Blugold Seminar in Critical Reading and Writing
Grounding students in the reading, writing, and rhetorical demands
necessary for success in college and beyond
Faculty Teaching Guide:
“The Case Against Marine Mammals in Captivity”
Segment: Understanding Perspective
Goals/Purpose:
 To conduct a rhetorical analysis of an article
Establishing a Background:
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Have students look at certain images and discuss how the images make them feel.
o Why do the images make them feel this way?
o What specifically about the image brings out this feeling?
o Where might a person expect to encounter this image?
Watch a video clip of dolphin/whale hunting that shows the negative side of the
issue; show a video clip that shows the positive side of dolphin/whale captivity;
or, show both and compare the two to get the students thinking about the issue.
o Negative video clips:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsVheOmW9-k - drive fishing,
hanging (Video Clip A)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhJcyK6Y-J4&feature=related Tiaji dolphins (Video Clip B)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIlim8lo6oY&feature=related Captivity pt.1 (Video Clip C)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-XNR_Xr3HU&feature=related Captivity pt.2 (Video Clip D)
o Positive video clips:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U5d4f6s6nA&feature=related SeaWorld (Video Clip E)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY8Ntet8Rgc&feature=fvwrel Dolphin collision (Video Clip F)
Rhetorical terms that come up in this article include:
o Logos
 Facts and examples are used to support a logical view of the public
display industry.
o Pathos
 The rhetor is adhering to the emotions of the audience by
describing violent methods of cetacean (whales, dolphins, and
porpoises) capture and shocking statistics of their capture,
captivity, and mortality.
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Examples of violent capture methods are found on pages 6 and 7 in
which drive-style fishing is depicted. Also note that both captions
use the word “bloody” which enhances the emotional appeal to the
audience.
o Purpose
 Images are chosen to enhance the rhetor’s message.
o Enthymeme
 Each visual gives a statement of fact (reason) while appealing to
the emotions of the audience.
 An example can be seen regarding an image on page 7 in which
three whales hang upside down causing the audience to link this
image with similar images such as the hanging of people. This
negative image in the audience’s mind guides the audience to feel
how the rhetor feels about the issue.
Teaching It: Instruction Ideas
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Watch video clips that accompany what the text says.
o Video Clips A and B above could be shown during pages 5-8 under
the subheading “Live Captures”
o Video Clips C and D could be shown with pages 10-11 under the
subheading “Captive Cetaceans and Culture”
Discuss possible effects of outlawing the public display of cetaceans.
o What effect would this have on the wild cetacean populations?
o How might this boost poaching of cetaceans?
o What effect would this have on employment?
o How might this affect the capture and captivity of other animals?
Choose one of the images in the article and in small groups have the students
analyze the visual using the Heuristic for Visual Rhetoric.
Integrating Discussion on Visual Rhetoric
o Visual Choice
 Discuss why these visuals were chosen
 What arrangement were the images shown and was there a
reason for it?
 Why were pathos visuals shown over visuals that clarify
numerical data?
 How do logos and pathos work with the visuals?
o Word Choice
 Discuss the word choice used in the captions of the images
 Why were certain words chosen?
 Was the selection of words random, or purposeful, by the
rhetor?
 How does the word choice in the captions support the purpose
of the article?
o Text Size
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Text size in the first paragraph is larger than in subsequent
paragraphs in order to introduce the topic
 Certain sentences/phrases are set apart from the rest of the text
as a visual (for an example see pg. 2 “U.S. records chart a
history of disturbing causes of death, high mortality rate, and
low birth rates”) which can also be viewed in the regular text
after the set-aside text (line right below set-aside text on pg. 2).
 This repetition of statements is being used to show the more
important points and is used where pictures or graphs cannot
help to prove the point.
 The set-aside text also comes before the regular text because
the audience would be more inclined to skip over the set-aside
text if they knew they had already read the statement. This
stylistic choice “tricks” the audience to read the statement
twice, thus capturing its importance.
Possible Activities for Analysis of Text:
o Read pbs.com interview about the positives of marine mammal
captivity and discuss.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/whales/debate/proca
p.html
 Do you agree or disagree with the statements?
 What questions would you ask?
 Are you persuaded in favor of captivity?
o Split the students up and have them debate the issue of marine
mammal captivity.
o Conduct an in-class trial in which a group of students are on trial for
the death of an orca/dolphin that their company captured and sold to a
dolphinaria. Some students will play the jurors, some the defendants,
and some the prosecutors (even groups of prosecutors and
defendants). Each side pleads their case and the jurors give a verdict
based on the evidence provided. Evidence can include any of the
material already used in class.
Follow-up and Making Connections:
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Connections to Writing Matters
o Appealing to Readers’ Emotions (pg. 79).
 Some visuals appeal to the emotions of the audience.
 Figure 11.3 shows a polar bear with the caption “Loss of sea
ice poses a threat to the polar bear.” This visual with the
accompanying caption is attempting to elicit an emotional
response from the reader in which they sympathize with the
polar bear. We can deduce from this that the rhetor is
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attempting to persuade the audience that the loss of sea ice is a
terrible thing and needs to stop.
 The visuals in this article are being used to appeal to the
emotions of the reader.
Connections to other articles
o Herrick – Rhetoric assists advocacy (pg. 18-19)
 Article gives captivity issue a public voice.
 Very political.
o “From Pencils to Pixels”
 Exploratory (“Pencils to Pixels”) vs. Persuasive (“Marine
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Mammals”).
Compare images used and there effect on audience.