Freakonomics Rhetorical Analysis

Levitt and Dubner style adds an extra effect to the book. Through multiple rhetorical strategies, the authors are able to create friendly, but persuasive writing style. The authors really used the pathos, logos, and ethos strategy when creating Freakonomics. The pathos appeal was mostly done through humor. In almost every chapter, some kind or joke or funny story was told to set the picture. This allows for the reader to connect and feel as if they are in the scene. It humor wasn’t used, the authors would use a dramatic story to invoke a sense of sadness, curiosity, or frustration. For example, “anyone living in the United States in the early 1990s and paying even a whisper of attention to the nightly news or a daily paper could be forgiven for having been scared out of his skin.” This sentence achieves giving the reader a sense of curiosity to know what is so frightening. There was also a very strong sense of logos throughout the entire book. Each claim that Levitt made, there was always logical evidence to support him. This helps the reader understand that every claim was had factual confirmation, and proved Levitt didn’t make his studies up. Not only did he present data through words, Levit used graphs and charts to have a clean

The authors used a didactic and straightforward tone. Levitt and Dubner were spending a majority of the book explaining things to readers, like politics and the economy, and most of the explaining was done is a forthright way. They kept it simple and straight to the point, making it easy to understand unfamiliar things. The authors also used a easygoing, casual tone. This helped tone made the book easy to read, because it seemed like a friend was telling you a story, instead of a professor giving a lecture. Levitt’s arguments were also unbiased. He could have easily been biased and forced his ideas at the reader, but instead chose to present all the facts and let reader