Examining Personal Ads and Job Ads

Abstract

In both love and work, people are making increasing use of the Internet to reach others. The rhetorical analysis of online advertisements for love (personal ads) and work (job ads) in this chapter will show that these genres draw on the well-worn rhetorical modes to facilitate connections. In both cases, if the ads work as they are intended to, successful love or work relationships develop as a by-product of careful, thoughtful writing. Writers of online personal ads and job ads use approaches similar to print ads and to each other in several ways: both use basic rhetorical modes, both share a need for large numbers of responses to make the right connections, both connect sometimes in shared meeting places, and both make use of credentials to establish a preliminary match. However, the two kinds of ads differ from each other and from print ads in terms of the Aristotelian principles of truth value (ethos), emotional appeal (pathos), and specific factual argument (logos). This chapter explores the rhetorical principles used and abused by writers of online personals and employment ads, and helps account for both success and failure to connect in love and work.