Rhetorical Analysis Of David Brook's 'People Like Us' By David Brooks

Rhetorical Analysis of David Brook’s “People Like Us”
The goal of argumentative writing implies the fact of persuading an audience that an idea is valid, or maybe more valid than somebody else’s. With the idea of making his argument successful, and depending on which topic is being established, the author uses different strategies which Aristoteles defined as “Greek Appeals”. Pathos, the first appeal, generates emotions in the reader, and it may have the power of influencing what he believes. Ethos, or ethical appeals, convince the reader by making him believe in the author’s credibility. Logos, or logical appeals, imply the use of reasoning, and, moreover, it may be the most powerful strategy in the pocket of the author as his audience is more likely to believe in facts. In the article “People Like Us”, written by David Brooks, an American author and conservative political and cultural commentator for the New York Times, justifies that the United States is a fairly more homogeneous country, rather than diverse, by providing facts and approaching to his audience emotions, even though his ethos appeals are not the best.
According to David Brooks, in “People Like Us”, Americans describe diversity today as racial integration, which is proven when an analysis is done on a 2000 census showing that both upper and middle class African Americans decided to live in their generally black neighborhoods” (63). The author uses a strong logos appeal by providing the results of the census: