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Michelle Sing Prof. Drake English 207 February 15, 2011 Argument Analysis Essay 1) Intro: Grey’s Anatomy is an ABC drama television series based around the lives of the residents, interns, doctors and mentors in the fictional Seattle hospital Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. The show is generally forty to forty-five minutes long with the setting primarily in the hospital and sometimes in the characters homes. The show is mostly based on the characters lives with their decisions pushing the story. The doctor part of the show plays a lesser role but is still part of the main plot. The particular episode I watched is called “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?” This is the last episode of the first season which I chose to watch because it had such a high viewer rating. This episode is about one several of the residents dealing with secrets including STDs. The secrets are mostly involved with keeping information from partners in relationships. 2) Thesis: 2a) The main claim of the show seems to be that doctors have very active personal sex lives and maintaining normal and healthy relationships is astronomically difficult. This particular episode seems to claim that communication between partners in a relationship is very difficult and everyone keeps secrets. 2b) The source is decently persuasive with the characters it uses and the setting. The choice of young, good looking people as working doctors gives them credentials as being normal and reliable people. However, the scripted problems of the characters and how they respond to their problems are actually immature and easily avoidable with normal common sense possessed by real adults. 2c) Since I am personally not a doctor or a resident it is hard to judge if the claim is valid. But I have however lived life and experienced relationships. Given their problems I feel a normal response would actually be quite different. And since they are doctors and some of their secrets were medical problems, they should have no problem disclosing those types of secrets. 2d) The methods this show uses to persuade its viewers to care for the charterers and become hooked on the show are ethical. The methods used are not particularly hard to spot and they aren’t cleverly hidden or even hidden at all. For this reason, I don’t find an ethical issue with its modes of persuasion. The actual ideas the show is trying to persuade I don’t find particularly unethical, but they certainly not desirable traits. 3) Main Body: Analyze the lines of argument: a)Ethos: Appeals To Character: Grey’s Anatomy establishes ethos primarily through the types of people that are casted and the roles they play. All the characters are good looking, young and nice. They are the average type of person most people would trust and like. The role of being residents and the hospital setting give a professional feeling and also a trusting feeling for the characters. The audience sees them as doctors who most people see as trustworthy, ethical, and smart. This is a simply manipulation of our perceptions and stereotypes of people. Not all young, attractive doctors are necessarily good, smart, and ethical people. b) Appeals to Values: This particular episode depicts a very disagreeable daughter from one of the patients. She is blatantly rude to her mother is ignores her pleas to be respectful to her father. The attending residents are clearly horrified by her behavior because they make faces at the daughter’s behavior. While this is also an appeal to character, it is also a queue to the audience to recognize the main characters of the show are good people. Also, even though the daughter’s problem may be comparable to the main character’s problems, the audience sympathizes with the main characters more because we see their reasoning (however bad) behind their actions. We see the values they are choosing to uphold and act upon. c) Pathos: Emotional Appeals: The show appeals mostly to feelings with relationships, such as feeling ignored, being lied to, being betrayed, feeling lonely, etc. These feelings are common to all people so it is easy to feel bad for the characters and be on their side. These feelings make the audience feel invested with the characters because they see their problems, and feel their pain vicariously. However, this does assume that the characters are just bystanders in life and they don’t bring trouble down upon their own heads. Considering how each character responds to their problems, many of the issues are avoidable, but the characters don’t chose the nest choice of action. d) Logos: Appeals to Reason: The logic used in this particular episode is full of holes. Many of the character’s are dealing with secrets and not letting the partner of their relationship know about them. However, their reasons for why they won’t reveal their secrets is unclear. This may be attributed to the fact that some of these secrets start in prior episodes. On the other hand, they make no more indications to their feelings on the subject other than they don’t want them revealed. One character does have a secret created at the beginning of the episode and reveals it by the end. His reason for not dealing it the first place is very inconsistent with his status as a medical resident. He discovers he has an STD but is embarrassed to tell his girlfriend. This shouldn’t be an issue for a doctor to discuss this matter because he (and his girlfriend) learned about these issues in medical school. It shouldn’t be the embarrassing situation the show makes it out to be. 4) Conclusion: In conclusion, this television series is not valid. Its reasoning is not very convincing or even logical and its methods of persuasion are mediocre at best. Unfortunately, the ratings of the show imply that its techniques can be convincing. Its implications, such as sexual prowess is the most important thing, are not unethical, but they are not traits that people should want to have either.