Skeletons In The Closet Rhetorical Analysis

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“Skeletons in the Closet”, written by Clara Spotted Elk, is a well-built argument, but it can be enhanced to become immensely effective. Firstly, Elk’s position is effective in obtaining her purpose and connecting her audience to it, because she includes a broad scope and background of the problem in the first few paragraphs. She describes the amount of Indian skeletons preserved and contained by American museums, through the use of data and statistics. For instance, Elk states: “we found that 18,500 Indian remains…are unceremoniously stored in the Smithsonian’s nooks and crannies” (13-15). By using this data, the background of the argument is illustrated to assist the audience in understanding her argument. Now, by knowing this statistic, readers can connect with Elk and her assertion, since we realize that there are plenty of skeletons that …show more content…

By knowing this, the audience is further convinced because they know that Elk has authority in the topic—she has physically visited the Smithsonian museum and done research. Elk’s argument is much more effective in connecting to her purpose she isn’t just a writer who googled some terms and wrote an essay; she is someone avid researcher who has deeply studied this topic before formulating a claim. To summarize, one reason why “Skeletons in the Closet is effective is due to the fact that Elk provides in-depth information on the background of the topic as well as her authority research on the topic, which helps readers understand her thesis as well as her argument and cohere towards

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