11 Billion Pieces Of Plastic Are Ridding Corals With Disease By Ed Zange

We have all heard about how we are killing our oceans and how the coral and fish are suffering. We also hear how we have to clean the beaches, use eco-friendly materials and do our part to help, but does anyone ever tell us what is really happening in the oceans or how to help? In the article “11 Billion Pieces of Plastic Are Ridding Corals with Disease”, published in The Atlantic in January of 2018, Ed Yong interviews two microbiologists, Joleah Lamb and Rebecca Vega Thurber, on how plastic is destroying our coral reefs. The plastic cuts off oxygen and light from the coral casing many different kinds of diseases. Thurber gives some solutions how we can help solve this problem. For example, controlling how much plastic is made locally and how we dispose of plastic that is used. Yong makes several points by using
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and identify the different strategies of how Yong incorporates rhetorical elements (ethos, pathos, and logos) into his article. Yong then takes the information that he collects from interviews and presents us with the information in a trustworthy, organized, and easy to understand way while still incorporating the rhetorical elements. The first element that I feel is very important is how Yong set up the article. Ed Yong, a very well-known journalist that studied at the University of Cambridge and who writes for The Atlantic multiple times a week, presents the readers with information from Lamb and Thurber about plastic giving coral diseases. Having Yong write this article is an example of ethos because Yong is a well-known journalist leading the readers to believe what he states as credible. Yong sets up this article in a very orderly manner which makes it so that it is easy to follow along and know where Yong is going with the information that he