NOT LONG AGO we attended a talk at an academic conference where the speaker’s central claim seemed to be that a certain sociologist—call him Dr. X—had done very good work in a number of areas of the discipline. The speaker proceeded to illustrate his thesis by referring extensively and in great detail to various books and articles by Dr. X and by quoting long passages from them. The speaker was obviously both learned and impassioned, but as we listened to his talk we found ourselves somewhat puzzled: the argument—that Dr. X’s work was very important—was clear enough, but why did the speaker need to make it in the first place? Did anyone dispute it? Were there commentators in the field who had argued against X’s work or challenged its value?
In a persuasive essay, these are excellent forms of appealing to the audience and guiding them to follow the line of thinking Worthen has. She begins with an anecdote to introduce her struggle as a professor, drawing the readers from the very beginning. With the readers reeled in, Worthen is able to explain how professors understand lecturing to truly be. She emphasizes how they have the best intentions for their students, wanting to push them harder and further than they could imagine. Worthen tied her evidence with every argument that she posed to her reader. Her use of expert opinions stand out due to her frequent use of them. She interviewed an array of professors, along with a student to help emphasis how lecturing has really expanded their horizons of teaching and learning, respectively. Although the evidence may seem a bit faulty due to it strictly coming from her opinions, she does an excellent job tying it with the expert onions she has gathered from different professors. Worthen also gives a student input to help validate all these ideas from the perspective of a former
Daniel Stone, a practicing physician in internal medicine, writes “Our Big Appetite for Healthcare” to argue how California’s healthcare needs to change. In the article, Stone discusses how California’s “more is better” health care is costly, inefficient, and insignificant. The author creates his argument with the methods of appeals; logos, a logical appeal, and ethos, an ethical appeal. Stone establishes his argument by mainly using logos with indicative reasoning to support his argument.
With the interest of the reader piqued, she uses the rest of her essay to attempt persuade readers to accept her argument, primarily through appeals to logos, and language targeted for a conservative audience.
Americans have embraced debate since before we were a country. The idea that we would provide reasoned support for any position that we took is what made us different from the English king. Our love of debate came from the old country, and embedded itself in our culture as a defining value. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that the affinity for debate is still strong, and finds itself as a regular feature of the mainstream media. However, if Deborah Tannen of the New York Times is correct, our understanding of what it means to argue may be very different from what it once was; a “culture of critique” has developed within our media, and it relies on the exclusive opposition of two conflicting positions (Tannen). In her 1994 editorial, titled “The Triumph of the Yell”, Tannen claims that journalists, politicians and academics treat public discourse as an argument. Furthermore, she attempts to persuade her readers that this posturing of argument as a conflict leads to a battle, not a debate, and that we would be able to communicate the truth if this culture were not interfering. This paper will discuss the rhetorical strategies that Tannen utilizes, outline the support given in her editorial, and why her argument is less convincing than it should be.
David Foster Wallace, author of the essay “Authority and American Usage*,” praises and advocates for “good” writers who have a strong rhetorical ability, which he defines as “the persuasive use of language to influence the thoughts and actions of an audience” (Wallace 628). To have a strong rhetorical ability, an author needs to be aware of whom their audience is, in order to present their information in a way that will be influential on their audience. Wallace recognizes that an author who applies a strong rhetorical ability will be able to connect with the audience so that they respond “not just to [their] utterance but also to [them]” (Wallace 641). An author needs to take into consideration not just content, syntax and grammatical structure (their “utterance”) but also how their character will be perceived by their audience. A positive tone will make the author seem more pleasant and relatable, whereas a negative tone connotes arrogance and pretentiousness. That is why it is crucial for an author to recognize that an audience will respond to “them” and not just their “utterance,” as an author’s appearance to their readers can also shape how impactful their writing is.
The article titled "The man with the snow job" appears in the Opinion Pages, The New York Times. Author, Gail Collins, opens her article with the question: “Who is to blame for this weather?” which hooks readers’ attention and makes them curious about what they are going to read. In her writing, Collins talks about the current snowstorm in the United States and how it is used for everyone’s advantage. She also points out how government officials such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Gore, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama use the occasion of snowfall for their own purposes. The author borrows images of global warming effects to discuss some controversial problems in the society these days. She applies the following elements to establish the sarcastic tone throughout her article: hyperbole, metaphor, and simile.
By showing the other side of the argument the author can then show how strong their claim is by finding ways to rebuttal it. One of the most effective sentences that contradicts her argument is, “Dr. Deanish Ornish, an advocate of low-fat diets, felt that the study did not follow the participants for a long enough period to show
Being able to write an exceptionally good paper is important to me in keeping my “A” for English class. There are so many resources available that can help in identifying and improving our weakest skill areas so we can write a properly structured paper. I was able to find many helpful resources that have helped to improve my skill areas in achieving unity in a paper, improving grammatical errors and expanding my vocabulary, and writing a rhetorical analysis,. Many of my resources come from the internet and some came from our textbook, “The Little Seagull.” These resources have been very beneficial to me and have helped me to better understand the mechanics of a well written paper.
The claim is the central idea or argument of a writer. It is the point that the writer is trying to get across to the reader. Even if the reader doesn 't agree with the claim or position of the writer with effective evidence and a strong claim, the writer could change the mind of the reader. In David Zinczenko’s “What You Eat is Your Business”, the claim is that, “Fast food should take the blame for the growing rate in obesity in the U.S. and it should be regulated buy the government.” (Zinczenko, 389). This argument is very effective. Now, the writer has answered the question as to who should take the blame for obesity. Zinczenko uses a personal narrative to help attract the reader emotionally towards his position. This is effective because many obese individuals would agree with the statement Zinczenko is making and this is what makes the argument strong. The writer clearly defines who is taking the blame for obesity and how it is their problem. This connects the title and the claim and clearly establishes the writers position. Zinczenko’s claim was overall strong. Unlike Zinczenko, Balko’s claim is less sympathetic and is straight to the point, in which for this type of topic I wouldn 't recommend. In contrast, Radley Balko argues that, “what we eat should remain a personal responsibility.” (390). When discussing a topic sensitive such as obesity, many reader could get offended by the words, “remain” and “personal responsibility”. It’s almost as
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation. Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed.
In 1729 Ireland was subject to English control, which resulted in the Irish facing famine and poverty. Jonathan Swift was of English decent, yet lived in Ireland, which he considered himself to be a loyal citizen to. Swift cared deeply for Ireland and its people, which motivated him to write his satirical piece, “A Modest Proposal,” addressing in full, the issues Ireland faced. Swift’s purpose was not solely to call attention to these issues, but inspire both the Irish and English to bring an end to the suffering at hand.
An argument usually depends on the quality of the sources used. The majority of sources have some sort of bias and they present evidence that helps their objective. Chapter 18 says that before using a source to find the author’s place in the issue. The way to avoid being biased in your writing is to find as many reliable sources as possible, but avoid selective choosing sources because you could miss
Now, I insist that experts of the subjects of speeches should decide the fate of these discourses, because they understand better than any other person whether that speech will be harmful or helpful to
Authority is the principle by which credibility is presented along with your main idea. Examples of authority may include using statistical data to support your idea or even quoting an expert on the subject of your idea. Authority adds validity to a persuasive argument (McLean, 2010, p.
The purpose of an argument is to convince, to persuade, to lead the reader to follow a line of reasoning, and to agree with it. The chapter twenty in the Successful College Writing book shows how to read and write an argumentative essay. A good argument is made from some rules. An Argument must have an issue or an idea. The claim is used to defend the issue by the author. It is the author’s point of view. In some cases, the claim is not directly stated, but implied. There are three types of claims, namely claims of fact, claims of value, and claims of policy. Claims of fact can be proved. They become more interested when they discuss