Rhetorical Analysis on
Lewis’ “Tips for Women Traveling Solo”
Women and men have different concerns when traveling alone. Being a solo female traveler, Kelly Lewis who graduated from college in 2008, then spent a year in New Zealand and backpacked the entire South America, gave an interview to Alyson Krueger from the NY Times, with the heading “Tips for Women Traveling Solo” in August, 2016, and she tells in the edited excerpt the reasons she came up with a new project of special guidebooks for women who travel alone.
In the article/interview, Lewis effectively explains the reasons why she and her writers came up with the idea of the guidebooks for solo female travelers, claiming that in many different places it is important to be informed on how to be safe and enjoy a trip at the same time. The author of the article and interview, Alyson Krueger, explicitly mentions on first and second paragraphs that this project and article is made and written especially for women, by women. Ms. Lewis, the interviewed continues by telling about not so good experiences she had in one of her adventures when she has a men pushing himself on her while she was sleeping. Lewis educates about emotional challenges that female travelers might have during their journey, such as homesickness and loneliness, and also about how she selects her destinations to feature: choosing cities or countries that are more difficult for women to go by themselves because of language barriers, for example. Lewis mentions how men and women are looking for different things or purposes when traveling alone and finishes up announcing the readers about her future projects which, will be a television show where they will meet women all around the world who are working through changing the world.
Throughout the interview Lewis does not show a lot of credibility to the readers, nor does she appeal to names besides her own project: “Go! Girl Guides”, and does not give any other sources of similar experiences besides her own, or mentioning her writers, whom she doesn’t mentions the names and unless we visit her website Go! Girl Guide we don’t know who they are. However, in the beginning of the article, the author of the article and interviewer, Alyson Krueger, adds some ethos appeals when writing that, Ms. Lewis started an additional website supplement to the books, as well as a travel conference named Women’s Travel Fest (hold for the third time in March this year), and a tour company for professional women with Alyson Kilday, called Damesly. Krueger uses hyperlinks so we have access to information of all this events but, unfortunately does not mention the great credible sources they have on the Damesly project, which includes Brit+Co, Forbes and The NY Times itself.
Beyond the weak appeal for ethos, Lewis successfully appeals to logos when pointing facts of her own experience as a solo female traveler. She points out how she felt unsafe in her trip to Argentina where she “had bad experiences with employees on long distance buses” (Lewis). The author Krueger also helps in the beginning of the article quoting Ms. Lewis when she says, “I would have loved if someone would have told me it’s really hard to find tampons in Buenos Aires […] and why doesn’t anyone tell you this particular bus station is sketchy at night?”. This facts support the idea that Lewis didn’t have all the information she had when she decided to travel solo and also supports the importance of the guidebooks project. And this statement is as well, the main point of this interview, to alert women that traveling alone is totally ok since they have enough information about the destination.
Additionally with her appeals of ethos and logos, Lewis throughout the entire interview makes emotional claims. Lewis mentions how “women are often told they shouldn’t travel” or how in her new project for a television show will show “women who are actually changing the world” which gives the readers the sensation of unfairness and the difference between male and female solo travelers. Lewis also explains how being a female traveler can be vulnerable both emotionally and when turned to safety when using the words “irresponsible”, “unsafe”, “battle”, “intimidating”, “barrier” (Lewis), which evoke negative emotions about being a women traveling alone. Another feeling Lewis reinforces with her word and phrases choices appealing to the readers emotions, is the concept of awareness: “knowledge is power”, “information”, “protect”, or even when she mentions about her guidebook, which has as goal to guide and inform women on how to be safe on their solo travels.
Though the article is labeled an edited excerpt interview, it clearly and effectively persuades readers of the concerns women battle when traveling alone, and, I am personally trying to contact the author to, perhaps have access to the whole interview and analyze Kelly Lewis’s point of view about solo female travelers more deeply.
Words Cited
Krueger, Alyson. “Tips for Women Traveling Solo.”
The NY Times — AUG. 26, 2016
