Rhetorical Analysis Essay “Your Personal Skincare Routine”

                     The document mentioned in this essay, “Your Personal Skincare Routine”, is considered a genre under magazine articles. This contains the use of personal care products and how to maintain and enhance the appearance of the skin. The author’s purpose in writing this article is to both persuade and inform audience on skin care tips and what products to use depending on the skin type they have. Therefore, the targeted audience are people, more specifically women, who need a guide on building a skincare regimen for their specific skin type. Furthermore, stated in the beginning of the article, there main message is “Any age, any complexion, here’s how to update your regimen” which expresses the idea that their audience can be anyone at any age who needs help on implementing a better skincare routine to their newly day to day life. (Harper’s Bazaar 2003) The author of this magazine article is by an American monthly women’s fashion magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and was published by Hearst Magazines, a Division of the Hearst Corporation. Their magazine company aim towards reaching female audiences who are interested in sources of fashion trends relating to beauty, fashion, etc. which is why their targeted audience is stated to be specifically for women.

                Because this article is informative of skin care products and persuasive on choosing the right products for your skin, the author’s stance toward their material is supportive. The way the article is written seems like they are confident about what they are saying because not only are they listing products that are best for each skincare, but they also explain why and list evidence of celebrities who use the same routine with the same skincare type. For example, the first skincare regimen that is recommended for dry skin was inspired by celebrity, Natalie Portman. The article also lists the age range of each celebrity given for each skincare regimen and give several skincare regimens for all skin care type, so audiences do not have just one option to follow for their skin type. The author’s language was bit of both formal and informal because they can be formal when explaining skincare tips and why each product is an essential to the specific skin type. Yet, they can also be informal because they persuade and persist audience to follow their recommended skincare products with sassy remarks. Stated in the article under “Oily” skin type, “Shiny skin isn’t chic at any age” (Harper’s Bazaar 2003), can be seen as informal because they are speaking to the audience in a way that is like how friends, family, or someone close would say to persuade them.

               Overall, the tone of the author is very persuasive and demanding in the way because they persuade them by warning or teasing the audience that if they don’t follow the regimen then they won’t have the skin that they want and they won’t be using the right products for the right skin type. The way the article was delivered (medium) was in a quick, listing way for audience to easily go through and read through what can benefit them. For example, for someone who has oily skin, they can quickly look through the oily skin type listing and read what products they can buy and the cost of each product. This can be convenient to the audience because they can quickly learn everything they need to know about the product and how affordable it is for them to contemplate purchasing. This is how the author uses rhetorical situation in their article. Through directly stating the author’s purpose and targeted audience as well as what and how they express their purpose—tone and language. Throughout the article, the audience does not use “I” because it is a magazine article, and it is more informative with the way the article is organized. It was written with sections and listing of things under each section, so it wasn’t so much of a storyline but description of products. The author relies the most on emotional and ethical appeal because they inform the audience with evidence which shows credibility and relates to their concerns or troubles with skincare which persuades audience to believe in and follow what the author’s purpose for the audience—following the right skincare regimen according to their skin type.

                                                                        Cited Source

 “Your personal skincare routine.” Harper’s Bazaar, no. 3503, Oct. 2003, p. 124. Gale General            

                OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A109269382/ITOF?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark- n.      

                ITOF&xid=ac074b2b. Accessed 26 May 2022.