TEXT A: Do Intel engineers have a secret formula for success?

1. Introduction
Who is the author/speaker? Which is the text’s title?
Explore and understand the text (Key words in the title)
rhetorical situation
PURPOSE

P - Which is the author’s purpose in writing?

● To attack or defend?
● To exhort or dissuade from certain action?
● To praise or blame?
● To teach or to persuade?
● What would happen if readers complied with that
request? 

This article seeks to defend and dissuade about the

importance of taking into account some essential factors to
get to success, for this reason it praises the engineers of
Intel, who are the responsible for the success of the company
that have led it to be recognized around the world as the
largest manufacturer of integrated circuits.

AUDIENCE

A- Which is the year of publication? Who is the intended

audience? What values does the audience of this time
hold that the author or speaker appeals to? Who have
been or might be secondary audiences?

The advertisement titled as “Do Intel engineers have a secret

formula for success?” was published in Newsweek on 2002
and it is directed to a wide audience, however it is focusing
on business owners or workers (that could be centered in the
industry of semiconductors or technology) since it talks from
a business success perspective but anyway it attacks anyone
interested in achieving the concept of success. Taking this
into account, the author appeals to the values of
perseverance, dedication and commitment in order to
achieve goals and work success of which the audience is
interested in.

- Overall businesses workers and owners

- People interested in success (personal or material)
CONTEXT

C - (this is compulsory)

When and where is the text being published? Is this a local or a

global problem? How can the message of the text be applied to
our current situation? What kinds of values or customs would
the people have that would lead the author to write this?

It was published in Newsweek in 2002. The main message is

that there are actually a series of factors that determine the
path to success and that it could be applied globally for our
daily life situations as well, by innovating, seeking for the
future, meeting demands, goals and being enthusiastic in
order to be determined to achieve success just as Intel
engineers have done before.

People tend to limit themselves and get lost on the road to

success, for this reason the author invites them to be
motivated and take the example of Intel to be more creative,
critical and responsible for their decisions.

THEME

T - Which is the type of text? What kind of style and tone

does it usually use and for what purpose?

The style is dynamic as it shows a simple and easy format in

the type of an advertisement, which is characterized for
including small texts with relevant meaning that permit a
higher level of acceptance of the information by a wider
audience.

T - What is the main theme/issue? What is the author’s claim

about it? Respond in one sentence.

The main theme is success, the author claims that

innovation, reinversion, mass production and to repeat
enthusiastically conform the formula of it.
Main body
1. Improving resources day after day and seeking as well
for the future is the essence of continuous improvement
2. Thinking at a bigger scale implies coming up with
benefits by meeting demands properly and opening
different paths of growth
3. With enthusiasm, you can achieve great things

Claim 1

“It´s the essence of what we do: create new technologies to

help business do more at lower cost. Its engineering applied
to real business”

“Business speaks, Intel listens”

“We think of it as an investment in your company’s future”

Claim 2

“The challenge is to manufacture millions to meet the

demands of computer markets and corporations
worldwide.”

“Thinking on this scale allows us to deliver higher

performance and lower cost to business”

Claim 3

“It´s a formula that allows us to keep delivering innovative,

reliable and cost-effective computing solutions. That´s the
way Intel works”

How does the writer use language and style in 2 quotations

to convey their purpose and message?

Use keywords: connotes, perspective, point of view, facts,

word choice, tone, thoughts.

Comment on the general and particular structure. Are there

any patterns in the way the author presents the evidence?
How is it arranged? (find strategic quotations/elements that
support the structure type) Title, subtitles, enumeration
and punctuation. How does this affect the readers’ mind?

The article is characterized by its simple structure, the reader

feels more engaged and motivated to read and analyze as it
seems to be very clear and concise. As we can see, the
author connotes the title “Do Intel engineers have a secret
formula for success” in the way of a question and soon it
reveals the direct answer to this one “Yes.”, in a way it´s
visually easy to see, leading to take advantage in the
confidence that it stablish with the audience as its tone have
seems to be confident. Like this, we identify the title as
thematic since it gives us a direct approach of what we will
find next, which is the formula of success.

Later on, the author decides to show his perspective of

success from the perspective of an engineer of Intel as they
are recognized to be successful employees seen in the
following quote “It´s a formula that allows us to keep
delivering innovative, reliable and cost-effective computing
solutions. That´s the way Intel works”.

For this, we encounter with four enumerated subtitles that

conform the components of the formula of success in a
cyclical manner, which demonstrates their validity and
transcendentalism on the matter.

The use of punctuation and word choices in the article are

important to the point they limit sentences, making the
reading quicker and concise and, consequently engaging the
reader to the information that is being displayed more fluidly
and precise. For this reason, the selective word choices in
“challenge”, “improvement” and “solutions” connotate the
semantic field of success, suggesting that they differentiate
and are responsible for their performance in order to grow,
meet their goals and demands.

Use keywords: connotations, perspective, point of view,

facts, choice of words, tone, thoughts.

Finally, it is important to highlight how the use of

personification, facts, inclusion and optimistic point of view
manages to motivate the audience to follow in their footsteps
as we can see in the following quote “Business speaks, Intel
listens”. The article shows a circular image with two people
which seems connotate teamwork at the same time it shows
the authors thoughts about how success is the result of a
cycle and must be seen to work and be successful. In
addition, it shows us a connection to enthusiasm and its
importance by the use of repetition in the last section that we
 must have to fulfill what we propose since success goes
much further than doing things with the thought that they
should be done since many times we leave everything
halfway or we become unmotivated and deviated, since it is
not possible to maintain the formula of success within the
field of motivation.

Conclusion Write a final comment about the overall relation between

language and theme in the text and the value/role of the
author’s style to engage the readers. 

In the article "Do Intel Engineers Have a Secret Formula for

Success?" we can identify that the author directly answers
and highlight the answer to the question which is “yes” trying
to attract the attention of the audience and stablish their
enthusiastic tone and point of view from a current successful
and recognized company. Also, the general relationship
between the use of language and the theme of success add
value the formula that they are suggesting. The author relies
on the use of punctuation to give a stronger tone that makes
the audience gain confidence and the use of clear and concise
language to be easily understood by a wider audience that is
also attracted for its simple structure which seems to be well
organized and delimited. By representing the cyclical manner
of all of the four factors with enumeration and some circles
around them, it makes the reader get in touch with the implicit
messages that shows how everything is a process and to
achieve it you must be persistent as it goes on and on. In
addition to this, the word choices as we can see with the use
of "future" "challenge" and "solutions" suggest the validity of
their formula, thus showing to the audience their positive
correlation and appropriation with the concept of success.
Similar to this, the author utilizes personification to say that
“Business speaks, Intel listens” as a fact in order to emphasize
over the importance of reinversion and innovation and once
again creating trust bonds with the reader and the formula.

Finally, we get to understand that the most important part of

the formula and the cycle is to repeat it with enthusiasm as the
lack of motivation and sense of purpose might become a
weakness which will end up limiting the effectiveness of this
formula to success.