“An idea is like a virus. Resilient. Highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define...or destroy you.” In the articles, “The Deadliest Virus” by Michael Spector and “Out of the Wild” by David Quammen the viruses present can destroy the human race, but if the scientists can find a cure in time the virus can be stopped before they take over the world. These two articles have a lot of similar principles; however, the articles are different too. The authors use some of the same rhetorical patterns to develop their arguments, but they also use some unique to their own to take their arguments to the next level. The first article “The Deadliest Virus,” the virus H51N is discovered and explained. The first act of …show more content…
In “Out of the Wild,” the author uses definition to define of Marburg . The author used definition to help the reader understand what Marburg is and what it can do to the human body. The author describes Marburg as a zoonotic and a RNA virus, which infects bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals and which is transmitted from animals to humans. The author provides a useful definition on Marburg, which helps the reader understand the article more because without knowing what Marburg is the article would not make sense to the average reader. In “The Deadliest Virus,” the author also uses definition to help the readers truly understand what H5N1 is and the affect it can have on the world. The author describes H5N1 as bird flu like virus, which spreads from chickens to humans and is very contagious and has a high fatality rate. If the definition of H5N1 was not present, the reader would have to make an assumption of what it is; however, there are multiple hints that would help the reader figure out what H5N1 was through context clues. Due to the fact that “The Dealiest Virus had multiple context clues to help define H5N1, the definition in “Out of the Wild” is needed and the author does a better job to assert what Marburg is. Another rhetorical pattern used by both authors is cause and effect, which plays a big role in developing the severity of the viruses. In “Out of the Wild,” Quammen uses cause and effect to show what could happen to the world if the Marburg virus was to escape the bats and get to other animals and eventually into human nature. The Marburg virus is fast acting in human hosts so it will act quickly in humans and through Joostens experience one can see the effects of the Marburg virus are organ failure, comas and possibly death. However, he fails to elaborate on Marburg its self he spends more time talking