Rhetoric of "Understanding Drupal"

Well, since there is an abundance of posts regarding responses to the Drupal video, I thought I would provide an opportunity for us to briefly discuss the rhetoric adopted by the authors.

As the video began to play on my screen and I noticed the 1h 4m countdown nearby, I assumed that I was in for a rough upcoming hour. However, as the video progressed I thought about all of the ways in which the video not only explained what Drupal is and how it works, but how the rhetorical appeals functioned throughout the discourse.

While the ethos of these authorities becomes quite obvious, I found the pathetic and logical appeals to be particularly interesting…and helpful. The speakers did a wonderful job of connecting with their audience – “In order to learn what this was, I just had to use Drupal”, and “I wanted to do this, but I just didn’t understand how”. These examples show the novice user that although it may be frustrating, even the experts just need to play around and get familiar with the software sometimes in order to learn what works best.

The video also evokes a logical appeal by breaking down and explaining exactly why and how various tools will become very useful to the end-user. When reflected upon holistically, we see that the video was useful and gave most of us a great jumping-off point for the semester. However, when you consider exactly how this message was delivered, it can spark some interesting (and hopefully engaging) rhetorical consideration and discourse.