TOW #15- Non fiction “Shred Alert”

             The article that I came across this week is about the increasing number of people who owns smart phones, tablets, or laptops that become victims of professional data thieves. There have been an increasing number of awareness campaigns that inform uninformed citizens of the crisis that has been on-going since technology has been advancing. While this article educates, it also criticizes the people who endlessly risks their chances of getting hacked, as people often doubt the chances that they have of exposing their identity. Through negative diction and appealing to logos, Rothman criticizes and informs the readers of professional data thieves.

            The pessimistic diction that the writer uses to describe hackers such as “destroyers”, “shredding”, and “smashing” have the effect of scaring the readers. Not only does it emphasize the dangerous consequences of not using technology properly, but it also appeals to pathos to draw out the emotion of fear out of the readers. Not only does she us negative diction to characterize the hackers, but she also uses words such as “dull –witted” and “foolish” to describe the people who don’t think about the risk of putting in personal information on unreliable websites.

            Not only does the author use negative diction to scare off the readers, but she also uses facts and statistics to appeal to the readers logically. As identity theft has increased 34% since 2011 with 150,000 victims a year, the author persuades the readers to make smart choices on their personal devices. Through the use of negative diction and appeal to logos, Rothman successfully criticizes and informs the readers of the risks of becoming the victims of internet thieves.