I need a rherical analysis on an article 7 Reasons Why Emotional Intelligence Is One Of The Fastest-Growing Job Skills

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Student Name

Date

ENC 1102

Essay 1

Rhetorical Analysis of Benjamin Herold’s

“Jobs at All Levels Now Require Digital Literacy. Here’s Proof.”

Digital literacy skills are keenly required in employees as technology has revolutionized

every field of work. Digital literacy is the ability to comprehend, operate, and communicate

digital information. Benjamin Herold, an education reporter with expertise in digital media wrote

an article, “Jobs at All Levels Now Require Digital Literacy. Here’s Proof” which was published

in 2018 in Education Week. In this article, Herold argues that schools should teach students the

fundamentals of digital literacy skills, because it is the demand of all fields in the present and in

the future. By examining Benjamin Herold’s article, we can see that the author established

credibility through his own knowledge and experience, he provided logical evidence, and used

emotional appeals which are important to convince schools to aware students about the

significance of digital literacy, and the fact that jobs seek digital knowledge in candidates.

In this article, Herold has successfully established his credibility and appeal to authority

by using various strong sources, which include quotations from experts in “Brookings

Institution”, survey of employees from “Christiana Care Health System”, and interviews of

“Bobbie Wells, a services assistant”, “Dante Pozzi, food and nutrition services”, “Brianna

Buzzoro, a registered nurse”, and “Stefanie Brumberg, Health Information Management

Services”. Herold has provided citations for these sources which strengthens his credibility as an

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author, and it shows that he has done quality research for this article by stating expert opinions to

sustain his argument. He also described his own personal experiences as an education reporter,

which depicts that the author himself saw a major change in his field of work.

Moreover, with appeal to authority, the author has efficiently used appeal to emotion in

the conclusion and the body of this article. Herold uses a sympathetic tone and a language of

awakening for the readers to recognize the significance of digital literacy, Herold states,

“Schools absolutely need to be teaching these skills, if they aren't digitally literate, people will be

left behind” (3). The phrase “people will be left behind” creates an alarming tone and a sense of

fear in the minds of readers, which helps the author to support his claim by convincing that being

digitally literate is important for the students. Herold also states, “It’s not enough to assume that

digital-natives are developing digital literacy skills by surfing YouTube and playing video

games” (2). This statement creates a sense of realization and responsibility in the readers,

especially the term “digital-natives” informs the readers about the people brought up in this era

of digitalization, but they still need to be taught digital literacy skills. This helps the author to

target the sentiment of the readers and provide great emphasis upon the significance of digital

literacy skills that are required by almost every job.

Furthermore, Herold has effectively used appeal to logic, by providing well-grounded

facts and statistics and giving logical reasoning to his argument. He provides many strong facts

about the importance of digital literacy to convince schools to give digital knowledge to students.

Herold quotes a Christiana Care’s chief people officer, Neil Jasani who says, “The ability to

create digital content, consume it, act on it, communicate it, share it, find it, those skills are

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emphasized more as one rises up the career ladder” (1). The fact here shows that the author gives

logical meaning to his article and supports his argument that jobs really seek digital literacy in

candidates. The author also provides statistics from the interview of Dante Pozzi, a food and

nutrition services supervisor and Stefanie Brumberg, from Health Information Management

Services, who state, “Between 2002 and 2016, the amount of computer-based work required of

cooks in institutional cafeterias increased nearly 700 percent” (2), and, “A full of sixty-percent of

the hospital’s 4200 discrete health record forms are administered digitally” (3). These figures

help the author to build up his claim logically and prove the rapid growth of technology in jobs,

also the drastic change towards a digitized work environment. The details in these statistics

emphasize on the fact that it is necessary to develop digital literacy skills at school level, so that

students can use these skills efficiently when they enter into the world of digital workforce.

Overall, Herold makes an effective and strong argument about how digital literacy skills

are required in every job, and schools should make arduous efforts to teach them to students. He

provided strong evidence to assist his claim, he sustained his credibility as an author, and tapped

into the emotions of the readers. In his article, Herold uses rhetorical appeals clearly and

accurately to persuade the readers and convince schools to teach digital literacy skills.

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Works Cited

Herold, Benjamin. “Jobs at All Levels Now Require Digital Literacy. Here's Proof.”

Education Week, 27 Mar. 2019, www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/09/26/jobs-at-all-

levels-now-require-digital.html.