Rhetorical Analysis Of Gift To Women By Gail Collins

Gail Collins joined The New York Times in 1995 as a member of the editorial board. In 2001 she was appointed editorial page editor – the first woman to hold that post at The Times. She is a liberal/progressive American journalist, op-ed columnist, and author, a graduate of Marquette University, and has a master’s degree in government from the University of Massachusetts. Since 2013, Ms. Collins has been a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board. The general focus of her columns is American politics and culture and her most used rhetorical strategies are rhetorical questions, appeals to logos, pathos and ethos, and ad hominem. One of the most used rhetorical strategies used by Gail Collins is rhetorical questions, which she uses frequently throughout

For instance when she appeals to ethos, she says, “There are times when I really miss the Mark Sanford era. Things seemed so simple back then. (The Roy Moore Edge)” “. . . I found myself explaining that I needed to get to work despite the bombing at my subway station . . . (Donald Trump’s Gift to Women)” “I saw all this happen, and it knocks me out whenever I think about it. (The Great Al Franken Moment)” Her appeal to ethos is effective because it builds her authority and validates her credentials through her tone. Since she was present during the event and actually saw what happened in history as the years passed it convinces the reader of the author’s reliability. She also appeals to pathos by saying, “Some are lecherous bosses who think their power gives them a version of the right of the old lords to sample the favors of every girl in the neighborhood. Some are otherwise nice people under the deeply mistaken impression they’re so attractive no woman would mind a surprise hand up her skirt. (The Great Al Franken Moment)” Her use of pathos allows her to relate to the reader and encourage an emotional response to persuade the reader and strengthen her argument. This device is effective because it taps into the audience’s emotions and provokes a reaction; It also makes the audience feel the same way as the author does and it

For example, she uses an ad hominem attack against Roy Moore to disagree with his campaign for Senator, “However, Moore is a special case since he’s awful in so many different ways. It’s not often you run into a modern Senate candidate — even a modern conservative Republican Senate candidate — who says that homosexuality should be illegal, that Muslims shouldn’t be allowed in Congress and that the last great age in American history was the one when we had slavery. (The Roy Moore Edge)” “Also, there haven’t been any commercial passenger deaths in the United States since 2013. And Trump once had an airline of his own that had a crash landing three months into operation, piled up massive debt and eventually folded. We could go on and on. As many did on Twitter. (“We had no gas explosions in our house this year. Thank you, Mr. President for your hands-on leadership…”) (My Button’s Bigger Than Yours).” This is an effective device because it makes the reader pay more attention to the opponent’s personal affiliations rather than their argument by not allowing the audience to assess the opponent’s argument for its validity, but it also discredits her claim. By using this device Gail Collins is drawing attention to President Trump’s and Roy Moore’s rather unpleasant and repulsive behavior to deceive the reader and make them believe that