Child Abuse And Neglect Summary

Gabrielle Austin and Maria Martinez focus on Melinda Smith and Jeanne Segal’s article, “Child Abuse and Neglect.” The objective in this report is to analyze Smith and Segal’s rhetorical choices for their article in an attempt to gain a more accurate understanding of writing in the field of social workers. The descriptive analysis in this report will discuss: genre and format, style and language, claims and arguments, evidence and support, and organization and connections. Genre and Format
Smith and Segal’s text can be considered an informative article published on a credible website. Smith and Segal’s text is classified as an article because it is posted amongst other texts on “helpguide.org”. The reason why their article is expressed as

Throughout the entire article, the authors place images of frightened children next to sections of physical and sexual abuse. The provided pictures exemplify the fact that children do not need to have physical marks in order to be classified as experienced child abuse. Instead, the image of the girl with a terrified expression on page five, showcases the immense fear she holds towards her abuser. By using pictures throughout the article as proof, the authors relies on the reader’s empathy to comprehend and strengthen the social work goal: child safety. Images are placed throughout the article to connect to the emotional appeal of the loaded language. The authors’ choice of using terms like “unexplained bruises, welts, or cuts” on the sixth page are used as warning signs of physical abuse in children. The image of the swollen cut right eye of the little boy is used to emphasize child abuse. This technique of adding loaded language to describe the images makes it easier for the audience to categorize the image with a certain type of abuse quickly. With most of the support for child abuse is qualitative, it demonstrates that in social work article, designed for the general public, the use of emotional appeal, and images are necessary to prove the point that the child is indeed being

Each section is composed of a header, sub header, and bullet points. For example, the article states quick background information on the many types of abuse. Then, adds the sub headers: emotional abuse, child neglect, and physical. Within the emotional abuse subtopic, there is a list of what characteristics can qualify as emotional abuse. Because child abuse is a broad topic and detailed sub-topics are required, it is best to use a topical pattern. By using a topical organizational pattern, the general public can easily follow the headers, sub-topic, and bullets that explain how child abuse not only stays in the past, but can torment adults and future