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ENGL 3179/5179: Elements of E-Rhetoric Elements HomeProjects
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Elements > Spam2005GroupE
Aspen, Amber, & Kathleen AnalysisFor the purpose of this analysis we divided our spam emails into five groups; Financial (refinancing and loans), Education & Jobs, Personal Relations - Dating & Enhancements (drugs, pheromones, and dating), Surveys & Polls (asking the reader questions), and all other Offers (trying to sell something). All of these groups, with the exception of Polls & Surveys, contained some appeal to logos. The writers of logos-based spam emails offer easy solutions to problems they believe impact their readers. One example claims, "No credit check" and another, "No papers to fax." The authors also show a concern for their recipient’s time, "Apply in 2 minutes" and "You can fit a degree into your busy schedule." These emails portray free as better and appeal to the audience's financial concerns. Emails directed towards bettering an individual's financial status and one's offering jobs have very few pictures and tend to be very simplistic, offering only the most basic of facts and encouraging the reader to click for more information. The writer uses images and phrases that elicit an emotional response. The main themes that are used to elicit emotions include urgency, humor, loneliness or imagery of the weak or helpless. A sense of urgency is usually present with such phrases as,” Your future is just a few clicks away," "Going, Going, Gone," "First 100 Responses Only!" A button says to "Take the first step." The writers may also use humor to elicit an emotional response, like with the sleep ad saying, "We won't doze off." Loneliness is used as a method of garnering attention. such phrases as "Did you spend your Valentines Day alone?" or calling themselves the "customer care group." The writers use images of women and children as a way of expressing a need for protecting the weak or worried. This protection image is shown in the police training e-mail with "help protect your country." A health insurance site uses images of women and children more than images of men. It references the old ideal of "women and children first" to elicit the emotion that they need to be helped. Along with this goes protection, the need to protect the weak or marginalized, the home mortgage ad uses an image of a child watering a garden, creating the idea of a home, not just a house. Spam needs to be credible for users to believe in what the spam is telling them. The colorful fonts and creative layout may attract users to read the spam but to convince the users to buy their service/products spam need to have credibility. In order to for the users to perceive the spam as something real, something useful, and something worthwhile, the creators of spam include details that boost their credibility. The creators mention their drug or services is approved by the authorities, like the FDA or BBB. Creators would also include some sort of logo or seal so their company would look more professional. Pictures are also used to convince users of their ethos, by associating their information to credible sources like the picture of an American flag and police officers. Some spam look like authentic letters with authentic sounding subjects and the correct address and format. There are also spam that are addressed using the receivers name and/or physical location with the intention of making the reader to pause and read the contents and not just trash it. The senders know their name and where they live and users would perceive the information they are getting from a source that the users personally know of. This boosts the credibility of the information that is given within the spam. Writers of spam use images to appeal to pathos and ethos more than logos. Images of women are used more than images of men, especially when appealing to ethos. The authors of spam attempt to make the actions required of the readers seem simple, just a click or email away. The authors continuously point out the merits of their products. Spam emails are blanket emails, which may appeal to a specific reader, in a specific time frame. MCMorgan: Just checking in. It looks like you're going to run three parallel analyses, classifying the spam into three groups based on the dominant appeal in the spam (ethos, logos, pathos). Seems like a good plan. Watch for patterns of choices and for a range of choices in each group, and draw on your descriptions to ground your analyses in specifics. You're looking to see how rhetors use the appeal - and that focus frees you from having to come to any final conclusions. Good luck. I'll check in again Monday to see how it's coming along. DESCRIPTION: Divided by Topic - Subdivided into Pictures & Text Only
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