Analysis of My Rhetorical Situation

In this post, I will analyze the rhetorical situation of the controversy I am focusing on for Project 1.

Souza, Pete, "Obama Meets Doctors." 5 October 2009. Public Domain.

My controversial topic deals with whether or not doctors are to blame for the current drug abuse epidemic in America. My audience will most likely consist of doctors, pharmacists, and patients with past drug problems. This audience might also ready the Modern Healthcare magazine or Physician’s Weekly. They most likely keep up with worldwide health-related news. Considering the fact that my audience consists of mostly physicians and pharmacists, they are in the higher economic class.

Additionally, the ethnicity of my audience could range, but consists of United States citizens. My readers most likely value the wellbeing of patients dealing with chronic pain and in need of narcotics or other strong painkillers. Both parties of the argument have one thing in common: they definitely do not value the abuse of drugs.

My purpose for this project is to focus on presenting different sides and opinions of this controversy. Some people are thoroughly convinced that drug abuse is a personal choice and the growing idea that doctors have poor intentions and are in control of their patients’ drug problems needs to be eradicated. Doctors are supposed to treat their patients’ pain as if it were real, even if it isn’t.

Others believe that doctors are the main cause of America’s drug abuse because they are the ones in control of prescribing them. Another party believes it is entirely in the fault of the company that created the drug and convinced doctors to prescribe it. The setting on the controversy is focused completely on the United States because our country is dealing with drug prescribed abuse the most.  America’s drug problem has significantly gotten worse over the past decade, evidently making this controversy widely known.

Contextual details that I am worried the audience might not understand is the severity of this issues; as the years go on, more and more people are becoming addicted to narcotics that were prescribed by doctors.

I have done extensive research on this topic and have considered all points of view. I am interested in attending medical school after I receive my undergraduate degree, thus I have a strong point of view on medicine and how it is affecting today’s society. I am the perfect fit for this story because I am motivated to present factual information that will educate my audience on this epidemic.