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rhetorical analysis draft 1.1

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Celeste Luna
Amie Sheffer
English 1301-54123
September 19, 2013
Draft 1.1 Rhetorical Analysis Individualism is a habit of being self- reliant. A cultural value is a persons desired and preferred way of acting. Every culture has their own cultural values and individualism but whether individualism is their cultural value is up to the person entirely. This could pose a conflict when persuading the wrong culture especially a culture as diverse as the American culture. Poranee Sponsel is a born and raised Thai who is now a professor at a university in Hawaii and gives us the outsider’s perspective of the American culture. In Sponsel’s article “The Young, the Rich, and the Famous: Individualism as an American Cultural value” Sponsel …show more content…

Americans would not want to be known for this type of individualism so there would not be any persuasion here neither. In both accounts Sponsel finishes her proposal with the fact that Thai culture is better, this is known as bias remarks. Sponsel’s states that “[f]rom the viewpoint of Thai, it seems that American family ties and closeness are not as strong as in Asian families” (82) “Many Thai students, as well as other Asians, have felt that they could not find genuine friendship with Americans” (83) and “most American parents seem to ‘lose’ their children by the teenage years. They don’t seem to belong to each other as closely as Thai families.” (82) Sponsel implies that Thai culture is closer than the American culture which infers that her Thai culture is better. Sponsel uses bias remarks based on her own experience, this is not good persuasion if targeting Americans because Americans would not worry more whether individualism is a cultural value but rather why Sponsel is comparing them to negative examples. Sponsel is not persuading her crowd but rather informing them about the bad Americans she has encountered, this turns her article into an informative instead of a persuasive. Sponsel is unsuccessful in persuading her American crowd because she constantly attacks their culture with bad examples of Americans who only care for themselves. America is a

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