TOW #22 - Heart Attack Article

Laura Geggel, Staff Writer for Live Science News, explains in her most recent article how Daylight Saving Time can effect an increase in heart attack frequency. This article seeks to warn those at risk of heart attacks and to further the culture of fear that keeps people reading news articles like hers and her coworkers'. Her two main rhetorical strategies for this are grounding her unusual claim in scientific evidence, and stressing the variety of symptoms which may be signs of a heart attack. 
The first of her two strategies really only seeks to give teeth to her article. She explains the scientific context of the study that found the information and stresses numerical data saying, "The number of heart attacks increased 24 percent on the Monday following a daylight saving time, compared with the daily average for the weeks surrounding the start of daylight saving time". Geggel knows that her reading audience will be the scientifically minded people that read Live Science. Therefore it is logical to stress the data and meta-data of the study to her audience.
The second of her two strategies is the one that actually furthers her causes of safety and fear. Approximately one half of the entire article discusses exactly what symptoms might point toward a yet-to-come heart attack, who is at risk, and exactly what to do. Geggel writes, "With this in mind, people who are at risk of a heart attack — such as those who smoke, have a strong family history of heart attack or have high cholesterol or high blood pressure — shouldn't delay a trip to the emergency room if they feel chest pain". This both informs her audience as a safety briefing and begins to induce a mild hypochondria and self-evaluation of personal heart health. These can lead to seeking out similar articles on this and other websites in the readers. This tactic is common place and entirely effective.
Though this article is short and bluntly written, the content delivered reveals a certain degree of tactical creativity. There are no examples of colorful language or vivid imagery to be found, but it is in what Geggel has chosen to include and not include that allows her to effectively impact her audience and achieve her desired goals in this text.