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Should everyone learn to code?

Ivan Mota-Aguilar

University of Texas at El Paso

Rhetoric and Writing Studies 1312

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Should everyone learn to code?

Nowadays, it is a well-known fact that technology is everywhere and people use it for

everything. From a small personal assistant reminding everyone what they need to do, to a huge

computer in a biomedical lab capable of comparing thousands of millions of DNA patterns. The

applications of technologies to different fields are infinite and this is the reason why the demand

for people that knows how to code software has growth massively. As previously stated,

technology is the future and in order to be part of the future everyone should learn how to write

code. However, many people argue that learning how to code is not necessarily for everything.

Also, they explain that we should not celebrate the creation of code, but celebrate the creation of

solutions. Furthermore, they also argue that instead of learning how to code people should

research voraciously, and understand how the things around us work at a basic level. The first

genre that will be analyze in this genre analysis is Should everyone learn how to code? a web

article by Gottfried Sehringer. The other genre analyzed in this paper is code stars is a short

film directed by Leslie Chilcott. The purpose of this paper is to analyze some of the rhetorical

aspects of two genres and explore and analyze their stances in the question on whether everyone

should learn how to code or no.

Audience and Purpose

The main purpose of the web article is to demonstrate the audience the importance of

coding and why everyone should learn how to code. However, the article also explains the idea

that coding is not as important as learning to understand problems, needs and being able to

visually express logic. In the other hand, the main focus of the short film is to show the audience
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the wonders of programming. Also, to convince the audience to learn how to code and to pursue

a career in the coding field.

The intended audience for the web article is people interested in learning how to code and

parents that want to teach their kids how to code. Additionally, the purpose of the information in

the web article is inform the audience of how important coding however, it is also trying to

convince the audience that it is even more important to learn how to identify problems than

coding. The audience for the short film is everyone that wants to learn how to code and people

that are planning to pursue a career in programing. Furthermore, the purpose of the information

presented on the short film is to convince the audience to learn how to code and pursue a career

in programming. Both audiences are tie in with the purpose of the article and short film. This is

because the target audience is people that want to learn how to program and the article and short

film shows them that it is really important. The significant similarities between both genres is

that they have a similar audience and a similar purpose. However, the short film has a broad

audience and the article has more parts to its purpose. The way the web articles message is

organized is by presenting first how coding has become a huge part of society and why learning

to code is important. Then, it presents the argument of why coding is not really the answer and it

explains why. The short film starts by presenting the basic idea of what coding is and why is

important to learn how to code. Then, it shows some testimonials of successful people in the

coding field and at the end it explains how useful coding is.

The communication features for the web article are formal language because of the

grammatical choices used during the article. For example, the use of words like pursuit,

laughable, abstraction, and envision. Also, the black and white colors in the article and times

new roman font and the lack of images and pictures in the article. This features contribute to
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convince the audience that this is a important topic and should be taken serious. For the short

film, the communication features are more informal. For example, the video uses more vivid

colors; such as, white, yellow, pink and yellow in the cinematics and texts. Also, the short film

uses informal language for example, stupidest, I, so and cool. Furthermore, the film uses

animations, and vivid music in the background. This helps the argument a lot, because it makes

the audience more excited to learn how to code because everything looks and feels pleasant. The

way the web article is shaped by the genre is that it will to reach a big audience because not a lot

of people reads this kind of articles unless if made by a big newspaper website like The New

York times. Also, in this type of genre the author cannot fully explain some point because it

needs to keep the audience entertained so they watch ads on the website. On the other hand, the

short film has a lot more freedom. For example, it is easier to present the information to the user

through visual images and it is easier for people to find it because it is presented as a YouTube

video.

Rhetorical Issues

The two genres use the three rhetorical appeals. However, each genre focus in using one

more than the others. This difference will be analyzed in the following.

Ethos

The way the web article establishes the credibility of the information is by the authors

position in a company. The author of the article Gottfried Sehringer, the vice president of a

application platform used by businesses to create and continuously improve mobile and web

apps. The way the short film establishes its credibility is by the personalities showed in the short

film. Such as, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Gabe Newell.
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Pathos

The way the web article evokes an emotional response from the audience is by explaining

how coding is in some way crucial for society. This is because apps manage nearly every aspect

of our lives. Evoking the emotion of worry to the audience if they do not know how to code. The

way the short film evokes an emotional response is by having an energetic music in the

background of the video the give the audience the emotion of enthusiasm about programming

and coding. Also, the atmosphere and colors full of light used in the short film gives the audience

a lot of delight.

Logos

The evidences and statistics used to support claims of the information in the web article is

when the author explains that 87 percent of IT leaders rate themselves poorly in terms of their

ability to bring new ideas to market quickly. This used to support the argument that coding is

not more important than learning how to solve problems and identify needs even though it is

really important. The evidences that the short film uses to convey its argument are over the next

10 years there will be 1.4 million jobs in computer science and only 400 thousand qualify for

those jobs this explaining that it is important to pursue this career because there are a lot of jobs

available. Also, because society needs more people that can code.

Structure and Delivery

The way the two genres presented their main argument is in soma way different. This is

because even though they both have a similar topic, the web article focuses more in explaining

that the actual action of coding is not as important as knowing the logic behind the code itself.

Furthermore, the short film only presents all of the benefits of coding without explaining if it is
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better to only learn how to code or to learn the bases of coding. The way the information is

presented is affected by the genre is by giving a lot less freedom to the web article to give visuals

and more informal language. For the short film, the genre helped it a lot because it has as much

freedom as it needed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the two genres explained the topic and presented their arguments very

effectively. The web article presenting how important coding is but not as important as learning

to think and solve problems. The short film presenting all of the possible arguments to convince

the audience to learn how to code. Both genres used their genres very effectively and present

their arguments properly. At the end, the short film is the most convincing genre, because it uses

a lot more of rhetorical devices and most of the film is made out of arguments to convince the

audience to peruse coding.

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References

Chilcott, L. (Director). (2013, February 26). "Code Stars" [Video file]. Retrieved September 17,

2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU1xS07N-FA

Sehringer, G. (2015, August 06). Should We Really Try to Teach Everyone to Code? Retrieved

September 18, 2017, from https://www.wired.com/insights/2015/02/should-we-really-try-

to-teach-everyone-to-code/