Analysis Of The Great Gatsby By Laura Spinney

The Changing of Perspectives Through Writing Laura Spinney uses a variety of persuasive components and techniques in the article, “How Facebook, fake news and friends are warping your memory”. She uses Ethos, Pathos, Logos, and a variety of arguments to get her point across. Persuasive components have different effects on different people and require skill to use effectively. Laura Spinney’s use of these components is fairly effective at convincing the reader that fake news and misinformation lead to altered memories that affect how people view the past and the future. Spinney uses a wide variety of evidence in a way that convinces readers to change their perspectives in a somewhat successful way. In this essay, I will critique Laura Spinney’s

Spinney establishes her credibility by providing an abundance of evidence and research. For instance, she refers to research conducted by others by stating, “Groups can also distort memories. In 2011, Edelson, then at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, showed 30 volunteers a documentary” (Spinney). The goal of this experiment was to see how people conformed when in a group setting. Participants often conformed to the same false answers that other group members had given (Spinney). The use of experiments and statistical data significantly helps to build credibility. It helps to prove that the author did not just randomly make up information. It makes the article more believable and the author more

Logos refers to the appeal to the reader’s sense of logic. This is normally accomplished with the use of evidence and facts. Spinney has a strong presence of Logos in her article. It is full of various forms of evidence. For example, she states, “Memory convergence is more likely to occur within social groups than between them — an important finding in light of survey data suggesting that 62% of US adults get their news from social media, where group membership is often obvious and reinforced” (Spinney). This evidence helps to prove how popular social groups are. It uses survey data to appeal to one’s logic. When readers read this statistic, it makes logical sense based on their life experiences and other information previously stated in the article. This makes the article more believable because it just makes logical sense. Another example of Logos at work is when Spinney explains, “There's a less obvious corollary: related information that goes unmentioned is more likely to fade than unrelated material, an effect known as retrieval-induced forgetting” (Spinney). In this example of Logos, actual statistics are not used. This is simply a statement that makes perfect sense based on background knowledge and a little common sense. Unmentioned related information is more forgettable than unrelated information simply because unrelated information is more likely to stand out in one’s mind. Unrelated info is