The Rhetorical Précis of Aaron Swartz, Coder and Activist, Dead at 26”

Kevin Poulsen wrote the article “Aaron Swartz, Coder and Activist, Dead at 26” (January 12, 2013) to suggest Aaron Swart’s death is tragic and “that the world is a poorer place for the loss” to show that the world will now have unsolved technological problems. Poulsen talks about all the things he did technological starting at when he was fourteen years old to the present. The authors purpose is to show how important Aaron was and the tragedy of his passing, “The world is robbed of a half-century of all the things we can’t even imagine Aaron would have accomplished with the remainder of his life”, in order to sow that he was very much needed in the world and should not have taken his own life. The intended audience is for coders and other technological people like Aaron since the article is about what Aaron did technologically and the government since he brings up how Aaron hacked and downloaded articles from the JSTOR and his trial.