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Carly Eivers
ENC 1102
Revised Rhetorical Assemblage
9 December 2014
Rhetorical Assemblage: Eating Disorder vs. Insurance Companies
Eating disorders, as defined by the National Eating Disorder Association, “are potentially
life-threatening conditions that affect a person’s emotional and physical health. They can have
serious consequences for health, productivity, and relationships (National Eating Disorder
Association, Treatment).” Specifically, eating disorders tend to fall under one of three categories
entailing anorexia nervosa, bulimia, or binge eating disorders. Although there are other eating
disorders associated with this illness, but the aforementioned are the most widely-known of the
eating disorders. Eating disorders affect millions of individuals, mentally and physically, every
year, and they are predisposed to the description of infamous in that they possesses the highest
mortality rate of all mental illnesses (Statistics, ANAD). I chose to focus my rhetorical
assemblage on the treatment of eating disorders in favor of the notion that they are physically,
genetically, mentally, biologically, and culturally influenced diseases. Considering that victims
of eating disorders attain the highest mortality rate of all mental illness, it is understandable to
assume that the victim suffering from an eating disorder can inflict a substantial amount of
physical damage on their body, however eating disorders, although confirmed to be a lifethreatening disease that imposes significant damage on the physical well-being of an individual,
will not be covered by health insurance companies on behalf of the copious amounts of fallacies
that are amalgamated with eating disorders (National Eating Disorder Association, Health
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Consequences). The exigence I constructed within the rhetorical assemblage, selected in the
interest of benefiting those suffering from an eating disorder, stresses the dismantlement of the
fundamentals insurance companies have fabricated their justifications upon. The fabrications and
misconceptions that were adopted by insurance companies and skeptics in the furtherance of
attempting to justify their actions, the explanations behind why eating disorders are confirmed to
be critical, fatal, and medical diseases, and deliver fervent arguments in the interest of presenting
the insurance companies with factual, however poignant, information to persuasively coax and
emotionally influence them towards adjustments. In regards to the aforementioned, the
anticipated reforms arranged between insurance companies and individuals associated with
eating disorders should necessitate the funding of proper medical treatment towards individuals
suffering from eating disorders, demand that insurance companies recognize the eating disorder
as a medical ailment that requires the appropriate medical response, and the obligation of
insurance companies to be responsible for the funding on research directed toward preventative
measures, medical treatment advances, and possible cures of eating disorders.
The audience I concentrated on during the rhetorical assemblage was mainly health
insurance syndicates, but it could also be directed toward skeptics or individuals who support the
misconceptions typically amalgamated with the eating disorder. The audience I chose to
associate my exigence with appears to be an apt connection due to the fact that the exigence
consists of an informative, all the same persuasive, argument on the actualities of eating
disorders and why eating disorders should be covered by insurance companies. I would like the
audience to take the rhetorical assemblage I have fabricated, which comprises several statistics,
heaps of influential commentary, and inspiration from the pre-existing texts, in order to form a
new idea on the topic being addressed, which is the argument of whether insurance companies
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should cover the treatment of sufferers that undergo the debilitating effects of an eating disorder.
The rhetorical assemblage, established upon various sources that strive for analogous rights for
patients who suffer from eating disorders, was produced in order to convince the audience,
primarily the insurance companies, that they are being oblivious to the statistics, naïve in their
acceptance of the common misconceptions of eating disorders, and marginally duplicitous. I
derived this supposition of the audience in accordance to my knowledge on various pre-existing
texts and human fault, in this case being a bias opinion. I centered my rhetorical assemblage on
the foundation of why insurance companies should cover the treatment of eating disorders as a
critical and life threatening disease. The rhetorical assemblage specifically targeted the insurance
companies by disproving many of the myths the audience has designed for their, supposed,
rational justifications of why they are not obligated to cover the treatment of those struggling
with an eating disorder (Eating Disorder Hope, statistic studies).
In order to depict the grave consequences of eating disorders to the audience I used a
former study, done by Oxford University, in my rhetorical assemblage, which gave the audience
specifics on the correlation between the mental illness, including eating disorders, and mortality.
While reviewing the study, and elucidating the outcomes to the spectators, I was able to find that
mental illnesses, specifically eating disorders, typically will shorten an individual’s life span
more than that of an individual that heavily smokes tobacco throughout their life. The resource
gave me a dissimilar outlook on the morality statistics by putting it into an understandable and
relatable view point, while still constructing the claims made with factual information. I was
anticipating the audience, after observing the assemblage of eating disorder facts, opinions, and
pre-existing texts, in addition to the portion that relates to the resource stated formerly, to
produce a fresh perception on the relationship between death and eating disorders. The author of
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the declared resource, Christine Peat, developed a persuasive and informative article that, I
anticipate, showed the audience, otherwise known as the insurance companies and the factions
that support the myths that are entwined with eating disorders, that individuals with mental
illnesses, such as an eating disorder, have a shorter life span than individuals who have heavily
smoked cigarettes. Smoking cigarettes, instead of being something that is frowned upon, as it has
in the recent past, has become an addiction that can be stopped with support and person healing.
The United States of America’s states have all taken a stand in cessation of cigarette smoking by
developing free group therapies for those addicted, producing many advertisements that provide
support and reassurance, and by making the focus of the termination of smoking unavoidable to
the victim. In Mental Health and Mortality: Putting it all in Perspective by Christine Peat, the
writer brings forth the actuality of the oblivion individual’s have toward mental illness. The
article, Mental Health and Mortality: Putting it all in Perspective, provided me with evidence I
required in order to depict to the audience, whether that be the insurance companies, skeptics, or
individuals who support the misconceptions of eating disorders, that insurance companies
maintain and fund the treatment of nearly all cancer patients, even the patients that, similar to
those who suffer from eating disorder, inflicted cancer upon themselves from smoking, a very
common misconception (Oxford, Mental Health). Although both diseases mentioned, smokingrelated cancer and eating disorders, are neither imposed, or inflicted, by the individual’s personal
choice nor easily stopped at any time in the individual’s life without proper treatment and
support. Due to the fact that both diseases, smoking-related cancer and eating disorders, stem
from a compulsive addiction, the audience may envisage that health insurance, and the public,
would help fund and insure the health of the individuals, support the individuals personal
disease, and offer free therapy for the individuals recovery. Unfortunately, individuals suffering
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from an eating disorder, even though the individual is bearing a higher mortality risk, will not
receive the assistances of treatment that other diseases do, even if eating disorders cause equal
amounts of physical damage to the body (Oxford, mental health).
I transformed this material in order to include it in my rhetorical assemblage, due to the
fact that I believe the audience, that being insurance companies, will be able to not only receive
valuable information, but then the audience will possibly be able to grasp the hypocrisy of their
actions. The pre-existing text, Mental Health and Mortality: Putting it all in Perspective,
provides me with sufficient data needed in order for me to develop persuasive, yet informative,
assertions directed toward insurance companies in order to convey their deception towards
individuals and oblivion to the solemnity of mental illness(Oxford, mental health). Other preexisting texts included in my rhetorical assemblage included the use of the NEDA symbol, the
layout of the NEDA website, the use of pictures from various sources, a video on YouTube, and
a poll, all of which help describe the exigence, inform the audience and entertain the audience
that is viewing my medium (National Eating Disorder Association). Furthermore, I have
transformed the idea of the notion that mental illnesses, such as eating disorders, need to be
hidden from the public eye. I depicted to the audience, otherwise known as the insurance
companies, the comparison between cancer, mainly caused by smoking, and eating disorders in
order to present the audience with an accurate example of how eating disorders, as well as other
mental illnesses, are portrayed in a shameful and hidden manner. Meanwhile, support for those
individuals affected by the substance abuse of cigarettes is something that is being sustained, and
typically financed when the individual’s dependence becomes a medical concern, such as cancer.
Furthermore, other pre-existing texts that I felt were indispensable in my rhetorical
assemblage included the following: a photograph of a girl that contains text that states “but you
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don’t look anorexic”, the use of a website template in order to create a rhetorical assemblage,
pictures of statistics and data, and Mental Health and Insurance: Commonly Misunderstood
Illnesses, written by Resident Health Insurance Experts and classified as a Health Insurance
Article. The following resources are essential pre-existing texts in the final product of the
rhetorical assemblage due to the fact that they are necessary in order to apprehend the audience’s
attention and to, perchance, change the audience’s perspective on the issue in order to collect
subsidy from health insurance (Insurance, NEDA). I decided to use the photograph of the female,
in which she exposes her body to the public with a quote that states “but you don’t look
anorexic”, because it is a genuine depiction of one of the biggest misconceptions of eating
disorders (Intoxiction, img). Moreover, the audience of my rhetorical assemblage is insurance
companies, skeptics, and those who believe in the fallacies and misconceptions of the eating
disorder. Most of the individuals who believe in the myths and delusions about eating disorders
are people who actually suffer from an eating disorder. I illustrated the pre-existing text in my
rhetorical assemblage with the intentions of the photograph being directed to all subcategories of
the audience, but I sought to explicitly target those who believe in the fallacies and
misconceptions that are acquainted with the idea of an eating disorder. I decided to portray the
mentioned photograph as the pre-existing text in order to discourse the audience on the topic of a
specific misconception that, the audience may agree, is more closely related to the exigence than
the other common misconceptions associated with the false ideas of eating disorders. The
misconception that the pre-existing text most accurately represents is the idea that an individual
can’t be suffering from an eating disorder if they are not excessively thing (Intoxication, img).
After researching many misconceptions that are associated with an eating disorder, I decided that
the misconception mentioned before was the best choice in regards to my exigence, and I also
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concluded, after thorough research, that this misconception, usually thought by an individual
suffering with an eating disorder, is, what the audience may possibly call, the gateway
misconception. A gateway misconception, although not formally defined, is, what I believe to be,
a misconception that opens up a gate to more eating disorder behavior. I, after assessing the other
misconception, alleged that the declared misconception was the utmost prominent, and the
picture, or pre-existing text, embodied the ideas, beliefs, and expectations of the misconception. I
chose to go into more detail about the misconceptions of eating disorders in the rhetorical
assemblage due to the fact I want the audience to understand where their beliefs stem from in
regards to their idea on eating disorders and the victims affected by it. The audience and I can
both consider that most of the controversy in the exigence of the rhetorical assemblage lies
within the misunderstandings of the substance that makes up the exigence. Solely put, it is
realistic to assume that, based upon my audience’s comprehension of eating disorders, the
rhetorical assemblage I constructed upon a foundation that used tactics such as arguments and
debates; these arguments were aimed at insurance companies to cover eating disorder treatments,
but it is unrealistic to believe the original goal will be achieved quickly, due to the individual’s
inability to entirely understand a mental illness without being exposed to it.
On the other hand, photographs with minor narrative behind the pre-existing text will
probably have a tendency to appeal to individuals in the audience that are merely intrigued by the
topic, such as skeptics, but it does not provide the audience with any factual data, statistics, or
reasoning backing up my exigence, and therefore, will probably not attract the attention of
insurance companies. The rhetorical assemblage is primarily pertaining to and directed towards
the insurance companies because they have the aptitude and influence to enforce modifications
and reformations in regards to the relationships between insurance companies and mental
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illnesses, including eating disorders. I designated photographs in the rhetorical assemblage that
will give the audience the statistics of eating disorders which are compared and paralleled to
other ailments in order to determine diseases morality rates, insurance coverage estimations for
dissimilar conditions, and the general statistics in relation to eating disorders. By using statistical
pre-existing texts I will be able to give the audience data that is necessary for them to possess in
order for my exigence to be considered. The transformation of these pre-existing texts, which are
based on factual data, will not consist of a data change, but instead a layout change. Changing
the layout of a disorganized graph, yet keeping the statistical data, for the audience of my
rhetorical assemblage, would give them quicker access to the information that is indispensable to
them in order for them to form ideas and opinions on my exigence, and the structured
arrangement of the data collected would be required for my exigence to be translated to the
audience in the way I anticipated it. I anticipate an exigence that will focus on the eating disorder
as a biological, physical, and mental disease that requires the equitable and rational treatment by
health insurance companies. I am concentrating on a goal focused exigence due to the fact that,
although change will not happen immediately, the audience I am aiming for has the influence to
spread the rhetorical assemblage to other prominent individuals who can then form their own
ideas; eventually, those individuals can continue to remix and remediate the original ideas in
order to form a result that will please both parties (Myths, Sheppard Pratt).
In the rhetorical assemblage, I fought for suitable treatment and the proper care, as well
as understanding, of those affected by an eating disorder in order to depict to the audience a set
of modes, in addition to mediums, apposite to an individual genre that would further exemplify
the exigence that is being portrayed in the assemblage. Plagiarism, originality, and assemblage,
an article written by Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber, illustrates to the reader the
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explanation of genre in relation to the use of an assemblage (Johndan and Stuart, Pages 375403). In my rhetorical assemblage, it seems that an attempt to categorize all of the pre-existing
texts, and to try to label all the new information and fresh ideas, ideas introduced by the creator,
into one idiosyncratic genre would not describe the remix sufficiently. The rhetorical assemblage
I fabricated, expending pre-existing texts and my influential views and ideas, falls under
amalgam genres that formed throughout the development of the assemblage (Johndan and Stuart,
Pages 375-403). The fusion genre that was formed during the rhetorical assemblage was done
through the breakdown of certain pre-existing texts, the remixing of the information described in
the pre-existing texts, and the formation of logical and informative opinions by the creator.
During the rhetorical assemblage, in order to separate my argument, that being for the
appropriate handling and classification of eating disorders, from other pre-existing texts on this
subject, I restructured the layout of the pre-existing texts, only taking the information I believed
to be crucial in order to explain and argue my exigence. When the new genre, which I chose to
label as informative nonfiction, is broken down into the genera that was pooled, done in order to
produce the informative nonfiction genre, it will assist the audience in discovering that the
assemblage contains various genres that are derived from categories such as film, literature,
language, visual arts, and music. The audience, who includes, but is not limited to, the insurance
companies and skeptics, will be able to identify the genres that make up the newly produced
genre, known as informative nonfiction, with effortlessness due to the systematized outline of the
assemblage. In my rhetorical assemblage, I prepared an accumulation of pre-existing texts, very
diverse in genre, and integrated these resources with a dissimilar, yet suitable, approach in order
to create a remix focused upon the genre of informative nonfiction.
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The classification of this rhetorical assemblage as an informative nonfiction is accurate
but, due to the gathering of dissimilar subgenres and disparate pre-existing texts, breaks many
conventions of the genres normality’s. For example, within nonfiction literature the author
cannot modify the information of a work based on their opinion or idea, but in my assemblage,
although most information is factional, I had the option to insert opinion, breaking the
convention of the nonfiction genre. Likewise, most nonfiction texts function as layouts instituted
upon the use of a biography or essay that is intended to influence, elucidate, amuse, and inform
the audience. While my rhetorical assemblage possesses the same ultimate goal for the audience,
in regards to the nonfiction text normality’s, I chose to deliver my assemblage to the audience
using a flexible layout. Conventions, which are emplaced by the informative nonfiction genre
and, if not disassembled, can be pernicious to the assemblage. The dismantlement of the
conventions installed upon the genre were completed by incorporating diverse subgenres in
conjunction with the addition of supplementary genres that provide the assemblage with a
curtailment of boundaries. I chose to concentrate on informative nonfiction on the grounds that a
considerable amount of my rhetorical assemblage focuses on the informative approach in order
to not only appeal to the intended audience, but then also provide the evidence and data needed
in order to render my exigence as a rational, and perchance favorable, argument directed towards
the audience. To sum up the issue of genre, in my rhetorical assemblage, instead of conforming
to every convention of the indicated genre, I proposed a flexible layout compiled of subgenres
and alternative genres that are dissimilar to informative nonfiction in the interest of providing my
assemblage with a broader selection of modes, I incorporated segments that laid emphasis on
several opinionated and cogent resources conducive to establishing a state in which reactions
could be evoked among the viewers in pursuance of stimulating the audience to form individual
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opinions on the exigence, and I eradicated the confines and restrictions associated with the
informative nonfiction genre in the pursuance of a rhetorical assemblage that, although
concentrated on one exigence, can cover an extensive continuum of issues associated with the
original exigence through the use of differing mediums and modes (Johndan and Stuart, Pages
375-403).
In order to establish a rhetorical assemblage that could escape the conventions of one
specific genre it was essential to fully reconstruct the pre-existing texts used in my assemblage.
The pre-existing texts that I used, some more biased than others, argued different exigences that,
although similar to my own, did not completely describe the issues I felt essential in order to
explicate my exigence as a rational argument, based upon informative facts as well as coherent
opinions extracted from pre-existing texts, to the intended audience. All of the pre-existing texts
I decided to use in the creation of my rhetorical assemblage, whether it was pictures, text, or
layout designs, had specific features that, when reconstructed and combined with a different
revised pre-existing text, otherwise described as the act of assemblage, enriched the rhetorical
assemblage by conveying information and data pertaining to the exigences purpose, by providing
a broad variety of modes and mediums apt for the assemblage, and by supporting claims made
while corresponding with the evidence found in the reconstructed pre-existing texts.
Modes, otherwise defined as the medium of communication, are exercised in relation to
the medium, or the system of communication, they are using. After assessing the issue I decided
to concentrate my rhetorical assemblage on, I came to the conclusion that constructing a website
and, therefore, developing my medium into a website would be the most suitable in favor of my
exigence. The exigence I used in my rhetorical assemblage, as stated before, is comprised of two
central themes. The first argument, or theme, of my exigence confronts the subject of
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communication and understanding in regards to eating disorders. This theme of my exigence
brought forward through my rhetorical assemblage is directed toward an audience of individuals
who are skeptical, and perchance oblivious to the facts, of eating disorders. The medium of my
rhetorical assemblage, the website, is, what I believe to be, the most favorable and organized
way of solving the problem addressed in the first theme of my exigence. The use of a website as
the medium allowed me to use a wide variety of modes, while permitting me to inform many
individuals of the issue, the facts behind the issue, and the myths existing in relation to the eating
disorder, informing the individuals of the fallacies that most are inclined to consider true due to
their lack of information on the topic. In the second theme of my exigence, which argues for the
proper treatment, attention, knowledge, and coverage of eating disorders, and it is specifically
directed toward insurance companies and individuals who continue to trust the fallacies of the
disease. After considering the medium I was using in my rhetorical assemblage, the website, and
assessing the audiences presented to me I determined that using information that was resourceful,
factual, and based on statistics, instead of opinion, would be the best direction to go in order to
invalidate and disprove the audience’s belief in the myths that encompass an eating disorder.
Furthermore, in relation to my medium, the website, my rhetorical assemblage requires and relies
on various modes, which makes my rhetorical assemblage a multimedia text. Constructed upon
the medium of a website, the assemblage requires modes including, but not limited to, viewing
and representing along with reading and writing. Using the given medium and modes available
to my multimedia text in order to outspread the exigence to the audience in an informative and
influential way led me to the creation of a website that used a pre-existing website, which is
managed by NEDA, as the groundwork to the creation of my website (NEDA). Throughout the
rhetorical assemblage I used the NEDA pre-existing website as foundation for my assemblage
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due to favorability of the similarity in the formatting of their information, and due to their
websites structural setup, which informs the audience of the topic in an educational tone, but also
acquaints the audience with ideas and opinions associated with the topic in order to stimulate a
change in perspective by the audience. In the rhetorical assemblage I determined that I would
represent the modes of viewing and representing through the use of graphs, charts, photographs,
and quotes in order to depict to the audience the factual information in a form that has to be
observed initially, instead of the audience having to process the information right away. I
determined I would utilize reading and writing, the other two modes categorized under my
medium, in order to construct a website that will simply inform individuals of the dangers of the
eating disorders, the physical constraints on the body, the evidence for eating disorders being a
biologically influenced disease, the inclusion of various persuasive and influential commentary
from pre-existing texts, and attempts to use writing and reading in order to form a visual
illustration of situations that will, perchance, evoke the audience to form their own opinions and
ideas about the exigence brought to their attention.
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"6 Common Misconceptions about Eating Disorders." Casa Palmera. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec.
2014. <http://casapalmera.com/6-common-misconceptions-about-eating-disorders/>.
"Causes of Eating Disorders - Biological Factors - Eating Disorders (Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge
Eating) Professional Treatment, & Help." Causes of Eating Disorders - Biological
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"Eating Disorders: Insurance Companies Deny Full Treatment - The Local Show." YouTube.
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