Rhetorical analysis of an opinion article related to my CAJ

The article “Into the blue: Holidays to Mars and the ultimate honey-moon, former astronaut Jon McBride makes his space tourism predictions” is presented in form of an interview.

The ethos plays an important role. First of all, the source itself (dailymail.co.uk) suggests the credibility of what is going to be said. Secondly, the person questioned, Jon McBride is a 70-year-old man who was a former astronaut. His advanced age, as well has his former profession give rise to the supposition that he clearly knows what he is talking about. Consequently, his space tourism predictions must be somewhat true. What is more, he is one of the few lucky people who made his dream come true, as “every kid in America wanted to be an astronaut” at some point. Therefore, Jon McBride must be special and “credible”.  

The article also contains an elevated number of emotional aspects which notably appeal to the audience’s imagination. The form of the article (interview) itself creates an identity between the writer and the reader. Jon McBride talks about the mental, as well as the physical sides of being in space and the “unbounded joy of seeing the plant from above”. The numerous high quality pictures from the earth out of space that feature the article try to convince the reader of the greatness behind the idea of space tourism. The amazing view makes you want to experience space in person, which is only reinforced by Jon McBride when he says: “You can’t really capture that. Your own eyeballs are the only way to see it and do it.”. He also jokes about “honey-moon” referring to the future when newly married people might actually spend their honeymoon on the moon. All in all, pathos is the strongest appeal in this article.

The main logical aspect of this article is that the technology to send people to space has already been developed years ago. According Jon McBride it is only plausible to let people benefit from the existing technology and send them to space for holiday. Moreover, a comparison to 1914 (when nobody would have thought there would be a man on the moon by 1970 and that we’d be flying 500 people non-stop from New York to Singapore), suggests that space tourism may soon become reality.   


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2579462/Space-tourism-holidays-Mars-Former-astronaut-Jon-McBride-makes-predictions-future-travel.html