Analysis of Rhetorical Strategies in "The Company Man" Essays

Dealing with death and the emotions that come along with it is common to humans. This is especially true when it involves a parent or grandparent. In the commercial, the woman is having to deal with her ill father who is bedridden. This is an event most will have to go through once in their lives and letting go can be difficult. However, there is one thing that can help soothe the process of death and that is the existence of deep love for the person. Despite the commercial presenting this sensitive topic, the advertisement effectively reminds the audience the importance of everlasting love because of the use of pathos and ethos.

Following in Our Footsteps Our children learn from watching everything we do, from being studious to smoking. At least, this is what ClearWay Minnesota is presenting to us. To elaborate, ClearWay’s We All Pay the Price for Tobacco ad uses a not-so subtle combination of narration, causation, and pathos as rhetorical devices to assure us of the risks of smoking. To start, they present to the viewer with a short thirty second video where they show a loving mother helping her young daughter study multiplication for school. As they finish working through a problem, the mother asks her daughter to keep working while she steps away for a moment.

Prime minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, was in power during a time when it was crucial to encourage and gain support of the British people. The best way of doing so was speeches using heartfelt rhetoric. Churchill was a great wartime leader and along with that came the ability to give strong compelling speeches. One of his most famous speeches came during WWII in “Their Finest Hour.” This was a speech that used logos, ethos, as well as pathos and gave hope and courage to his people. Winston Churchill was one of the most influential speakers of all time as he can be credited for leading his country through one of their darkest times in history.

The first rhetorical strategy I used in my descriptive paragraphs was word choice. I bring this up first because without it, the reader has a vague perception of the story. Although if used accordingly, it revives the story and the reader can fully grasp what you want them to see. The best use of this in my positive paragraph was “spacious”. I wanted the reader to visualize a vast and roomy drive thru while reading my paragraph. Although I could’ve used other words like “large”, or “big” they wouldn’t have had the same effect because a place can be big and still be constricting. As for my negative paragraph my best word choice would have to be “snatched”. I used snatched in this context because I believe it gave readers the most negative visual about how the money is taken from the customer’s hand. Other words that I could have used like “taken” or “grab” would have failed to leave the same impression of negativity in the reader. Sentence structure is another rhetorical strategy that also leaves an impression on the reader.

Phil is a husband with three kids who recently died, “...finally and precisely, at 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning.” Ellen Goodman, the author, portrays Phil in a negative light. In, “The Company Man,” Goodman uses repetition and descriptive diction to convey Phil (the focus of the piece) as a distant, work-oriented husband. To start, Goodman uses repetition to convey Phil as a distant person.

Ellen Goodman knows how to get an audience thinking. In Goodman’s story, Company Man, the character Phil is made to seem as an irrelevant and unnecessary member of society through Goodman’s uses of repetition and tone.

In the essay, “What You Eat is Your Business”, Radley Balko writes to tell his audience about how the government is trying to control people’s health and eating habits by restricting food, taxing high calorie food, and considering menu labeling. Balko includes in his essay that government restricting diets and having socialist insurance is not helping the obesity problem, but it is only making it worse because it not allowing people to take their health in to their own hands so they have no drive to lose weight or eat healthy. In his essay, Balko is targeting society, including those who may be obese, he is trying to show them that the laws our

Charlotte Perkins Stetson once said, “There is no female mind. The brain is not an organ of sex. You might as well speak of a female liver”. Her belief in that there was no difference in mentality between men and women is strongly demonstrated in this short story. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman who is struggling from mental illness who can’t heal because of her husband’s disbelief. The story takes place during a time when women were oppressed and taken as a second rate in society. Through the use of literary devices and vivid description of her surroundings, Stetson toys with the emotions of the readers by bringing them into her world of twirling wallpaper and women who feel

Americas greatness is a controversial topic on the worlds standards of living. In the opening scene of the television show “The Newsroom”, Will McAvoy the news anchor, is in an auditorium participating in a panel of politically knowledgeable people. McAvoy who is the protagonist of the show, he avoids answering one of the questions asked by a student “Why is America the greatest country in the world?”. He finally does answer “it is not the greatest country in the world.” By analyzing the video “The Newsroom Opening Scene” the viewer sees how McAvoy appeals to ethos, logos and pathos to express his answer.

According to Richard Lanham, Rhetorical Man is identified as actor whose sense of identity depends on the support of “daily histrionic reenactment.” I see this kind of person as lively as well as dramatic. By identifying as an actor, Rhetorical Man, I assume, can adjust themselves to any ‘character’ they put on. This is not to say that they do not have their own characteristic. They do. However, their nature selves are not rigid. They are fluid to adapt to the situation they have. Moreover, this person is believed not to dwell in a single value structure for they have several which change constantly. Therefore, they occupy a complex and dramatic reality. Rhetorical man is also perceived as an explorer of resources.

A college education is valuable and its quality is of the highest importance to most Americans. In his essay, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students,” Mark Edmundson utilizes ethos, pathos, and logos to effectively deliver his argument that the current educational system, especially in college, revolves around consumerism which in turn has negatively impacted students, teachers, and universities in general. However, although Edmundson presents an overall logically sound argument, there are few instances throughout the article that may hinder the reliability of his claims to the audience.

Goodman uses descriptive diction to highlight and satirize the lifestyle and choices of the character Phil. Are concrete language within her definite description of Phil and his life makes a double emotional appeal, for she both mocks Phil's life path and creates sorrow with a respectful mourning facade. Goodman characterizes Phil as “Type A, a workaholic” who was “fifty-one years old” and “overweight”, to appear on the surface as a normal, successful person, but her attitude is revealed to be critical of the true Phil. Goodman’s word choice builds Phil to be a plain man, which she then uses to convey her message that a workaholic lifestyle takes over one's life and makes a person a plane husk of character. Goodman insights strong emotions from the audience

Sorry I was out this morning at a Dr. I put in calls last week and have follow up calls today. I have had a few conversations as well ask Kerstyn is working on this too. We will send you some updates by close of business. Can I just add a row on this spreadsheet with “recruiter notes”?

From my perspective, I think I fulfilled all of the program goals in this course. The part I believe I performed the best is the cover letter. In the cover letter for the midterm portfolio, I addressed directly how achieve the six goals with evidence and supporting sentence. The part I think I did less well is that I did not make a playlist for project 1. Instead of doing that, I just paste the links of the video. The goal I believe will be most valuable to me in my future as a writer and communicator is the program learning goal number six - “demonstrate and reflect on rhetorical agency”. Before I the class, I have never really understand the meaning of rhetorical agency in any degree. While now, after one semester of practising and learning, I can apply the rhetorical way of writing into my writing pieces.

What influences your opinions and decisions in life? Is it a fact base analysis of a topic, providing you with statistical evidence to back its claims, or is it an emotional based claim that tugs at your heartstrings and connects with your past? Both forms of argument are fighting for your acceptance of its arguments, but do so in conflicting ways. On one end of the spectrum, a Dodge commercial exploits your emotional connection to your country and leverages that to sway your opinion of their new car. And on the other end, a writer uses facts and data to convince you that the legalization of marijuana is the right thing to do.