A Rhetorical Analysis Of Steven Shapin's The New Yorker

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“There hasn’t always been autism,” states Steven Shapin, a historian of science, when discussing the disorder (65). It is difficult to consider such fact, when autism has become a focal point in recent years as the number of those who have autism increases. Though autism may not have always been a defined disorder, there have always been people who have exhibited the symptoms of autism. Since it is a more recent history, there has been a lot of development and progress in the way autism is perceived, diagnosed, and treated. In Shapin’s article from the January 25th 2016 issue of The New Yorker, he uses authorial intrusion, word choice, and an informative tone to elaborate on the history of autism while encouraging his readers to recognize different …show more content…

Shapin may have done this to help his reader not only sympathize with those who have autism, but empathize with them. He encourages his reader to be empathetic by beginning his article with images that his audience can relate to. These familiar issues that anyone might encounter compare to how a person who has autism might feel. Shapin speaks directly to the reader, saying “sometimes your train is late, sometimes it rains when it isn’t supposed to…” to trigger thoughts of when life might be unpredictable (65). The reader then may be able to think about how they handle events in their own lives, and Shapin uses that to remind his audience that though the unpredictable nature of life can be handled by some, others cannot tolerate when their schedule goes awry. The use of authorial intrusion creates a sense of inclusion of the reader in Shapin’s article as well. With a sense of inclusion, the audience, no matter who they are, may be more inclined to find Shapin’s article relevant to them. Shapin writes: “Other people’s minds are a foreign country in which we’re guests, tourists, or strangers, unsure where we are and what’s expected of us” to emphasize that it is difficult to understand one another, but Shapin seems to be stressing that it is possible

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