INTRODUCTION
Fatal car accidents are going to disappear in few years because the zero-death car may be invented. In the article ”Volvo Works to Scale ‘Death-Proof’ Car Effort Using IT,” writer Bykim S. Nash indicates that the future plan of Volvo is making their all products that runs on the road never cause fatal car accidents, and how Volvo makes an effort to reach to the goal. Nash shows why this innovation is important and details of what Volvo is doing. Nash tries to tell the readers about a death-proof car with just giving some informations. He uses logos and ethos, and choosing easy words to create credibility and perspicuity simultaneously. Overall, the writer is aiming to be understood easily by the general audiences who read this article. This analysis goes how each rhetorical strategy, pathos, logos, ethos, then word choice works to create this informational, explicit, and reliable document.
ANALYSIS OF RHETORICAL STRATEGIES
Pathos
Nash does not use pathos in this article. Since the topic is about information of what is Volvo doing, the writer knows that being emotional is not appropriate to inform readers. If the writer puts his emotion or argument in the article, that becomes criticism or compliment, which tends to be less contents about the information, and the readers lose their opportunity to know well about Volvo. Of course, Nash can put criticism or compliment in his sentences, but he chose to just tell the fact of Volvo. Accordingly, the article is written up with logos and ethos because the writer wants the readers to avoid being confused by uncertain purpose of the document.
Logos
Nash uses a logos in order to notify readers the result of past work of Volvo and the current circumstances of U.S.. One of the sentences says that Volvo’s XC90 SUV is one of the cars that have never caused fatal car accident identified by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Displaying specific data with source makes trustiness of readers towards the contents. If Nash does not indicate the data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in this sentence, the information about XC90 SUV would seems like just his opinion and some readers can be suspicious about that. He appeals a marvelous job that Volvo done to the readers with using logos in order to convince them.
He also indicates how many car accidents happens in the United States with referring the data. One of the paragraphs says that in 2009, 32000 people have been dead with car accidents in the United States, and 90 percent of traffic accidents were caused by human errors according to National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Nash Shows specific numerical data with source, and this is good not only for the writers, but also for the readers. Referring numbers is easy for Nash because he does not have to be creative to make this informal sentences. He needs to reflect something from other source. And also, the readers can understand easier with numbers because readers can expand their imagination about what Nash says with numbers. If the sentences do not include this data, readers will face some difficulties of understand what Nash communicates. Thus, he appeals the result of past work of Volvo, and also, he helps the readers to create their image of the traffic circumstances in the U.S. with using logos.
Ethos
Nash also uses a ethos in order to raise credibility of Volvo’s plan. One of the sentences is about the future plan of Volvo that they are going to expand their work by 2020 with combining predictive analytics, cloud computing and autonomous driving technologies. He tries indicate what Volvo will do with using Big Data to improve themselves. But, before that, Nash put the sentence of reputation,”Volvo, which has stated its brand on safety,” to make ethos in his sentence. He takes a logical step, which visualizes the reason why the readers should trust Volvo before he puts the company’s future plan. If Nash does not put reputation, the readers don’t easily consent what is Volvo going to do. Thus, the writer tries to say that the future plan of Volvo has a credibility because Volvo has staked its brand on safety.
Nash also quotes employee’s talk of Volvo to make a trust from the readers. Jonas Ronnkvist, director of business development and strategy at Volvo Cars, is referenced three times in this article. Some paragraph that report what is Volvo exactory doing with Big Data, and the writer puts quotes from Ronnkvist into each paragraph. For example, one of the paragraphs says that the data from cloud, which collects road condition in Sweden, is shared with engineer groups, dealers, and customers from an analytics system built on Teradata Corp. The paragraph gets a credibility with putting a quote from the employee rather than just giving giving this information without any evidence. Furthermore, in the middle of the paragraph he puts the sentence, ”Mr. Ronnkvist said, the data warehouse also includes information from internal engineering groups, external dealerships that service Volvo cars and customer interactions with on-board systems.” Nash tries to give a reliability to the paragraph by putting a quote from the employee. He also indicates employees enthusiasm with putting a quote which is “We are quite confident that the technology will reach that 2020 target.” from Ronnkvist. Nobody knows what is going to happen in the future, so adding those credible quotes is good way to raise the readers’ trust. As a result, Nash makes credibility with visualizing the logical evidence which make the sentences worth to be trusted.
Word Choice
Since this article is about difficult theme, Business Analysis and Big Data, the writer pursue the comprehensibility in order to get understanding about Volvo from all kinds of people regardless of age or gender. The word choice indicates that Nash’s attitude to write this article. Entire sentences are polite that can make the readers feel unfriendly. The paragraphs are lists of facts about Volvo rather than appeal directly to the readers, and he does not use exclamation marks or questions mark at all. In other words, Nash eliminates unnecessary things and just expresses important things to make his article easier to understand. Moreover, Nash’s formal writing style makes the readers imagine that the writer of the article should be a smart person because of the atmosphere of seriousness. And, this image will lead to creation of credibility and trust of the article, since the writer is smart person. Accordingly, Nash gets trust from the audiences with his formal attitude of the writing style.
On the other hand, Nash does not use difficult vocabulary, such as academic words in the article. Even though he creates the image of smartness with formal style, he avoids making the article too much difficult. The article is all about information, so the most important focus is understanding the contents. The sentences should be understood by all kind of people who reads that. For example, if the morning news uses many difficult academic vocabularies while they report the news, nobody wants to watch that news. Then, Nash piles those short paragraphs up logically to help the readers’ gradual and easy understand. Therefore, he enables his document to get credibility and easiness to understand at the same time.
Conclusion
In order to create credibility and perspicuity, Nash does not show his exact opinion in the article. His ethos, logos, and word choice are all working to accomplish Nash’s intention and giving the readers easiness to read the article. Logos works for referring to specific data in order to help the readers expand their imagination of the result of past work of Volvo, and the traffic circumstances in the U.S. Sometimes, Nash utilizes a breadth of rather skimpy data which relies especially on the specific automobile safety improvements it will have in place by 2020 – its goals for “death-proof” vehicles. While he makes a healthy use of terminology to convey his points, unfortunately, much of these terms may be unintelligible to the average reader. For example, Nash mentions the “Internet of Things”, but fails to define the term for his readers. Moreover, as the author’s purpose is to inform his reader about Volvo’s goals for 2020, he tends to skip important details in favor of an exhaustive list that only tech-savvy readers will understand. In addition, based upon the evidence presented, it is unclear exactly why Volvo execs think they can achieve a “death-proof” vehicle by 2020. There is no mention of changes to the frame and/or body of their vehicles, in terms of materials, design, or manufacturing processes. Understandably, this, too, could be worded in a complex manner, but it is Nash’s responsibility to make the reader comfortable, and his writing equally comprehensible. However, he does not succeed on this one account. Lastly, ethos works for making credibility with visualizing the logical evidence which make the sentences worth to be trusted. Also, Word Choice works to make comprehensibility in order to get understanding about Volvo from all kinds of people, regardless of age or gender. Despite many of the criticisms that can be leveled at this article, for the most part, all three rhetorical strategies work precisely, and help each other to create an informational, explicit, and reliable journal.
