Unit 1 Project-Nomadic Matt

The blog Nomadic Matt is blog that appeals to a wide range of audiences about the topic of travel through the author’s use of intellectual standards and realistic tone. The purpose of the author is to inform, direct, and give advice to readers about traveling better, smarter, and cheaper. Nomadic Matt is blog with many credentials like being featured on National Geographic, CNN, and the New York Times. It has also been selected as one of the top ten travel blogs by various websites. With all of this being said, the author must be doing something right in the aspects of rhetoric.

Initially when I think of blogs, I overlook and do not consider them something worthy of rhetorical analyses, but through this unit I have learned that this is not the case. For a blog to be successful, it must hit the three points of a rhetorical analysis. These points are the author, audience, and context. When analyzing the author one must look deeper into who the author is, what is his/her background, and what their purpose as an author of a blog is. Nomadic Matt has one author, Matt. Matt features an “About” page on his blog which gives insight into his background and reflects on his character. On this page we learn that Matt is the sole author of Nomadic Matt and that he believes in the topics he blogs about because he lives them out. This direct correlation between experience and his blogs give him creditability and it shows readers that his purpose to make traveling better, smarter, and cheaper is realistic and obtainable. Creditability is important for the authenticity of a blog, so by expressing this standard through his blogs, Matt creates blogs that readers can trust and rely on.

Blogs have to appeal to someone, if not what would be their purpose? When performing a rhetorical analysis one must consider the audience and how the author aims towards a particular audience. Nomadic Matt points towards a general audience due to aspects pointed out by the text like the appealing layout of the page, easy terminology, short paragraphs, and organization of the blog. Let’s be honest, the general public tends to like things that are simple to understand and look pretty and the author of Nomadic Matt does this. Matt uses realistic terminology and makes his blogs seem more like a conversation instead of a lecture. Although most of the aspects of Nomadic Matt points towards a general audience, some components like links to other websites that provide facts and statistics, aim towards an audience that interested in the hard facts or is more cautious and needs certainty when it comes to making their travel arrangements. Not only does this widen the spectrum of different audiences his blog appeals too, but Matt also strengthens his credibility. This also demonstrates the intellectual standard of significance. By providing links, statistics, and lists, the author is able to point out the significant aspects of their blog and thus helping get their major points across to readers. The audiences of Nomadic Matt all share a common interest and that is the interest of travel and adventure. Matt’s purpose is to encourage and inspire this audience to go out travel and show them ways to do it so nothing can hold them back.

Text is the last key point when performing a rhetorical analysis. I have already mentioned rhetorical features of the text like the appealing layout of the page, easy terminology, short paragraphs, and organization of the blog. This blog features many pictures of travel destinations, food, and travel gear because if readers can see what they are reading about it makes them more eager and inspired to travel to the pictured destinations and informed on what proper gear looks like. Just looking at the pictures makes you want to get up and go! Key topics and tips are bolded or either used as headings within the blogs. This draws the reader’s eye and points out the main ideas readers should take away from the blogs. All of these factures express the intellectual standard of clarity. Clarity is being easy to understand and free from confusion or ambiguity, which Matt does efficiently through all of his blog posts. The author’s purpose with the blog Nomadic Matt is make travel better, smarter, and cheaper and he does this because he adheres closely to the conventions of journalistic writing. Through the text we also learn a lot about Matt. His perspective on his topics are first hand experiences and he uses some outside sources to support his claims and to develop credibility. As a result of reading his blogs, Matt wants readers to make their traveling dreams a reality and he supports this by giving readers well tested tips, advice, suggestions, and by his personal experience on traveling. Some readers might argue based on the text that some of the author’s suggestions and tips just aren’t realistic for the average person, but Matt makes it clear that anybody can travel efficiently and cheaply because he does it personally himself. Matt also features many pictures of himself in various locations around the world, proving that he actually has been to the destinations he blogs about.

Overall I find Nomadic Matt to be a great blog that definitely fulfils the author’s purpose by reaching out to wide range of audiences and motivating them to travel better, smarter, and cheaper. The many images and colors of the blog appeal to the reader’s senses making the blog realistic and inspiring. Despite the argument that some of Matt’s tips are unrealistic, it seems that he refutes this argument by living out what he blogs about. After reading blogs from Nomadic Matt, I personally have felt the inspiration to travel that Matt conveys upon his readers. Anyone that has a passion to travel or is looking for that extra “push” to get them out there exploring the world should definitely check out http://www.nomadicmatt.com/ .