D#6, HW#5, Ch.5 Rhetorically Situating a Source

The source I chose was "Legislators Craft Alternative Vision of Sex Education to Counter Abstinence-Only Drive".

• The author of this source is Heather Boonstra. Heather Boonstra is a Senior Public Policy Associate in the Guttmacher Institute's Washington, DC office. Her main focus is promoting the Institute's reproductive and sexual health program in federal law and policy. Before working at the Guttmacher Institue she worked at Bass & Howes, Inc. She has also worked as a consultant with many different organizations including the Center for International Health and Information, Save the Children, Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, and the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health. She graduated from the University of Oregon and has an M.A. in religion from Yale University.
• As of right now Healther Boonstra is affiliated with the Guttmacher Institute.
• The author wrote the specific article that I chose because she wanted to illustrate that abstinence-only sex education programs do not work. She gives statistics regarding teen pregnancy and STD spread. She also wanted to give some alternative methods of sex education that could be more beneficial. I believe that the author is both providing the reader with information as well as trying to persuade them into taking action towards more affective sex education programs. The clues that lead me to believe this are that there are a lot of statistics proving that teen pregnancy rates and STD spread are going up, and because of this she gives blame to abstinence-only sex education and offers other alternatives.
• The audience for this source is the American public in general. She is illustrating how there is a great need for change because abstinence-only sex education is simply not working. I feel like she does not have a specific target audience because the source does not specifically talk about the education aspect, or the political aspect. Just the plain facts about abstinence-only education that should grab the attention of Americans in general (once again especially parents of teenagers). If the source was directed towards education specifically or politics specifically the article probably would have included more information on specific laws or actions that can be taken to change them etc.