A Rhetorical Analysis of Two Articles Written by Professionals From Different Disciplines on the Same Topic

by: Shannon Orem

With all of the current gun violence in the United States, gun control and regulation has been pushed to the forefront of national debate. This issue takes precedence over many other worthy topics because nearly a third of the nation’s homeowners have at least one gun. Author Gary Kleck, a professor in the department of criminology at Florida State University, shared his opinion on the topic in his article, “Crime, culture conflict and the sources of support for gun control: A multilevel application of the general social surveys.” With an adverse opinion, authors and faculty directors at Johns Hopkins, Colleen Barry, Emma McGinty, Jon Vernick, and Daniel Webster wrote, “After Newtown -- Public Opinion on Gun Policy and Mental Illness.” The two articles analyze the results of national surveys relating to public opinion on increasing gun regulations. Each article achieves its purpose by approaching the survey results from a different angle. Barry et al. choose inductive reasoning to draw conclusions about the survey results. This choice led the group of writers to use a logical appeal, a concise layout, a clinical tone, and a straightforward format. Kleck uses deductive reasoning, forming his opinion and then gathering facts from the survey and external sources to persuade his audience. This choice led Kleck to rely on ethos and pathos, a wordy article, external evidence, references to opposing arguments, a persuasive tone, and a unique formatting style.

Barry et al. heavily focus their article on logos. Numbers, statistics, and factual evidence provide support for their article. A typical paragraph in “After Newtown -- Public Opinion on Gun Policy and Mental Illness” will have measurements, percentages, and tabular references throughout. While Kleck does lace his argument with logos, he primarily focuses on incorporating pathos and ethos into his article. Kleck makes historical references and cites other experts to enhance his credibility. He also adds pathos to his argument with name-calling. Kleck uses harsh names for anti-gun regulation supporters including “gun nut” and “violent anti-intellectual,” knowing that this use of name-calling will agitate his audience and make the opposition seem petty (Kleck). This author requires ethos and pathos in his article because of his decision to make a claim outside of the reported survey results. Because Barry et al. chose to base their claim wholly on the survey results, they did not require other rhetorical appeals.

When measuring brevity, there is a very noticeable gap between these two articles. Just comparing their lengths, Gary Kleck’s “Crime, culture conflict and the sources of support for gun control: A multilevel application of the general social surveys” has 5,018 more words than the Johns Hopkins directors’ article. This shorter article reports facts with no necessary embellishment and accomplishes its purpose in a little more than a thousand words. It remains clear and concise from beginning to end. Author and criminologist, Kleck, works through his ideas in his writing and clearly defines each step he takes toward his conclusion so that the reader may follow it and agree.

This image was taken during the Prohibition Era
by: Boston Public Library

Another of the many reasons that Kleck’s article exceeds Barry et al.’s in length can be attributed to the myriad of references he must make that they do not. Kleck’s article cites other expert’s opinions including J. Kaplan, author of “Controlling Firearms” and R. Crocker who did a similar survey on America’s opinion of gun control (Kleck). He also alludes to the temperance and prohibition era and parallels the “dry’s” political agenda to current supporters of increasing gun regulation. Kleck must make these references to support the claims he makes outside of the survey he is analyzing. Barry et al. do not make references the way that Kleck does because their method of drawing conclusions through inductive reasoning allow them to be fully supported by the results of the survey.

Kleck writes his article based somewhat on his opinion, which invites the possibility of a counterargument. Because he approaches the article this way, he must acknowledge that the opposition exists while refuting their argument. Conversely, Barry et al. write their article without acknowledging an opposing opinion. These writers have the ability to reject a counterargument because their argument is fully factual and no opposition can soundly reject the results of a survey. As they do not have an opponent, Barry et al. write with complete authority.

As for tone, these two articles sound similar, but a few subtle differences separate them. Unsurprisingly, the tone of the medical professionals’ writing takes on a clinical, contemplative, and detached sound. They appear to analyze the results and report the bigger picture in “After Newtown -- Public Opinion on Gun Policy and Mental Illness” which causes them to seem emotionally distanced from their result. Kleck’s article adopts a persuasive tone. The article convinces its audience that gun control is not related to fear of crime and that it will not be an effective way to reduce gun violence.

Kleck makes a formatting choice in his article that does not appear in that of Barry et al. He separates “Crime, culture conflict and the sources of support for gun control: A multilevel application of the general social surveys” into sections with descriptive headings. Some of these headings include, “Measurement of Key Variables” and “Identifying City of Residence for Urban Respondents” (Kleck). He splits up topics into categories A-F and analyzes each of them with a paragraph. These unique formatting decisions help the audience to follow Kleck’s thought process and understand where the argument is headed. The authors of, “After Newtown -- Public Opinion on Gun Policy and Mental Illness,” do not utilize any unique formatting choices because it provides less information and the reader can better follow the argument with straightforward formatting.

As a trained criminologist, Gary Kleck approaches the topic by taking external evidence from credible sources and using it to support the conclusion he has made. He uses a precedent, historical evidence, and current experts to back the claim he has formed. He groups the survey-takers according to their socio-economic background and analyzes their opinions according to the stresses placed on them. Throughout his article Kleck uses deductive reasoning to convince his audience of his position in the gun-control debate. An example of this process is as follows:

... gun owners who hunted were even more likely to oppose gun control than owners
who did not hunt. The difference may be that hunters are more likely to be a part of a gun subculture, which would imply being raised in a gun-owning family, associating with other gun owners, engaging in valued gun-related recreational activities including target shooting as well as hunting, and being exposed to more anticontrol rhetoric. (Kleck)

Image by: Brian.ch

Kleck takes this information and relates it back to hunters’ backgrounds and their exposure to anticontrol rhetoric. This method helps his audience understand the opinions of people within this subculture.

The Faculty Directors at Johns Hopkins write in a very straightforward manner, as many medical professionals often do. They do not have abstract ideas, instead they have given a report and taken the aggregate of all their survey information. Through inductive reasoning they come to the conclusion that the general public supports implementing new gun legislature and therefore should invest time in,

...thinking carefully about how to implement effective gun-violence-prevention
measures without exacerbating stigma or discouraging people from seeking treatment. (Barry et al. 2013)

This type of writing allows Barry et al. to see their topic from a detached perspective. They observe the survey as a whole and record their findings. This method, inductive reasoning, is illustrated in this excerpt from “After Newtown -- Public Opinion on Gun Policy and Mental Illness,”

Findings from these surveys indicate high support among Americans -- including
gun-owners, in many cases -- for a range of policies aimed at reducing gun violence. Gun
policies with the highest support included those related to persons with mental illness.
The majority of Americans apparently also support increasing government spending on
mental health treatment as a strategy for reducing gun violence. (Barry et al. 2013)

Picture Taken at the Signing of the Gun Violence, Mental Health, and School Safety Bill
Image by: Dannel Malloy

This excerpt discusses the end result of Barry et al.s’ analysis of the national survey. They have combed through all of the facts and summarized the American popular opinion on increasing gun control regulations.

These different perspectives cause a very similar topic to split into two opposing pathways. “Crime, culture conflict and the sources of support for gun control: A multilevel application of the general social surveys” supports the conclusion that attempts to decrease crime rates and actual concern for gun violence are not the motivation behind the gun control movement. “After Newtown -- Public Opinion on Gun Policy and Mental Illness” discusses the importance of the American population’s role in considering how to implement gun violence prevention procedures. In criminology fields, specialists will draw their conclusions and afterward search for the evidence they need so that that conclusion is supported. Medical professionals first ask questions and look at all of the facts so that they can make a proper diagnosis. These two disciplinary influences have caused both writers to write their articles in such ways and thus their paths diverge and they come to rest on two very different conclusions.


Citations

Barry, C, McGinty, E, Vernick, J, Webster, D. “After Newtown--Public Opinion on Gun Policy
and Mental Illness.” The New England Journal of Medicine 368.12. Massachusetts Medical Society. (2013): 1077-1081. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. Available from:
http://search.proquest.com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/docview/1318802052?pq-origsite=summon


Kleck, Gary. “Crime, culture conflict and the sources of support for gun control: A multilevel
application of the general social surveys.” The American Behavioral Scientist 39.4. Sage Publications Inc. (1996): 387. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. Available from: http://search.proquest.com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/docview/196526106?pq-origsite=summon