A Good Night Sleep

Phoebe Chou (Ting Chen)

Christen Enos
September 29, 2015

When I first started writing this essay I had no idea where to start, so I wrote down everything that I could
analyse to put in the essay. Then I organised them into different paragraphs and started writing each
paragraph. At first I wrote the essay in the structure that was provided on the guide sheet, however after I
finished writing the essay I realised that the way I structured didnt really flow therefore I moved the
paragraphs around to make it flow better. Analysing the rhetorical appeal was something that I was worried
about since I have never learned it before. However after I got my peer review back and saw how they said
my analysis on ethos and professionalism was well written, I was less worried and more confident. I made
most of the changes that they advised on peer review, expect for including more of the points that the
author mentioned in the article. This was because I didn't know where to add that in and also because I
thought it would sound more like a summary instead of an analysis. From this rhetorical analysis essay, I
have learned more skills on how to analyse a text, such as with the use of rhetorical appeal (ethos, legos
and pathos). I also learned that pictures could be added in analytical essays to help explain my point. I
really enjoyed writing this essay and learning this unit, hoping that future essays would be as educational
and interesting as this!

A Good Night Sleep

Everyone in the world needs sleep; we need it in order to recharge and go about our days.
Without it we could lack concentration, motivation and most of all without sleep it could lead to
death. However, did you know that the timing (Hall) of your sleep is also an important factor?
Even if you have had seven to nine hours of sleep it does not necessarily mean that you have had
a good night sleep. Alena Hall, an editor and writer at Huffington, has a passion in health and
wellness and so has recently published an article called The Main Cause Of All Those Sleepless
Nights. (Hall) In this article Hall uses professionalism to addresses the main factors on how we
could have been hurting (Hall) our sleep schedule, at the same time offers a reliable solution
and hoping it would impact her audience and try to improve their lifestyle after reading it.
This text is an informal online article written in a casual way. Having it as an online article is
better than in printed newspaper because it is easier for people to access. The hyperlinks within
the article also makes it easier for it to be shared or found.
The targeted audience of this article would be people that suffer from insomnia or people
that want to improve their sleep and lifestyle. It can also be aimed at adults who reads the
Huffington Post or any online articles, since sleep is something that everyone does so it is related
to everyone. Being placed under the Healthy Living section on the Huffington Post, suggests that
the audience cares about their health and is interested in what the author has to say. In the article
it also mentions how the audience could be shift workers (Hall) or busy workers that bring their
work home with (Hall) them. By reading this article, the readers hope to find a solution to
improve their sleep as well as their life style. They hope to stop frustrating over not being able
sleep and get the chance to remove the eye bags under their drowsy eyes. They want to be able
to sleep until they feel like they have had enough sleep. They want to be given a solution to sleep
without having to eat medication.

Hall wrote this article hoping to inform her audience that there are several things that they
do which causes problems with their internal body clock(Hall). Furthermore, she is trying to
persuade them to make changes to improve their lifestyle. While trying to provide a solution on
how to get a good night sleep, Hall is also trying to prove the other articles on how to be well
rested wrong. In the article Hall wrote, Turns out that logging seven to nine hours of solid sleep
isnt enough, which suggests that in the rest of her article she is going to suggest a better way of
resting and challenge the common belief.
Like mentioned before, the audience of this article could be busy workers and so in the
article Hall highlights the important points with bigger bolded letters and underlines the
important key phrases. This does not only help those busy workers read faster, it also emphasises
the key points. In addition, it also allows the audience to just read that subheading and know what
the paragraphs below will be talking about. Expect for the bold subheadings and the underlining
to help Hall make her point more clear and persuasive to the audience. She also adds pictures of
problems that she has mentioned to help. Throughout the article there are various pictures related
to the text to be found. These pictures do not only help make the article more entertaining but
also relates to the subheadings and suggests to the audience what the next paragraph will be
about.

Above is one of the pictures that was included in the article, it was found after the last
point And you think you can undo all damage on the weekends(Hall). From the subheading and
the picture it can be seen that Hall is trying to tell the audience that trying to sleep a lot on
weekends will not help fix your internal body clock(Hall), nor will it help make up for what you
lost(Hall). Having this picture at the end of the article also makes the audience feel like they will
be able to sleep just as well as the girl in the picture if they do what Hall has mentioned previously
in the article. This is because the pictures gives people a feeling of comfort, relax and deep sleep.
The colour used in the pictures also has an effect on the feeling it brings, since blue and green
sets a peaceful and quiet tone. Therefore the picture choices brings a more causal and relaxed
feeling to the reader.
On top of that, Halls word choices, such as the joke she makes at the beginning of the
article Curse you, internal body clock (Hall) , the idiom reference break out of a rut (Hall) and
the words hectic (Hall), snoozing (Hall), boring (Hall) are there as well to set the causal,
informal tone. Furthermore, from her language and tone, it can be sensed that she cares about
her audience and wants them to have a better lifestyle. Even though the article has an informal,
casual and caring tone, there is still a strong sense of credibility and professionalism in it.
The casual and less formal writing style could also because this article was placed under
the Healthy Living section of the Huffington Post therefore having it written in a more causal tone
allows the audience to have a lighter mood while reading it. At the same time it also helps
separate the article from political or other more serious articles but the article is also not extremely
informal which brings the credibility and the reliable feeling to the readers.
Having this article posted on one of the biggest online news blog and written by an author
who loves to explore new ground in health trends and research (Hall) suggests the credibility
and reliability of this article. In the article there are also lots of quotes from Professor David

Earnest included which shows how ethos is present in this article. For example when Hall is
suggesting that the audience does not exercise enough and should be more active, she quotes
Professor Earnest Certainly exercise is an important thing(qtd. in Hall). The uses of quotes from
Professor Earnest also provides the professionalism in the article, making the article reliable and
credible. Professor Earnest uses a more formal and professional language as compared to Hall.
The use of scientific terminology, such as saturated fatty acids (qtd. in Hall), homeostat (qtd.
in Hall), circadian clock(qtd. Hall), makes the article more reliable and professional for the
audience. Which increases the likelihood of the audience being persuaded and changes their
lifestyle. The large amount of quotes from Professor Earnest suggests that he has a lot to say
about it and that he has a broad knowledge on this topic, which makes him seem more
professional. Since the quotes came from a Professor that has a broad knowledge on this topic
and has lots to say on it, it shows that his words are credible.
The use of the word you shows how pathos are used in the article since it makes the
audience feel like the article is speaking to them and makes it more personal. This can be seen
mostly from the subheadings in the article, such as you don't exercise enough(Hall), You bring
work home with you (Hall) or and you think you can undo all damage on the weekends (Hall).
Phrases such as What we tend to do is when we have deadlines, we stay up until whenever it
takes to get the job done (qtd. in Hall) can also show the use of pathos since it allows those
shift workers (Hall) to feel related to the situation and makes them want to read what Halls
solution to this problem is or how it affects their sleeping habits.
The use of logos can also be seen since the text we can see the use of statistics. In the
quotes from Professor Earnest he mentions numbers like,15 to 30 mins everyday (qtd. in Hall),
60 percent of the population (qtd. in Hall) and 9 to 5 jobs (qtd. in Hall). The use of
statistics shows how logos is used because it provides solid prove which shows the logical and

scientific side of the story and reasoning. Consequently, persuades the audience and allows the
audience to trust the changes Hall is presenting.
From the ideas that Hall is trying to present in this article we can see the concerns that Hall
has on the audiences sleeping schedule and their daily routines. She worries that people aren't
getting good quality sleep so she wants to help them by bringing in professional knowledge and
giving them solutions. However the better way that Hall is suggesting can also be found in
other articles, for example Cant Sleep? Causes, Cures, and Treatments for Insomnia an article
posted by the HelpGuide.org, an organisation that provides guide on health and well-being. In
this article Halls ideas on exercising more, having a more regular routine and balanced eating are
all mentioned, which suggests that Halls idea isn't a brand new idea, but instead also slowly
becoming one of the common beliefs.
From this article we can also see the bigger picture in society and the problems people
have with too much work but not enough time, or how people don't exercise enough or even on
how people procrastinate. Even though Halls idea isn't 100% unique and brand new, it is still
reliable and has its credibility. She tries to persuade the audience to make changes to their daily
routine and improving their sleep by using professionalism as well as a caring and causal tone.
From her writing it can be said that after reading this article her audiences would have been
informed, impacted and possibly trying to improve their internal body clock(Hall). Plus these
changes might also help with the other problems people within the society are facing!

Word Count: 1715

CITATION:

- Hall, Alena. "The Main Cause Of All Those Sleepless Nights." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 15 Sept. 2015.

- Hall, Alena. LinkedIn. n.p Web. 16 Sept. 2015.

- Robinson, Lawrence, Melinda Smith, and Robert Segal. "Cant Sleep?" Can't Sleep? Causes,
Cures, and Treatments for Insomnia. HelpGuide.org, Sept. 2015. Web. 16 Sept. 2015.