Malcolm Gladwell Analysis

Malcom Gladwell, is an author of numerous New York Times Best Sellers, who uses several techniques in his writing to clarify and support his argument. Gladwell’s techniques are using stories to appeal to the reader’s emotions. Using scientific facts and research to logically strengthen his argument. Also, writing about controversial issues to establish credibility with the readers. These techniques are found in “Offensive Play”, “Small Change”, and “Harlan, Kentucky”, works by Gladwell.
Gladwell, being a great story teller, uses the art of storytelling in order to appeal to the reader’s emotions. These stories are often presented in the beginning of the writing, to engage the reader by appealing to their emotions by making them feel anger,

Therefore, he eloquently presents scientific facts and research in his essay to logically strengthen his argument. The way Gladwell structures where to place scientific facts and research is brilliant, for he introduces the research at a moment when the reader starts questioning the logic of his argument. In “Harlan Kentucky”, Gladwell starts with the story of the Howard-Turner Feud which was a violent feud between two families in the small town of Harlan; to serve as a backstory to the experiment that is going to be presented. This story of family feuds happened to happen all over the Appalachian region. Evidently Gladwell states that men from the Appalachian region were violent, due to their values which are based on defending their honor at all costs. After explaining all about the Appalachian region, Gladwell presents the reader with a famous study conducted by Dov Cohen and Richard Nisbett psychologists at the University of Michigan. These psychologists conducted an experiment trying to identify if the culture of honor is evident in young men in the modern era. The experiment monitored how young men reacted to being insulted. The result of the experiment resulted in “a clear difference in how the young men responded to being called a bad name” (Small Change) Ultimately, the difference between the young men was where they were from (Small Change). Young men from the north reacted to the

Gladwell provides research conducted by Anne McKee a neuropathologist who is involved in the detection of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E) on football players which was caused by head trauma. Using the research of McKee who is deeply involved with C.T.E allows the reader to better understand C.T.E. First we are presented on how by autopsying a brain of a person who had received a diagnosis of dementia. McKee discovered that this patient was a boxer in his early days and due to many hits in the head he developed C.T.E. Unfortunately, this person was diagnosed with dementia but ultimately he had C.T. E “which is a progressive neurological disorder found in people who have suffered some kind of brain trauma”. (Offensive Play). We are also presented with a research done by Kevin Guskiewicz director of the University of North Carolina’s Sports Concussion Research Program. Guskiewicz carefully monitors North Carolina’s football team with sensors on the player’s football helmets. These sensors allow Guskiewicz to measure the force of the impacts the players receive while playing football. Guskiewicz compared the hits to the head a payer receives to a car accident: “if you drove your car into a wall at twenty-five miles per hour and you weren’t wearing your seat belt, the force of your head hitting the