Molly Lee, Andrew Krecklau, Alex Madlom, Alicia Barbarick Rhetorical Evaluation Assignment Instructor Kaser 28 October 2013

Anya Ustaszewski brings emotion in I don't need to be cured of my Autism thanks

Introduction Ustaszewski uses all components of rhetoric, but in a slightly ineffective way in her commentary "I don't want to be 'cured' of autism, thanks". She relies heavily on pathos with very limited examples of ethos and logos to her experience as someone on the autistic spectrum, rather than including pertinent quotes or facts. Her commentary is filled with statements that are pure emotional arguments strongly against prenatal testing and cures for autism. She goes on to say that society is more to blame than the actual disability of preventing opportunities, according to the members of the autistic rights movement. There are many alternatives she presents to help her argument of changing the attitude society has towards individuals on the autism spectrum. These are things such as adaptations that can be made versus curing autism and for society to help develop strategies to make the world a less scary place for those on the spectrum versus therapies to make those individuals seem neuro-typical rather than the unique person that they are. Her goal is to get society to change their attitude towards individuals that are on the autism spectrum and to involve those on the spectrum in this. As Ustaszewski integrates every form of rhetoric in her commentary, some aspects served to strengthen her argument more so than others, pathos being the largest factor and logos being the least. Context Before Anya Ustaszewski was even born there was already a history behind Autism and Aspergers. There were already stereotypes and social history behind this issue leading to historic problems that Ustaszewski had to deal with in writing her commentary. And to fully understand where Anya is coming from with her argument you must first understand the historical and social context that started long before first typing her commentary. Autism has a wide and vast history, historically and socially, dating all the way back to 1910 in Switzerland by a Swiss Psychiatrist by the name of Eugen Bleuler. He first classified the disability, but as other professionals studied the effect of Autism and Asperger's, claims were further made. Some of these claims were vocalized by Dr. Leo Kanner. He believed that people with Autism were hopeless cases. And unfortunately, after his declaration many others followed his negative thought process on individuals with autism and aspergers (Wilson).

Even today society is dealing with stereotypes which all began with people like Dr. Kanner. An example is the large organization called Autism Speaks. It may sound like a great solution to get the stereotypes of Autism to dissipate, but as the organization has evolved it has turned into more of a problem for the Autism community than a solution. Autism Speaks publishes stories with mothers about to murder their Autistic children, finding a cure for autism, and the general pity they place on people diagnosed with Autism and Aspergers. All articles containing negative connotations to the Autistic community. Instead of vocalizing the great aspects and stories that are out there. The article Why Autistic People Don't like Autism Speaks, explains how the organization makes autism look like a horrible curse instead of Autism just being a part of who people are and how it continues to provide more stereotypes to the Autism community (Rosen). Because of programs such as Autism Speaks, people with Autism and their community have been battling the stereotypes that society has kept over the years. And this has led people like Ustaszewski and other writers to change peoples minds on how they view autism and its issues. Purpose Essentially, Ustaszewski wants her audience to change their views on autism and, furthermore, help autistic individuals to be better autistics. She states that autism in societys mind is a human variation that needs to be cured. Being an autistic individual herself, she explains how efforts to cure autism and heal autistic suffering do not work in the autistic individuals mind. If the purpose of creating organizations that help autistics is to cure them completely of their autism, then the leaders and professionals (parents of autistics being the majority) of these organizations have surely mistaken themselves. From these examples, the effect the audience will have here will be a psychological change on the opinion of what it means to be autistic. Ustaszewski continues to write about what should be done in order to satisfy autistic individuals. She says that they include changes to legislation to ensure that buildings are autism friendly and its imperative that individuals on the autism spectrum are involved at all levels in the debate on prenatal testing. The effect that the audience can take away from examples like these is literally taking an active role in society by helping individuals with autism. The point is, she wants society as a whole to change their attitude toward autism - to respect, care for, and accept it. She wants her audience to take an actual role in helping autistics to be better autistics and reaching their full potential. As she continues to develop her purpose throughout the commentary, her audiences are made even more clear.

Audience Ustaszewski is reaching out to a couple of different audiences. These can be broken down into a primary and secondary audience. The primary audience are those of us who may be unaware of autism and do not encounter those effected on a daily basis. Ustaszewskis secondary audience is the parents of those with autism. She makes an attempt to connect with her audience using her personal

experiences, as one being on the autism spectrum herself. She appeals to pathos throughout the commentary as you can feel and see the emotion and how important this topic is to her. Ustaszewskis secondary audience includes parents who have or may be pregnant with a child on the autism spectrum. Again, she appeals to pathos and her personal experiences, but also appeals to authority as she interprets outside documents to help strengthen her argument. Anya is writing to better educate us and change our mindset. Instead of looking at autism as a disease that needs to be cured, this commentary shows us that we need to change our mindset. We need to realize that each person is special and unique and we need to change our mindset as a society towards those with autism. Genre Ustaszewski uses the genre of a commentary to achieve the purpose of getting the audience to change the perception of autism and become more active in understanding. The genre of a commentary consists of taking a hot-button topic and expressing opinion about that chosen topic, in this case is changing societies attitude towards individuals on the autism spectrum and involving those on the spectrum in specific legislation on the topic. Ustaszewski does this throughout her commentary to strengthen her argument and to achieve her purpose by using a topic that is culturally relevant and also relevant to herself to fulfill the needs of the genre by using her opinions. There are several times where she flat out gives her opinion on prenatal testing or legislation that could be done. She does not go about it lightly in a way that makes us question whether this is an article or a random blog, it is a commentary and she lets us know. Along with the limited number of the facts she presents, she voices her opinions on them. In doing this her style comes through in a way that gives purpose to the genre of her commentary. The audience expects facts and opinions expressed about them in a commentary and both she provides. Not only that, but she uses the emotion to better her argument for persuading the audience to be more accepting, thus proving the genre of the text, but leads to her faulty logos. Logos Ustaszewskis argument consists mostly of examples of appealing to her own emotion. She states that autism is part of who someone is and yet we as a society try and cure them and we forget that every person is born different and unique. We need to get passed looking at individuals with autism as a tragedy and instead embrace and love them for who they are and what they bring to this world. Autistics have been treated unfairly. One example is by how they do not give them a voice, as people look the other way and have not been given a proper chance to be understood and accepted by our culture. We as a culture have made strides in accepting and giving a chance to many groups in this country, yet we act as if those who have autism should be sent away and silenced or cured because, they sometimes act differently than us. In one of her only attempts to give supporting details from outside sources, she uses recognized and respected author Simon Baron Cohens 2009 commentary about autism testing and attacks any attempt made to suggest prenatal testing could be a benefit. She gets emotionally hijacked and

misinterprets Cohens argument as everyone should be cured from this disease instead of seeing the potential benefits prenatal testing could have. All of these statements help her connect emotionally with both of her audiences. As she uses them to get us to take a look at our lives and how we treat those affected by autism. Although it is obvious that Ustaszewski is passionate about the topic she is writing about, she lacks the true definition of logos. She uses and relies heavily on her own personal experiences which leads to bias in her remarks. Instead of stating the facts, she lets her emotion dictate what she writes. This then leads to a weak argument as she all but avoids stating facts and other documentation to support her claims and instead relies on making her point through an emotional pathos. Pathos From the very beginning of the commentary the author uses emotion and Pathos to allow the audience to better relate to her argument. In the second paragraph of the commentary Ustaszewski explains how she is on the autism spectrum, then continues with how she strongly opposes any cure for autism. Her use of language show her strong emotion and opinion relating to the few issues she mentions within the commentary. One of the main strategies she uses in the commentary to convince her audience is the use of Pathos. Her use of language throughout the article is to influence her audience to feel emotion. So my autism should be cured, but the bits that society thinks it can find a use for should be kept? I find this incredibly insulting, is an example stated by Anya Ustaszewski in her commentary I dont want to be cured of autism, thanks. This quote brings out certain feelings when reading this single sentence. Her use of words such as, incredibly insulting bring forth the emotion of anger. Using these words sets us up, as her audience to feel a drive and a purpose as to why we should listen and agree with Ustaszewskis argument. Due to the fact that her audience consists of people who are either unaware of the Autistic community struggles, or are parents of Autistic individuals is the reason why she relies so heavily on Pathos. During the commentary she uses her word choice not only to provoke emotion within her readers, but also to give the Autistic community a voice. So that people with Autistic children can understand their children and better understand them and the commentary. Overall Anya Ustaszewskis use of Pathos is effective because her purpose is to be more accepting of the Autism community. Giving them a voice is a great way to do so, which she does through her use of Pathos. It could have been improved through the use of actual first hand accounts and experiences of other people, besides herself. Stories bring out great emotion to the audience, and the use of one could have strengthened her Pathos in her argument. But she continues to strengthen her article with her use of her persona and Ethos. Ethos

Ustaszewskis persona reveals a very opinionated one, where she clearly takes a side by exposing herself on the autism spectrum. She admits that she herself is an autistic person and is very knowledgeable in political events and controversies surrounding these individuals. Her tone, made up of critical and outspoken aspects, is evident in her arguments. Right away we get this feeling in the first sentence with terminate fetuses as a prime example. The level of formality she presents in her text indicates a sense of modesty; she is writing to an audience of higher authority, but at the same time maintains her tone. Again, we know that she is very professional in this field, as she points out specific details that appeal to her credibility and authority - namely the Autistic Rights Movement and Disability Rights Movement as points of opposition to her argument. Still, there is logical fallacy behind her arguments due to the defensive position she takes as she critiques the efforts parents and professionals have made to help autistics. On the other hand, her audience has a very clear understanding of how an autistic individual may feel as a result of her reaction. The article as a whole shows that her credibility is limited to her personal experience; we as an audience can only assume that her background as an autistic proves to be a credible one. Conclusion Throughout the commentary you could see how much this meant to Ustazewski. The emotion that she pours into her writing helps connect her audience emotionally. This being said, Anya Ustaszewski uses all forms of Rhetorical Analysis in her commentary "I don't want to be 'cured' of autism, thanks", while some areas strengthened the argument of changing societies view of Autism. She failed to make a clear connection with the facts to support her claims. She relied heavily on pathos, but struggled to effectively use Logos.

Works Cited Baron-Cohen, Professor Simon. "Autism Test 'could Hit Maths Skills'" BBC News. BBC, 01 July 2009. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. Rosen, Marc. "Why Autistic People Don't like Autism Speaks." examiner.com. Health and Fitness, 9 Sep 2009. Web. 27 Oct 2013. Wilson, John. "Autism History Timeline." SteadyHealth. SteadyHealth, 12 Oct 2011. Web. 27 Oct 2013.