project of
Princeton University, which I codirect (footnote). This shows that the author is involved in a
project that is about the same topic hes talking about in his article, so it shows that he knows his
information. The MMP is a research effort that takes place in both Mexico and here in the United
States and the main goal of it is to study Mexican immigration to the United States, so thats how
Massey uses ethos to prove that hes a credible source.

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RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
Pathos persuades the reader into feeling emotions, like empathy, sympathy, sadness, joy, etc. it is
a very effective persuasion tool, but the article only uses a little bit of it. Massey gives the
viewpoint of a Mexican immigrant, on various occasions throughout the article, in order to show
how they may feel or what they have to go through. Massey (2009) wrote: To many Mexican
immigrants, America increasingly resembled a police state (p. 5); this allows one to think why
Mexican immigrants may have felt like that, or to maybe even empathize or sympathize with
them.
Even by using just a small amount of pathos, the author manages to convey emotions by making
one think like an immigrant under different circumstances. If he had used more pathos, the article
may have been biased, since some articles about immigration that have more pathos are biased.

Logos is the appeal to logic, it allows the reader to see if the information and the claims that the
author is presenting are backed up, if they are verified, based on true facts, and the effectiveness
of the evidence that is being brought up. Throughout the entire article, Massey presents us
statistics from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics and facts
based on research he has done himself with the Mexican Migration Project of Princeton
University, which was previously discussed about. According to Massey (2009), The cost of
hiring a guide to help an undocumented immigrant make it across the border quadrupled between
1986 and 2008. A so-called coyote now costs $2,200 (p. 7). Massey probably got this
information with the help of the Mexican Migration Project, since the Department of Homeland
Security Office of Immigration Statistics isnt the best source for finding out how much a coyote
costs, and this information shows us how the numbers have increased through a range of years.

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RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
By showing facts from a government department and from research he has done himself, Massey
adds many logos to his article which even ties it to the appeal of ethos.
References

Massey, D. (2009, August 6). Battlefield: El Paso. Retrieved September 27, 2015, from
http://qipsr.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/Massey-Battlefield El Paso.pdf