Smyth and Helm
14 October 2013
Riddles of the Published With countless citizens devastated from the confusion and shock caused by the horrors seen when the Twin Towers fell, there became a great demand for help from psychologists who could only help see so many patients at once. Joshua Smyth and Rebecca Helm took advantage of this opportunity to promote a way citizens could efficiently help themselves by advertising a means of self-help using rhetorical strategies. "Focused Expressive Writing as Self-Help for Stress and Trauma," (FEW) written by Joshua Smyth and Rebecca Helm, was published in February, 2003, in hopes that it would aid the many affected with depression after September 11, 2001. This paper reveals a rhetorical analysis to identify how people in field of psych communicate. The rhetorical strategies that will be analyzed from FEW will be presented in the order of purpose, point, author, audience, research and evidence, organization and presentation followed by a conclusion.
Rhetorical Analysis
Purpose:
Smyth and Helm's purposes for writing FEW include providing a way to sell self-therapy in response to the traumatic event that occurred on September 11, 2001 and to further establish both Smyth and Helm's careers. FEW was tested and shared to provide a means of therapy that a large number of people could benefit from cheaply. Participants gain relief through writing thoughts down continuously for twenty minutes and expressing restrained thoughts and emotions. The problem of finding "widely available, low-cost self-help"(Smyth and Helm 27) has the potential to be resolved using FEW, "particularly among individuals who lack other treatment options" (Smyth and Helm 27). While Smyth and Helm's general readers are encouraged to try FEW, they wrote the article to grasp the attention of other professional psychologists and to persuade them to promote FEW as the best practice available for the numerous people afflicted after September 11.This is apparent when
Riddles of the Published With countless citizens devastated from the confusion and shock caused by the horrors seen when the Twin Towers fell, there became a great demand for help from psychologists who could only help see so many patients at once. Joshua Smyth and Rebecca Helm took advantage of this opportunity to promote a way citizens could efficiently help themselves by advertising a means of self-help using rhetorical strategies. "Focused Expressive Writing as Self-Help for Stress and Trauma," (FEW) written by Joshua Smyth and Rebecca Helm, was published in February, 2003, in hopes that it would aid the many affected with depression after September 11, 2001. This paper reveals a rhetorical analysis to identify how people in field of psych communicate. The rhetorical strategies that will be analyzed from FEW will be presented in the order of purpose, point, author, audience, research and evidence, organization and presentation followed by a conclusion.
Rhetorical Analysis
Purpose:
Smyth and Helm's purposes for writing FEW include providing a way to sell self-therapy in response to the traumatic event that occurred on September 11, 2001 and to further establish both Smyth and Helm's careers. FEW was tested and shared to provide a means of therapy that a large number of people could benefit from cheaply. Participants gain relief through writing thoughts down continuously for twenty minutes and expressing restrained thoughts and emotions. The problem of finding "widely available, low-cost self-help"(Smyth and Helm 27) has the potential to be resolved using FEW, "particularly among individuals who lack other treatment options" (Smyth and Helm 27). While Smyth and Helm's general readers are encouraged to try FEW, they wrote the article to grasp the attention of other professional psychologists and to persuade them to promote FEW as the best practice available for the numerous people afflicted after September 11.This is apparent when
Cited: Smyth, Joshua M. "Curriculum Vitae." Penn State College of Health and Human Development. n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2013. Smyth, Joshua M. Biobehavioral Health (BBH). n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2013. Ward, Dean, and Lei Elizabeth Vander. "Focused Expressive Writing" Real Texts: Reading and Writing across the Disciplines. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2008. S21-S27. Print. "Wiley Online Library." Onlinelibrary.wiley.com. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., n.d. Web. 2013. .