The Department of Veterans Affairs has been a topic of concern for a while now. There have been many challenges faced by the VA including wait times for medical care, inadequate mental health services if they even get any, and making it difficult for veterans to get benefits. These problems have had a significant impact on the lives of many veterans. The Veterans Legal Clinic is a credible source with extensive knowledge and valid rhetorical appeals which address the importance to ensure veterans receive the support and care they deserve.  As authors, the Veterans Legal Clinic do a good job digging deep into the problems and the solutions for veterans all over the country by use of logical appeals and high education standards. The Veterans Legal Clinic does an extensive research on the background of evidence compared to CNN Health articles which determines the higher credibility. 

The sources convey their points,  Veterans deserve better care as they are putting their life on the line by both using emotional appeals to make the reader want to keep scrolling. The Veterans Legal Clinic article “Turned Away” relies heavily on data, real life stories, as well as the usage of highly educated reviewers.  The source has information that can widen the reader's perspective which also adds to the appeal of being a stronger article. For instance, the Veterans Legal Clinic dedicates around 25 pages of its article to graphs, definitions, court documents, and a broad explanation of why veterans deserve better care when they come home from deployment. “Turned Away” expresses their reasoning for why veterans should have better care back home which strengthens their emotional appeal. This source is not biased which does not take away from the logical appeals. Unlike “Turned Away”,  the CNN article “Veterans Dying Because of Healthcare Delays",¨ has little to no logical appeals.  It has outdated information on the patients that come through the VA. For example, “That’s according to an internal document from the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs; obtained exclusively by CNN, that deals with patients diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and 2011” (Black).  While this information might be true, it is over 10 years ago which has devalued the information. CNN health uses mostly emotional appeals considering it is a major news outlet world-wide. For example, “CNN has made repeated requests for interviews with top officials at the VA, including President Obama's appointed head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary Eric Shinseki, The request have been denied, or ignored.” (Black).  This information could spark a reader's emotions but uses no information to back up actions. In conclusion, both sources use different resources  to keep the audience interested in the important matter of Veterans. It is only one source that uses multiple ways rather than one that led to the readers being more educated on the topic. 

The Veterans Legal Clinic has a strong logical appeal which allows the clinic to rely less on emotions and could make the information more credible. When using logical appeals, there should always be data to back up claims.  For instance, while talking about the increasing numbers of discharges the Department of Defense says “The increased use of administrative discharges and the disparate rates of bad paper discharges among the branches of service likely have complex origins” With making this claim the DoD provides a graph of percentages above showing the percent enlisted service members with bad paper discharges backing up their claims. This statement and information can be seen as a logical appeal because of the background of this information. The source "Veterans dying because of health care delays” uses some logical appeals but not as many or as strong as the  previous source. This source has a persuasive purpose which may also take away from a minimal logical appeal and just the story telling of a veteran who was treated badly by the Veterans Affair System. With one sole story throughout the whole source it gives little space to broaden knowledge on the topic which is not helpful to readers. While the article from CNN does have contact with big departments, it fails to use any documentation to show this. For example, “Coates filed a legal claim, citing the “failure of the Columbia (South Carolina) VA Medical Center to timely diagnose his rectal cancer. The VA settled, but admitted no wrongdoing” (Black). This statement can be thought of as an emotional appeal simply  because of  underlying emotional persuasion. It is only certain and obvious that emotional appeals are what CNN possesses. 

The article “Turned Away”  was written by the Veterans Legal Clinic but was reviewed and had input from multiple prestigious people. Emily Brignone was one of many that reviewed this article. Brignone works at the Veterans Affair Healthcare System in Pittsburgh. Brignone has had experience as an analyst for Highmark Health which is a non profit health insurance organization. Brignone is an expert in fields such as statistics, military personnel, mental health, and health services research. Thomas Burke, a professor at Harvard Medical School gave his review on this article as well.  Burke is a Director of the Global Health Innovations Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital. Burke is a graduate from Albany Medical School and completed his residency at Madigan Army Medical Center. Dr. Burke spent seven and a half years in the US Army. Dr. Burke was deployed as a tactical physician for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team. With the input of these two people, "Turned Away” has become a credible source. While most articles are not as prestigious in education as “Turned Away” on a topic concerning veterans, background knowledge and high education is important. “Veterans Dying because of Health Care Delays” sent out by CNN Health is written by Scott Bronstein and Nelli Black who are both just producers of Investigations at CNN. Considering the knowledge of reporters and producers, who are mostly known for publicity and whatever will get the most reads. With that being said, the article from CNN could be less reliable as well as less educational. 

Reading both sources, it can be determined that the use of logical appeals rather than emotional appeals can make sources more credible. Both sources make known that there is a common problem within the Veterans Affairs System but the source written by the Veterans Legal Clinic is more useful. Comparing “Turned Away” to “Veterans dying because of health care delays” showed that both sources are different and serve different purposes but can both help problems within society by just informing readers. 

Work Cited

Griffin, Drew. “Veterans dying because of health care delays.” CNN, 30 January 2014, cnn.com/2014/01/30/health/veterans-dying-health-care-delays/index.html. Accessed 26 February 2024.

Veterans Legal Clinic. “Turned Away.” How VA Unlawfully Denies Health Care to Veterans with Bad Paper Discharges, vol. 1, 2022, p. 52. Legalservices.org, legalservicescenter.org/wp-content/uploads/Turn-Away-Report.pdf.