In his short essay, Why Good English Is Good for You, John Simon utilizes several rhetorical devices in order to convey the idea of the resurrection of the dying English language. In order to gain the support needed, Simon aims his essay towards the average, educated, young adult, Americans, because they are still at the age of where they can learn and cultivate their minds for the better, while also being old enough to fully understand the ramifications of becoming better educated. Through the use of rhetorical questions, similes, pathos, appeals to history and authority, repetition, and many other devices, John Simon is successful in portraying his arguments of why the proper English language must be resurrected. In order to prove his argument, …show more content…
He uses a simile in paragraph 3 on page 333, “Space today is as limited as time.” This rhetorical device stresses a tone of urgency and captures the reader’s attention by stating that their time is limited. By comparing space to time, and stressing the limitations of both being the same, John Simon is able to make the reader stop and view space (used figuratively to describe words), as something that we will soon run out of and by that time it will be too late. The quote proves to the reader that there is not enough time to overuse words or over complicate anything. John Simon shows the reader that by using proper grammar and following the rules, speech would go by much quicker and would utilize time efficiently. By showing the reader that time and space is valuable and must not be taken for granted, John Simon employs the urgency in the reader and forces them to reevaluate how they use their time. While the reader is feeling this way, John Simon then comes in with a solution and tells the reader, this is why we must use proper English. He is able to prove his point that we need to act now to save our dying language and educate our future
In King’s essay, he uses many rhetorical devices to get his point across to the reader. For example, he uses repetition to emphasize the importance of being a writer. “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others:read a lot and write a lot”(210), shows repetition when using the word “alot” twice in the same sentence. He also uses imagery in his writing stating, “Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life. I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are all sorts of opportunities to dip in. The trick is to teach yourself to read in small sips as well as in long swallows”(212). This paints an image in the reader’s head when to read. Lastly, he uses syntax. Syntax is when a statement is a straightforward message such as,”If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time to write. Simple as that”(212). He says it clear what he
George Orwell, in an essay from Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays titled “Politics and the English Language” (1950), argues that the English language, through a cyclical process of sloven language and foolish thought, has become “ugly and inaccurate.” He supports his argument by using expert opinion, metaphors, and historical context. Orwell’s purpose is to demonstrate the debasement of the English language in order to prompt writers to make a conscious change in their writing . He adopts an informal tone (“Look back throughout this essay, and for certain you will find that I have again and again committed the very faults I am protesting against”) for writers in a time of political turnover and rising superpowers.
Professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois of Urbana-Champaign and published writer, Denis Baron proposes in his essay, “Don’t Make English Official - Ban It Instead,” to not allow the English language to be spoken in the United States of America. His idea sprung from Congress considering passing a law to make English the official language of the United States. Baron’s purpose for writing the article was to put forth his opinion about the debate on if English should become the official language. He adopts a caustic tone while giving all perspectives and examples in order to expose the absurd arguments of others to his wide range audience.
George Orwell’s essay, Politics and the English Language, first published in 1946, talks about some “bad habits”, which have driven the English language in the wrong direction, that is, away from communicating ideas. In his essay he quotes five passages, each from a different author, which embody the faults he is talking about. He lists dying metaphors, operators, pretentious diction, and meaningless words as things to look out for in your own writing and the writing of others (593-595). He talks about political uses of the English language. Our language has become ugly and the ugliness impedes upon communication. Ugly uses of language have been reinforced and passed down in the population “even among people who should and do know
Douglas McGray discusses different ways that being more cultivated could benefit the United States in his article, “Lost in America” in an attempt to convince education officials to incorporate more foreign language and history classes into their curriculums. In the article he explains the different way the United States has neglected foreign language, and how they can benefit from investing money and time into foreign language. Several examples are presented showing the actual importance of language diminishing in the United States education system. McGray wants the education officials to realize that foreign language should be valued more if the U.S. wants to have better access to overseas opportunities. In the article “Lost in America” by Douglas McGray the effective use of satire, irony,
“There is more pleasure to building castles in the air than on the ground.” This quote by Edward Gibbon illustrates the intensity of writing and what gratification it can hold. When one writes, they are not confined to one certain formula. A person is able to express their thoughts and feelings in any way they choose. Language is a border for many people in that some cannot comprehend a certain language, understand how to use it, or recognize what is being said to them. On the other side of the border, they are not viewed as equals or as important compared to those who are not competing with this barrier. In his essay “Coming into Language,” Jimmy Santiago Baca uses his personal experiences to demonstrate how much
Not all people whose English as a second language speak it in the same way. This argument made by Amy Tan in her story, “Mother Tongue”. In this essay, she successfully uses all three of Aristotle’s rhetorical styles such as ethos, logos, and pathos. Tan also notably balances each part of the rhetorical triangle and ultimately led to creating a very effective and thought provoking essay.
Throughout time, women have been considered housewives and mothers. Not all women stayed home, throughout history women have worked, mainly clerical jobs, teaching, charity workers, and other less demanding physical work. It was never a new thing that women were in the work force, it was the impact the propaganda posters and WWII made on the women in that workforce. This propaganda poster; titled “We Can Do It” features a beautiful women with her arm flexed and she is in her work coveralls, above her it say “We can do it.” the author is J. Howard Miller, he uses pathos and ethos to inspire a social movement that increased the number of working women, and changed the face of the workforce.
Due to a successful implementation of the rhetorical appeals logos and ethos and the usage of appropriate language, Molly Worthen’s article is more effective than Lisa Wade’s article. The usage of logos greatly supports Worthen’s claim because it clarifies the significance of her argument by providing credible statistics while Wade provides an uncited source to which she proceeds to harshly charge the audience. The application of ethos confirms the applicability of Worthen’s article to the audience and thus improves her eloquence whereas Wade requires further clarification for her use of ethos. Utilizing appropriate language worthy of academic standards positively impacts the effectiveness of Worthen’s article as it accurately depicts the author’s
I was very astonished, when I went to the office hour the first time and asked my professor to give me some advice about my essay. At that time, I had no idea how to specify my topic and analyze my thesis, but my professor gave me lots of specific and arguable ideas that I had never thought of. Then, I started to realize that the ability I am supposed to learn from Writing 39B class is the way to do rhetorical analysis. During these ten weeks classes of Writing 39B, I make improvements on skills of doing rhetorical analysis as well as conveying my message to the reader effectively. To be more specific, I have learned how to analyze an essay from the
Humans are more cooperative by nature instead of being more competitive by nature, In the article “Why We Help” by Martin A. Nowak, a group of professors discover the five different mechanisms that govern cooperation and explains how each mechanism governs one's ability to cooperate with others. The first mechanism mentioned in the article is direct reciprocity, this mechanism affects cooperation by making those individuals who repeatedly encounter one another feel more inclined to cooperate with one another. An example of this is written in the article “Why We Help” article, at the being of trying to figure out what makes organisms more inclined to cooperate with one another the professors would run a game theory paradox known as “Prisoner’s
Also, he writes a lot of questions to make the reader think effectively and question themselves what certain things mean. Every sentence Oliver writes has a deeper meaning behind it. The sentences are very choppy and short. He uses four to five words in short sentence and in bigger sentences he used three to four comma in one sentence, giving the feeling of one shorter sentence. Furthermore, Oliver starts the passage with a statement saying “when I look
This essay is about how English has changed over the years. The essay explores how speaking English has changed, like some people have different ways they speak English and some people have the accent. It has changed in the way we write. Now days in the English language there is over 1 million words. Back then there wasn’t much words. English has changed in text messaging. Like now we make the words shorter like lol that means laugh out loud. They have done that because it’s a quicker way. The first text message was in 1992. English also changed in schools and universities. It has changed by now we have technology to help us find information or search up for meaning on online dictionary. This essay examines how English has changed over the years. There are around 800 to 2000 word that are used to speak the English language.
The English language is on the verge of becoming endangered. This long standing language has weathered the test of time, evolving and adapting alongside humanity. However, its extensive history is about to be lost forever. Well known author George Orwell blames this on the bad habits that riddle the English language and the foolish thoughts that take up people’s mind, and he is correct. English is being destroyed by humanity’s incompetence. Journalist Jennie Yabroff also supports Orwell, mentioning how media has affected
His fifth claim is that different forms of speech do not equate to differing levels of achievement in school. As a sixth claim, he argues that ethnographic assumptions offered by Deutsch, Bereiter, Engelmann are wrong. His final claim, is that training a child to learn the logical manner of Standard English doesn’t guarantee that he’ll succeed. Nonstandard English isn’t the problem to learning; it’s the ignorance of the language and the belief that it’s inferior.