The Rhetorical Analysis: Strives to Become Beautiful
Advertisements about plastic surgery are everywhere, that there is a reason why it is so popular in Korea. An article called “Plastic Surgery Tourism Brings Chinese to South Korea” published on December 23, 2014 by Alexandra Stevenson mentions how the plastic surgery market is growing. The author explains the popular cosmetic procedures in Korea and how people from all the world would travel to Korea just to enhance their face. The main focus of the article are around tourists Ms. Liu and Ms. Wang who are traveling from China. Stevenson also explains many of the tourists feelings by expressing their insecurities about the areas they want to change. Knowing that everyone wants to enhance their features, the plastic surgery market has strategies to keep tourists from leaving. This article brings to light the effects of plastic surgery advertising.
Introducing the positive growth of the plastic surgery market, the author Alexandra Stevenson shows her credibility through real life patient’s experiences, and reliable sources.
Stevenson is a reporter who gives nothing but the truth. The author brings in credibility by sharing real life experiences of the patients. Tourists will share their “plastic surgery package” experience which includes complimentary shopping, a limo, and a tour around the city. The plastic surgery companies believe that having such a great offered will keep the tourists coming back to Korea for future cosmetic procedures. Stevenson interviewed a tourist named Ms.Wang who is tourist from China, the way she expressed the beauty packages is that “they are like the benefits, like the chances of making more money.” This shows that plastic surgery companies know what to do to keep the tourists happy and coming back. Being able to hear a story from the patient itself can gain the reader’s trust because it is through a real life patient’s experience. The reader can take in consideration that Stevenson shows credibility because the author is interviewing the patients herself and writing down their feelings word for word.
In order to prove that the plastic surgery market is growing, the author backs up her statements with statistics. Her facts such as “It expects one million medical tourists a year by 2020, up from 211,218 last year, with Chinese travelers representing the largest segment” are backed up with accessible hyperlinks. The article provides links that leads to other sources therefore it proves the author’s knowledge and how she is considering other people’s views on the topic besides her own. Credibility is also shown through the publish date. When sources are old, that means the information needs to be updated, however since the article was written in the year of 2014, it means that the information has not expired and is still reliable.
Through the article, the author has proved her credibility through statistics and interviewing patients in plastic surgery clinics. Having her facts backed up with sources from different sites proves that the writer did her own research. However it will really help if the author mentioned more about the patient’s feelings instead of what the plastic surgery companies advertise.
Citations: Stevenson, Alexandra. “Plastic Surgery Tourism Brings Chinese to South Korea.” International New York Times, 23 Dec. 2014
