Purpose Statement: This blog post analyzes a specific white paper through the rhetorical analysis of logos, ethos, pathos, telos, and kairos in an attempt to better understand each of these and how they can play into my own white paper.
The white paper I am looking at is called "Virtual Worlds for Kids, Tweens, and Teens: 7 Must-Have Features: A Special Report for Marketers." In it, the author gives seven things that children's websites must have to be successful and gives examples of them from popular virtual worlds.
Logos: The author presents his information in a logical and easy-to-follow way with a few charts, many screenshots, and easy-to-read narratives. He gives specific examples of each of his points from different websites, so it is easy to see what he means. He also gives two appendices (both are charts summarizing what he had said).
Ethos: The ethos is admittedly much harder to find. The author gives no sense of his personal experience with the topic and doesn't give much insight as to his personal opinion about it either. He basically says that if websites will follow the seven steps he has laid out, they should work just fine and attract children.
Pathos: He understands pathos very well in his first section, where he talks about how children's websites will need "mom's approval." The author says that since a parent's main concern is the safety of their children, the very first thing a successful website has to do is assure the parents that it is safe.
Telos: His purpose is to inform "marketers" (new websites and online virtual experiences especially aimed at kids) of the things their website must have to be successful and attract traffic to their site.
Kairos: The kairos of this white paper is particularly interesting. It was written in 2007 when virtual worlds were a new thing (and arguably, had a different meaning than it does now). The examples he gives as the most popular websites that children were going to are very out of date and most children nowadays probably don't know what they are. I do not think his logos, telos, pathos, (or his seven "must-haves") would need to change much if it were updated. He would just need new examples. The ideas and principles, however, are still pretty much the same.
