ipl-logo

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Serial By Sarah Koen

945 Words4 Pages

Sarah Koening is the host of the podcast Serial, a story that follows the murder of teenage Hae Min Lee and her alleged murderer Adnan Syed. Koening put herself out into the world with the serial podcast in 2014, and once the podcast was finished it ended up being worth twenty-five million dollars. Even though Sarah deliberately says throughout the podcast that she is pursuing this case for her own curious reasons, she really wants us to listen for her own personal gain. She demonstrates this want for fame, money, and views by effectively making the case a narrative rather than an expositive story, through her author's craft and use of rhetorical devices, and her constant use of cliffhangers at the end of each episode.
A good true crime story …show more content…

Episode 3 for example she ends it with this sentence “And while I don't exactly know why suspicions about Adnan start to percolate, I have an educated guess. Next week, on Serial.” Endings like this are what make her viewers ask the questions “Well what evidence makes her suspicious of Adnan?” and “What does she know that we don't?” Even though she could easily wrap up the end of each episode with a complete ending she purposely chooses not to. This is how she manipulates foreshadowing and makes her viewers want to come back for more which inevitably leads to more profit and fame for …show more content…

Her infatuation with the case begins with a call from Adnans best friends older sister Rabia. Koenig looked more into the case and describes it as a “Shakespeare Mashup” in episode 1. Rabia also informs Koenig that she believed Adnans lawyer had botched the case on purpose in order to get more money for the appeal, which enhanced Koenigs interest in the case even more. Throughout the Serial episodes Koenig begins to stray further away from her claim of doing the case out of pure interests. She begins to show bias towards Adnan. Her evidence also becomes sloppy where from in the beginning she is asking multiple sources about one single problem to see all sides of the story, but towards the end of the podcast it feels as if shell take the word of anyone who will give it to her in order to give us

Show More
Related
349 Words | 2 Pages

Serial is a podcast that first premiered in 2014 and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. The podcast, produced by Sarah Koenig, is a spin-off of the radio program This American Life and tells the story of a 1999 murder case in Baltimore, Maryland. The story is told through a series of episodes, each one delving deeper into the case and the investigation. The podcast uses a variety of rhetorical devices to create suspense and engage the audience.

Read More
985 Words | 4 Pages

One of these friends was Adnan Syed, her ex-boyfriend and another popular kid. He was arrested and charged for her murder based on witness testimony from a distant friend, Jay Wilds. 15 years later, Sarah Koenig revisited the case to present in her podcast, Serial uncovering lots of evidence along the way. The evidence she finds both supports and opposes his guilty sentence but ultimately, the strongest evidence points to Syed being guilty, due to his weak alibi and the strength of the evidence opposing him.

Read More
673 Words | 3 Pages

Obsidian Mekediak Tyler Bonnette RD 117 19 Dec 2022 Rhetorical Analysis of Sarah Koenig’s ‘Serial’ Adnan Syed was convicted for the murder of Hae Min Lee February 25, 2000. Syed has claimed his innocence since he was arrested. Syed’s conviction was based on Jay Wilds’ testimony. Wilds claimed Syed had strangled Hae Min Lee, and convinced Wilds to help bury her body. Sarah Koenig’s initial purpose of creating the podcast ‘Serial’ and investigating the conviction of Adnan Syed for the murder of Hae Min Lee was to conclude if the state's case against Syed was flawed and in doing that, Koenig was successful.

Read More
968 Words | 4 Pages

Jane the Virgin: Season 2 Episode 17 Jane the Virgin, a spoof of a Venezuelan telenovela, currently on its third season is a show focused on bringing light to the Latino culture’s beauty. Jane Villanueva, a twenty-eight-year-old Venezuelan, who lives with her mother, Xiomara, and grandmother, Alba, in Miami, Florida. Alba, a devout Catholic, and her husband became illegal immigrants in America immediately after they got married. She dreamed her daughter would be a perfect Catholic, but Xiomara became a mom at sixteen, and to protect the father’s identity, Xiomara hid his identity from her mother. Xiomara had Jane, and to keep her from making the same mistakes her daughter did, Alba taught Jane that her virginity was like a flower, and once

Read More
1003 Words | 5 Pages

Serial, a thrilling investigative journalism podcast by Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder, is about the Baltimore, Maryland murder, of Hae Min Lee in 1999. Hae Min Lee was a popular high school senior at Woodlawn High School. She disappeared after school on January 13th, 1999, and six weeks later her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was arrested for her murder. Sarah Koenig investigates her murder through this podcast and searches more about what exactly happened to Hae Min Lee. Koenig interviews Syed many times to figure out his innocence or guilt.

Read More
783 Words | 4 Pages

The most difficult thing an author can do when telling a story, is attracting an audience, and maintaining the audience’s engagement. In Serial, while telling the story of Adnan Syed, Sarah Koenigs attracts the audience with her purpose which is proving that Adnan Syed was wrongfully convicted and isn't completely guilty. Sarah maintains the attention of her audience by using emotional, and logical appeal, while also establishing credibility. In other words she uses the rhetoric made up of Pathos, Logos, and Ethos.

Read More
718 Words | 3 Pages

The Serial podcast captivated millions of listeners as it dug deep into the case of Adnan Syed, a man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. While Syed's sentence to life in prison may initially seem justified, a closer examination of the evidence presented in the podcast raises significant doubts about his guilt. This essay aims to challenge Adnan Syed's sentence by presenting material from three episodes of Serial, revealing inconsistencies in the prosecution's case, unreliable witness testimonies, and the lack of conclusive evidence tying Syed to the crime. Throughout the podcast, several inconsistencies and discrepancies emerge, undermining the reliability of the prosecution's case against Adnan Syed.

Read More
1143 Words | 5 Pages

Serial is a podcast created by Sarah Koenig. Serial is based on the court case of a Adnan Syed, this podcast discusses important information on whether or not Adnan is guilty or innocent of committing murder. The case against Adnan is very murky. People believe that Adnan should not have been tried for the tiny amount of evidence they had against him, which was a friends story, and cell phone records.

Read More
1013 Words | 5 Pages

Anya Schultz, the author of a review titled Serial: A Captivating New Podcast, works to show how multiple narratives and stories can be manipulated and sometimes vastly misinterpreted. Serial, an intriguing, enthralling podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, tells the story of Hae Min Lee, a young, beautiful, high school senior who was murdered in 1999. Lee 's case, as Koenig and Schultz point out, has a few missing pieces of information that were never accounted for. For example, how did the jury come to the conclusion that Lee 's ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was truly guilty? Why did Syed 's lawyer forget to mention the letter from his acquaintance Asia McClain that could have polished his alibi?

Read More
1190 Words | 5 Pages

There are around 1,000 people who are wrongly convicted of crimes each year, and Adnan Syed is to be believed to be one of the many who has been wrongly accused of murder. Adnan has been accused of strangling his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, and burying the body. This case was committed about 17 years ago and is still uncovering new evidence about the murder. Sarah Koening, the narrator of the podcast, takes a closer look at the reason why Adnan was accused and looks into the state's case. The Serial Podcast was created as a spin-off of The American Life and to share the story of Adnan Syed.

Read More
1221 Words | 5 Pages

Bryson Esplin Mr. Johansen ENG 101 1 February 2023 Rhetorical Analysis of Julie Petersen’s “Analysis Essay: Is Macbeth A Tragic Hero?” One true problem with writing posted to the internet is the inability to prove what, if anything, is true or credible. With common phrases such as “Don’t believe everything you read” and “Fake news,” it has become more important than ever to know what articles are reliable. One example of a source that claims to be trustworthy but is questionable at best is the website AskPetersen.com. Julie Petersen, who runs the website, claims to have everything to help readers “write a perfect essay” (Petersen, “Blog”).

Read More
1305 Words | 6 Pages

Serial, a podcast narrated by Sarah Koenig, explores the complexities of justice and truth to bring awareness about the trial of Adnan Syed. This trial is based on the murder of Hae Min Lee, with Adnan being the main accusation, mainly because he was Hae’s ex boyfriend. Throughout the podcast, Koenig discusses how the conviction within this trial was made without having any hard physical evidence. She brings this up to then evaluate the evidence the court uses, which tends to either be inconsistent or conflicting. This questions the credibility of the case and brings up the fact that bias could have played a role in the case.

Read More
532 Words | 3 Pages

Sarah Koenig, the host and producer of the popular podcast “Serial” is known for her engaging storytelling style and ability to use rhetorical devices and tools of persuasion to keep listeners interested and invested in the story she is telling. As a journalist and narrative storyteller, Koenig’s goal is to present a well-researched and balanced account of the events she is discussing and to use her skills as a writer and communicator to convey that information in a way that is compelling and engaging to her audience. But what Koenig fails to do is back up her conveyed idea of being a credible authority figure and also fails to provide a large amount of necessary information, while rambling on for unnecessary amounts of time about information that can be easily summed up shorter. Tactics like these show how she receives more listening time, viewership, and money. One technique she employs is the use of rhetorical questions, which allow her to guide the listener's thinking and lead them toward a particular conclusion.

Read More
838 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout Serial (a podcast discussing the love story between two teens from Baltimore in the 1990s), Adnan Syed is interviewed by Sarah Koenig as her goal is to find out who really killed Hae Min Lee as she deeply investigates

Read More
410 Words | 2 Pages

Emma Marris uses many types of persuasive elements in her essay “Emma Marris: In Defense of Everglade Pythons”. In her writing she persuades her readers that the pythons should be allowed to be in the everglades since it is not their fault that they are there in the first place. She uses metaphors to relate to the reader and word choice to enhance her writing.

Read More

More about A Rhetorical Analysis Of Serial By Sarah Koen

Related Topics

Open Document