Exploring the Rhetorical Styles of visitRaleigh

Image by James Willamor

The blog, visitRaleigh, is a travel guide that gives tourists and locals helpful information about the social scene in Raleigh, NC. It provides all kinds of interesting activities for a wide range of adults to experience. This blog, found here: http://www.visitraleigh.com/blog/,

shares information about what happens day to day in Raleigh and connects people to these events. This purpose is achieved through the series of rhetorical choices visitRaleigh’s authors have made. Some of these choices include author presentation, target audience, and helpful features.

The authors present themselves with a great deal of subtlety in the text of their articles. For the most part the authors leave out an individual voice so that the events, restaurants, and venues speak for themselves. Outside of the text, they present themselves as credible writers who know all about the city at the heart of their blog. They are self-proclaimed “Insiders,” and the majority of them are from the Raleigh area. By making themselves appear to be in-the-know about underground events they make themselves more credible and recreate Raleigh to appear more chic and enticing to the reader. Author Emma Witman writes very little about herself which makes her appear more mysterious, while others list much more to make them relatable and approachable. They keep distinct voices out of the articles and strive mainly to make the topics of their articles seem alluring and exciting while still sharing their individual characteristics. This strategy makes visitRaleigh seem multifaceted with a vast range of opinions from diverse personalities. 

This blog targets an audience that ranges from young to middle-aged adults. Most of the activities listed on visitRaleigh are at breweries, restaurants, bars, or other venues that cater to a more mature audience. They also list museums, art exhibits, and other cultural hubs that appeal to deeper thinkers that have money to spend on weekend activities. Because of the cost of some of the events the blog the authors lean toward targeting more of a middle class audience. Lastly, visitRaleigh targets those who hold culture in high esteem. All of the events are within Raleigh and appeal to those who have an appreciation for the southern-city culture. They have fresh foods, local bands, and cater to those who want to support small businesses.

The authors have added specific key features to every part of the blog in order to help achieve their purpose. The text of visitRaleigh is absolutely covered in links. When reading a description of an event, the reader will often find several links that will lead them to the information they didn’t know they were looking for. There are many other tools that the authors have created for the readers’ convenience. Some of these include mapping tools and tools that allow readers to sign up for the events listed. The authors also offer social media tools to help their readers to connect with friends and let them know about the new, cool events they are attending. A big part of the goal of visitRaleigh is to make getting out and being social convenient for the people in Raleigh or those who are visiting and may not know what Raleigh has to offer them. They can share what they are doing very easily through these social media outlets.

Apart from tools and ways for the blog readers to be connected in a quick, convenient way, the authors take the time to make sure the text accurately reflects their overall purpose; which is to excite the reader about life in Raleigh. They use thrilling diction to describe the events and places that they want to lure readers to. These authors make sure to use words such as “breaking” and “can’t miss” to describe the topics of their articles. These types of words excite the reader rather than letting the article be strictly factual as someone would normally expect from an informational piece of writing. Instead of lumping everything together, the authors also split up their writing into small paragraphs which makes the information more accessible. Some words are bolded to make them stand out which adds to the quick and convenient theme of visitRaleigh. They often use exclamation points to once again highlight how exciting Raleigh can be. These bloggers recognize the importance of using textual formatting to help out their readers.

The final feature that the authors include is interviewing. The authors will interview a musician or an artist about their work to enhance their credibility and to make their readers feel more connected to an event in that they feel like they already know someone there.

Intellectual standards are a list of guidelines that spell out the important qualities needed for successful problem-solving or examination. This blog does an admirable job of upholding the intellectual standards of breadth and clarity. Breadth refers to a wide range or extent and visitRaleigh covers a multitude of categories that could potentially interest Raleigh visitors. This blog describes and advocates all manners of activities from art culture to food to music and even finds activities for “adrenaline junkies.” It highlights opportunities that may be expensive and also activities that are free. There really is something for everyone at visitRaleigh. Clarity refers to the quality of being easy to see and in this case the quality of being easy to understand. The authors should be proud of how clear they have made their blog. The information is written in a concise, easily comprehensive, and helpful manner. Because of their tendency to make important topics bold and to separate out paragraphs to divide different ideas, a reader can find the information they need without having to dig through some ambiguous writing that is unimportant to them. 

Though it is successful in many ways, visitRaleigh does lack a few key components that all blogs should be sure to have. While most blogs are overflowing with content, this one seems to be lacking in the quantity of posts. There seem to be, on average, one to two posts in each category per month. For someone who is looking for something new to do on the weekend, this is not enough information, and visitRaleigh will not cut it for them. It also does not have the most appropriate logo and banner. The combination of colors appear almost cartoonish and the logo is something that a customer would expect to see for a cell-phone or computer company. The banner implies that on visitRaleigh a reader will be connected to things like sports, learning, and art, but it appears almost school-like rather than being aesthetic and appealing. 

visitRaleigh acts as a gateway between those who do not know how to find events and the events that are sometimes harder to find. The main purpose of visitRaleigh is to share quick, easy-to-access information and to help their readers connect with friends and family over social media. The authors don’t want their readers to waste time digging around and trying to find the next big event in Raleigh, they instead want to help them connect to an event efficiently so that they can get out and have fun ASAP. They are very successful in making their readers feel connected to the city they want to explore and to making Raleigh an exciting and alluring place to be.