Nickel And Dimed Rhetorical Strategies

As I was sitting in the library writing this paper, I was glad that we had gone so in depth into all the rhetorical strategies in class. I started by memorizing what each rhetorical strategy was and how it was used to persuade the reader I then looked up examples of each one so it would be easier for me to locate them in the text of Freakonomics. I then re-read the chapter I chose and highlighted the rhetorical strategies I found. From there I found quotes in the text to back it up and identified how the authors, Levitt and Dubner used them to persuade readers. After that I took a look at the index of templates in They Say I Say to choose which templates I would use to begin the sentences of every beginning paragraph

In the book Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author argues how challenging it is to live in a life of poverty. To prove to herself as well as others that this statement is accurate, she makes the decision to experience this lifestyle firsthand by taking low-wage jobs and recording the results. Ehrenreich took on jobs including a maid service, waitressing, and assisting the nursing home to make enough money for a place to sleep and food to eat. The work’s central argument is the fact that minimum and low wage workers face a myriad of difficulties in getting by in America; they receive very low pay, harsh treatments from their employers, and the inability to have an actual life. The author provides various amounts of evidence from her factual recordings, her personal insight as an effective technique, and rhetorical choices of ethos, logos, and pathos to support her position.

Ehrenreich thoroughly illustrates her experience at the Hearthside using a metaphor. “Picture a fat person's hell, and i don't mean a place with no food. Instead there is everything you might eat if eating had no bodily consequences….The kitchen is a cavern, a stomach leading to the lower intestine that is the garbage and dishwashing area.” Using this metaphor was a good strategy because while comparing the restaurant to body insides it enables the audience to feel the way the author does about the atmosphere. This quote also uses imagery in the sense of her saying “Picture a..” and it is effortless to imagine what she is trying to express about the restaurant. The

In Bell Hooks’ essay, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Hooks addresses and clarifies the misinterpretations that people have of the assumptions made of the poor, how poor individuals are viewed in human culture and how the poor are represented on television. She helps the audience understand how these assumptions are wrong.

My definition of rhetoric before the readings was simply: successful written or oral communication with a clear purpose & audience in mind. After completing the readings, I have decided that is not specific enough and does not encompass what rhetoric really is. The readings by Crusus, Channell, and Drucker helped establish a clear relationship between argument, “mature reasoning”, and communication as a mode used to communicate. Both of the readings provided a clearer understanding of argument and communication, key components to rhetoric, but did not change my definition until I read “The Rhetorical Situation” by Bitzer. The idea of a rhetorical situation, provided a clear application of the question: “What is rhetoric?” in a historical, realistic

Ehrenreich goes on to explain on how the book that became a best seller caused so many bad stereotypes on the poor that by the Reagan era poverty was seen as “bad attitudes” and “faulty lifestyles” and not by the lack of jobs or low paying jobs. And they also viewed the poor as “Dissolute, promiscuous, prone to addiction and crime, unable to “defer gratification,” or possibly even set an alarm clock.” At the end of the article she concludes that poverty is just a shortage of money and not a character

In a New York Times article, “Too Poor to Make the News,” author Barbara Ehrenreich focuses on the impact the recession has caused to the lives of the working poor. She begins her article by describing how the newly group, known as Nouveau poor, have to give up valuables where as the working poor have to give up housing, food, and prescription medicines. Ehrenreich’s purpose is to inform her readers who are blessed enough not to suffer like the working poor. Barbara Ehrenreich’s article examines the impacts the recession has on the lives of the working poor, by demonstrating pathos, and makes readers aware of the sufferings the poor have to face.

As a reader reads Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed on (Not) Getting by in America, they get an insight on what it is like to live a low income life. Ehrenreich proposes the argument in the introduction that poverty is a serious matter and just because one has a job does not mean they are not considered poor. She wants to persuade us to realize that American is not the land of opportunity as promised and portrayed and there are regular people who are struggling to live a comfortable life. Throughout her book she mentions her experiences with living on minimum wage, the hiring process, and how she felt being put in that position. After reading Ehrenreich’s book I am thoroughly persuaded.

Poverty negatively influences how the minds of people work in the world. The fact that poverty exists itself, obstructs people from changing their circumstances in what is known as “the cycle of poverty.” The lower class is incredibly disadvantaged in that it lacks the necessary social and economic resources needed to increase chances of social mobility. In return, the absence of these resources may increase poverty. Therefore, the lower class is unable to change its situation because the majority believes that any efforts to climb the social ladder is highly inefficient. In the novel 1984, George Orwell illustrates a classic example of why the proles are reluctant to change their lifestyle-simply because the costs outweighs

“Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit” this quote was said by Mahatma Gandhi and it relates so well with this article “It is Expensive To Be Poor”, answer the question yourself, Is it expensive to be poor? This article is titled like that to get the audience's attention early and have them thinking ahead of reading. The author Barbara Ehrenreich is building a pre thought when she does this which helps support her claim. “It is Expensive To Be Poor” by Barbara Ehrenreich is an article posted on “The atlantic” “which is where you can find your current news and analysis on politics, business, culture, and technology”. Knowing what “The Atlantic” offers for readers this gives Ehrenreich a detailed look at who she is writing to. The article talks about poverty within america and the issues and resolutions connected to the economy. In “It is Expensive To Be Poor” Ehrenreich claim is that people in poverty are not in that situation because of self habits but because they simply do not have money at the moment. she explains that anyone

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. This phrase is sung with pride and passion by American citizens. However, some of America’s hardest working citizens are shackled down by a factor that they have no control over. Poverty, is what’s keeping citizens imprisoned while they should be living free. An appalling 44 percent of homeless Americans are employed (http://nationalhomeless.org/). Why should people who go to work and hold a job be subjected to homelessness in the greatest country in the world? Many other middle-class Americans are too shielded by their almost perfect lives to even see this. Many of them even have the audacity to say that homeless individuals or the lower-class is just lazy. Barbara Ehrenreich directly

When I say, “Certainly it is renaissance enough―this bloodiness, this man with the leg missing, this man with severe injuries all over his body”, I am accusing my audience of looking at Andy’s injured body as an ideal body like the David idealistic sculpture. Such accusation of seeing the injuries on Andy’s body as beautiful due to his job also means that the middle class prefers to look at the poor working class people suffer instead of taking action to help them. The accusations of insensibility with the sarcasm is meant to also provoke sympathy among the audience in order to inform them that the people are suffering and that it is insensible to stay with arms crossed while people suffer in such ways due to the working conditions imposed on

Poverty; a word that is commonly used so often when it comes to individuals being a low classed, low income, American citizen who struggle to find success and an efficient job that pays well. In Barbara Ehrenreich’s article It Is Expensive to Be Poor, published in the online news article company The Atlantic, on January 13,2014, she argues that those who are struggling to support their own family or find an efficient well paying job are obtaining no support from the self-centered government. Ehrenreich also tries to inform the readers that those who are in poverty are treated unfairly and unjust. Through Ehrenreich’s argumentative article, she tries to persuade the readers through reasoning, credible personal background and history, as well as emotional appeals.

Record what section you are responding to here according to Chapters, page numbers, or topics

John Scalzi employs the repetition of “Being poor is…” (John Scalzi) to emphasize and clarify his main argument. The recursive presence of identical sentence starters, followed by materialistic and emotional impacts of being poor, establishes a basis for pathos. Moreover, repetition creates a lack of alternation in the sentence openers. Consequently, a greater sympathetic response builds within the reader in view of the fact repetition is stripping distracting content from the article. Rather than focusing on a specific phrase in the evocation of pathos, Scalzi utilizes the general by providing numerous examples of hardship and despair. Therefore, Scalzi creates an image of overwhelming challenges as a reflection of the poor’s sense of hopelessness in overcoming their hardships. Repetition’s effect in Scalzi’s article is further demonstrated by the dozens of comments following a similar repetitive style in terms of expressing personal struggles with being poor. This in itself demonstrates evidence of pathos as numerous members of Scalzi’s audience were convinced to express their personal challenges with poverty, providing noteworthy evidence of emotional responses. Thus, a notable contribution is provided towards Scalzi’s argument as the perspective from the life of the poor is expanded, providing an advanced understanding, within the audience, of the prevailing sense of despair and hopelessness among the