Rhetorical Analysis of Academic Journal

To anyone who may be wondering, the main library does not have any of the medical journals. So don't go there and look everywhere for them because you won't find any. You'll have to walk all the way to the health and science library on Speedway and Cherry. And you'll get lost. And then when you get there you'll realize that all the nursing journals are 10+ years old so you'll have to walk all the way back to campus empty handed. The moral of the story is check the library website first always.

Fortunately, I was able to rhetorically analyze the most recent issue of the online version of the Journal of Pediatric Nursing.

The authors

There are very many authors published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Pediatric Nursing (Volume 31, Issue 2) because most articles have a whole team of authors-sometimes 6 or 7 people. To save time for myself and the readers, I chose to focus on the editorial board of the Journal. 

• The editors are Cecily Lynn Betz, Myra Martz Huth, Nancy Blake, Sandra Mott, Jan Foote, Mary D. Gordon, Deborah L. McBride, Karen Goldschmidt, and Becky J Schmidt. 
• Next to all the author's names their credentials and educational background are posted, as well as where they're from. 
• All the editors are portrayed as professionals with plenty of experience, which makes sense if they're the ones editing these scholarly articles. 

The audience

• The primary audience for this journal in general is other pediatric nurses. The titles and content of the articles are driven towards people who understand the content already and can apply it to their practice. 
• A secondary audience could possibly be families of children who deal with health ailments (this journal mentions diabetes and autism). The articles are about how nurses should treat children with these ailments, so it can benefit families of these children to know the type of care their children should receive. 

The context

• This issue was published in 2016, on an online platform. The journal is well organized and pleasing to the eye with plenty of white space and a few graphics. This issue focuses particularly on treating children with diabetes, obesity and autism, and how to support their families. Towards the end of the issue, the articles become more centered on preventing of spread of disease and the strategies pediatric nurses should take. 
• The content I mentioned above could be shaped by the time that this issue was published. The beginning of 2016 has been wrought with the spread of disease, hence why there are several articles on disease prevention. 
• Most nursing journals follow the same general format (abstract, introduction, presenting the research, and a conclusion). This issue is no different and follows this convention. 

The message

• It's hard to cite one specific message to a whole journal, but I believe that one possible message could be "Delivering the best pediatric nursing care possible can better the future by preventing disease and keeping families happy." I decided this based on the types of articles that are posted in this issue. They all have to do with family care and prevention, with a focus on improving nursing care for the future.

The purpose

• The purpose goes hand in hand with the message. I believe the purpose is to inform pediatric nurses everywhere of the optimal type of car they should be giving their patients. The purpose is to better the nurses, which betters the patients and healthcare everywhere.

Now it's time to find more genre examples!