Think Again Deborah Hertz Analysis

Chase Alley

Mrs. Haberly

W131

19 Oct. 2015

We’re Number...What?: Rhetorical Strategies in

“Is the United States Still the Best Country in the World? Think Again”

We live in the greatest country on Earth: many Americans grow with the idea instilled since birth in all levels of society. Two such Americans, Authors Hershey Friedman (Ph.D) and Sarah Hertz (Ph.D), wrote “Is the United States Still the Best Country in the World? Think Again” and they argue that while that phrase may have held true at a time, the United States is slipping further and further from the title. Published June of 2015 by the Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. Hertz and Friedman begin building credibility by first including that they themselves are Americans

as well as less crucial topics such as broadband speed. Spanning 26 pages, they cover all their bases. In order to reach a level of fair judgement, each topic’s scale pertains to the accepted rate in that area. For example, in the Children Living in Poverty paragraph, the authors base their findings off of UNICEF’s definition of poverty: (“living in a household that earns less than 50% of the national median.“) Appearing throughout is a comparison from today’s less-than-desireable numbers and those from previous days, many frequenting more than 40 years in the past. In each scenario, America seems to be detaching itself from the high rankings of

To better convince the generation of today that many perceive to be arrogant, pompous, and perhaps ignorant, that their beloved country may not be as great as what it once was is a difficult task. Recognizing that a large amount of emotional appeal would do nothing to enhance their purpose, the authors included a plethora of statistics with limited room for interpretation to leave their audience with little to deny. The utilization of numbers is found in every major section of the piece. One may not believe that the US is faltering in education unless appropriate facts are presented in a strategic manner. Following is an excerpt: “The Program for International Assessment (PISA) exam is given to almost half a million 15- year old students in 64 countries and economies every three years. The PISA tests are used to measure performance in reading, math, and science and the scores are available at the OECD website (http://www.oecd.org/pisa/). According to the 2012 PISA scores, 15-year olds in the U.S. scored 17th in reading, 21st in science, and 26th in math. American teenagers are average in reading and science and below average in math when compared to the 64 countries.” Those numbers aren’t terrible when considering Americans finished in the top half in all three categories, but the authors intelligently contrast those results with some from decades