Analysis of Solove’s Nothing to Hide
Nicole A. Baggerly
English 1302
Northwest Vista College
January 26, 2017
Analysis of Solove’s Nothing to Hide Solove effectively convinces the audience that the “nothing-to-hide” argument does not adequately cover all of the problems that arise from government information gathering and surveillance. He builds his ethos as a moral and credible writer by demonstrating his scholarly credibility and expertise, as well as establishing his logos by presenting the audience with logical arguments and conclusions, and finally developing his pathos through the use of dramatic and emotional language in order to appeal to the audience’s emotions.
Solove focuses on building ethos and creates an ethical appeal to…show more content… He emotionally appeals to the audience’s sympathies and imagination. He begins using more dramatic, emotional language, such as, “privacy is often threatened not by single egregious act but by the slow accretion of a series of relatively minor acts.” (Solove, para. 29) Due to this change in language the audience identifies with Solove’s point of view and they become aware of the urgency associated with action. Solove begins appealing to the audience’s imagination by mentioning all of these “minor acts”. He starts the list with the government monitoring of phone calls, then talks about an “elaborate network of video surveillance,” (Solove para. 30) next is satellite surveillance. Then he begins getting personal in order to invoke feelings of unease within the audience. He begins with analyzing your finances, then mentions the government combing through your health records and employment records. “Each step may seem incremental, but after a while, the government will be watching and knowing everything about us.” (Solove para. 30) In a final persuasive effort, Solove emotionally appeals to the audience’s identity and self-interests. He accomplishes this by discussing the possible consequences the audience could encounter if the government is allowed to continue collecting and storing personal data. Solove asks a series of questions in the second person, with the intent that the audience will have a…show more content… Solove uses his expertise in the art of rhetoric by focusing his introduction on ethically appealing to the audience. By managing the rhetorical distance between himself and the audience he builds a relationship and establishes his authority, while not portraying himself as a superior. He establishes his credibility and portrays his scholarly credit through his citations of literature and quotations from privacy experts. He then concentrates on logically appealing to the audience throughout the body of his essay. By displaying the weaknesses of the deductive reasoning that makes up the nothing-to-hide argument, Solove is able to build his inductive argument. In addition, Solove presents the audience with two analogies enabling them to make logical conclusions. In an effort to make a lasting impression on the audience, Solove reserved his emotional appeals for the conclusion. Through the use of dramatic and emotional language, Solove was able to appeal to the audience’s sympathies and imagination and leave them with the reminder that “in the end, the nothing-to-hide argument has nothing to say” (Solove, para.
