Rhetoric Analysis

Buckle Up

Background Information:
This sign is placed on Lockwood Blvd. of Oviedo Florida. It is placed in
front of Hagerty High School and before residential neighborhoods. This
sign is also not far up the road from Seminole State College.
Source/Research:
Dicitonary.com defines the term Buckle Up as to buckle your seat belt.
This term came to use when cars first had seat belts installed in the 1950s.
Now its a slogan to raise awareness.

Purpose:
Buckle Up refers to a law that everyone should be aware of! Safety when
driving is the #1 priority!

Firstly, it is a Florida law. According to DMV of Florida,

The law states that the front seat passengers must wear seat belts. This
law applies to any car manufactured since 1968. In addition, all
passengers under 18 years old must wear a seat belt or be otherwise
restrained by a child car seat. It is against the law to operate a vehicle if all
the passengers do not meet these standards.
Violation of this law is $30. If a child is in violation of the law the charge is
$60 to the driver of the vehicle. The reasoning behind seat belt laws is for
safety. Seat belts keep the driver in control of the car at all times. Seat belt
also keep passengers from being thrown into other passengers, from being
thrown into the car, and from being thrown outside the car. The risk of
death is 5 times more likely if you are thrown out of your car.
More statistics from CDC.gov bring awareness to the matter:
Most drivers and passengers killed in crashes are unrestrained.
Among drivers and front-seat passengers, seat belts reduce the risk
of death by 45%, and cut the risk of serious injury by 50%.
People not wearing a seat belt are 30 times more likely to be
ejected from a vehicle during a crash. More than 3 out of 4 people who are
ejected during a fatal crash die from their injuries.
In one year alone, crash deaths and injuries to drivers and
passengers cost $70 billion in medical and lost work costs.
Seat Belts Have Saved an Estimated 255,000 Lives Since 1975

Audience:
The primary intended audience, or the rhetorical audience, is anyone in a
vehicle. Another primary audience is for any valid licensed driver of Florida.
The location of the sign suggest that high school students of Hagerty High
School, residents of the area, and even college students of Seminole State
College were also target audiences of the discourse.

Constraints:
According to Laura Carroll, constrains are limitations to the discourse.
Constraints of this sign are anyone that isnt a valid licensed driver of
Florida.
That includes: suspended drivers and drivers under the age of 15.
Another constraint of the sign is people who dont see or notice it.

Exigence:
We learn exigence from Laura Carroll in her article Backpacks vs.
Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis. Carroll explains, exigence
is the circumstance or condition that invites a response.
The exigence of this sign can come from statistics of car crashes overall as
well as within the areas.
Seminolecountyfl.gov gives statistics of car crashes in the city of Oviedo.
A total of 560 car crashes reported in Oviedo in 2013. Of the top 10 crash
locations, two of which were at Lockwood Blvd, which is where the site of

the sign is. One location is CR 419 at Lockwood, which had 48 car crashes.
The other location was Mitchell Hammock Rd at Lockwood Blvd, which
had 28 car crashes.
These statistics raised awareness to the city of Oviedo, which led to the
payment for THIS sign to be placed on Lockwood Blvd.

Intertextuality:
We learn intertextuality from James Porter in his article Intertextuality and
the Discourse Community. Porter explains that intertextuality is all writing
and speech arise from a single network.
Intertextuality of this sign is proven because buckle up first came when
seat belts were installed in the 1950s. The term became more popular to
aware people of safe driving during the early 2000s. Now this term is used
on this electronic sign today to inform people to follow the

Logos, Pathos, Ethos:

Logos is logical appeal through reasoning. Pathos is emotional appeal.
Ethos is ethical appeal through credibility.
The logos and ethos of the sign would be the fact that buckling up
you seat belt is a law of Florida.
Ethos of the sign can be described as what the audience brought to
the discourse. Personally for me, when I saw the sign, I immediately
thought of my friend Chris Gentile who died in a car accident. He was 18
years old and a senior in high school at the time. He didnt have his seat
belt on. His jeep flipped 5 times and he was ejected out of the car. From
the accident, I know a new slogan similar to the sign. It is Click the Grab
and Slow the Ride. That slogan refers to buckling up and slowing down.
The ethos this sign gives me is the fact I lost my dear friend because he
didnt have his seat belt on. I need no more convincing to do the task of
buckling up when driving due to my personal story and the reminder from
this sign Buckle Up.

Details:
-One could notice the colors of the letters on the sign are orange and black.
It being the month of October suggests the colors refers to Halloween.
-Another detail is the fact that the electronic sign is made by Daktronics.
Daktronics has been around since1968. This company is known for
designing and manufacturing electronic displays.
-Last detail visible to the eye is the word Oviedo above the electronic
message. This suggests that the city of Oviedo could have paid for the
sign. It also represents that the location of the sign is in the city of Oviedo.

Works Cited
Carroll, Laura B. "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical
Analysis." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Vol. 1. N.p.: Parlor,
n.d. 45-58. Web.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/seatbeltbrief/>.
Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/buckle%2Bup>.
"Florida DMV Online Guide." Florida Seat Belt Laws. N.p., n.d. Web. 05
Oct. 2014. <http://www.dmvflorida.org/seat-belt-laws.shtml>.
"Our Company." Company. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.daktronics.com/en-us/about-us>.
Porter, James. "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community." Writing
About Writing: A College Reader. Eds. Wardle and Downs. 2nd ed.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 395-409. Print.
"Traffic Safety." Traffic Safety. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/pw/traffic/safety.aspx>.