TOW #7- She’s America’s youngest female billionaire- and a dropout (Article)

            As I was scrolling through the articles this title caught my eye. It was a captivating article however as I read I noticed the topic of this essay is not about a young female who became a billionaire despite dropping out of college. This article was about a woman who started a lab that is now making groundbreaking changes in blood testing around America. And she just happens to be America’s youngest female billionaire and a college dropout.

            Along with many of these articles there are videos. In this video CNN interviews Elizabeth Holmes and asks her about how it feels to be a college dropout with all of this success. It is very obvious that she would much rather be talking about her discoveries in science then her wealth or her past.

            Despite the off-topic titling of the article, it was still a very informative piece about the future of blood testing. Rachel Cranes purpose in writing this essay was not to inform the reader of Elizabeth Holmes but to convince the reader of the vitality of blood testing. Crane uses pathos and logos to convey her purpose.

            Towards the end of the article, the author uses statistics to back up her points. For example, as Crane was explaining how much say laboratories in the U.S. have she used a statistic that U.S. labs dictate 80% of clinical decisions annually. This helps her further prove her point of the necessity of one getting their blood taken and sent to a lab. She also backs this point up by saying that 46% of Americans are not compliant with the tests that their physicians give them. These statistics make the necessity and lack of blood tests un-debatable.

            Not only did Crane convince the reader blood tests are vital but she also convinces them that they aren’t so bad. She says this by conveying to emotions through diction. Theranos Wellness Center is the lab that Holmes helped found and it is described to have calming music, glossy magazines and offers a blood test with a relatively painless prick.  These descriptive words help the reader picture a calming entertaining space, making blood testing seem better.

            Although the title was misleading, the article was just as interesting. Through logos and pathos Rachel Crane convinces the reader of importance of blood testing.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/16/technology/theranos-elizabeth-holmes/index.html