The Hidden Story of Online Goods How do you tell which elements of nonfiction and forms of rhetoric authors utilize in their articles? In the article, “How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All”, Jerry Useem makes use of several literary devices to inform his audience of the shadowy world of computer algorithms that control the consumer’s online shopping experience. In this article, Useem uses cultural and economic factors to elicit a response from the reader, as this topic can make people think more about what happens when they shop online. The author also incorporates two styles of rhetoric into his article, pathos, and logos. He writes using pathos to engage the audience emotionally by speaking about the drastic price changes over the hours, days, months, and years, and to inform consumers about their lack of consent during studies (“Arguments Best Friends”). He is using logos in his article by telling facts and showing evidence, such …show more content…
He uses a higher level of vocabulary than one might expect from an article about online shopping such as his use of “vibrating between two quantum states” in reference to the price of Pumpkin-Pie spice, giving the audience a vivid idea of the sort of variable price changes they might see (Useem 1). His usage of higher vocabulary implies a good education and adds to his credibility. The author uses an economic basis, so readers will better understand what he is speaking about, while showing examples in his work. Useem’s syntax throughout the article is very articulate, giving the article a well-thought-out appearance, and further adding to his credibility. There are a few instances where the author creates a mood of suspicion, one of the most powerful being “what’s the true price of pumpkin-pie spice?” (Useem 7); creating the question and giving them a sense of uncertainty about their own
The website my group choose to do our rhetorical analysis on is CNN. CNN stands for Cable News Network. CNN was founded by Ted Turner and 25 other members in 1980. CNN was originally a tv channel. CNN lasted from 1980-2003 on tv. In 9995 CNN was made into a website. The website attracted growing interest and is now one of the most popular news websites in the world. The widespread growth of blogs, social media and user-generated content have influenced the site.The website CNN helped us find the observations “(what)”, examples “(how)”, analysis “(why)” to rhetorical concepts. We figured out how to use the concepts and how not to use the concepts. The rhetorical concepts are audience, purpose, Ethos, Logos, and Pathos.
Shopping, a common activity conducted by almost everyone at least once a month, is such a normal subject in our everyday life, one barely puts any thoughts into the potential semiotic explanations behind it. According to the two essays, “The Signs of Shopping” and “The Science of Shopping,” Shopping has significant impacts on one’s self-identification. It is a two way straight, the consumers’ shopping styles can also influence the economic status of the retails businesses.
Logos, ethos, and pathos are essential components used in advertising. By learning to recognize logos, ethos, and pathos in advertising, we are able to understand the message and what is being portrayed. (Albert et al, 2014), suggested that Aristotle postulated that a speaker’s ability to effectively convince an audience is constructed on how well the speaker appeals to that audience in three different areas: logos, ethos, and pathos. These appeals together form what Aristotle calls a rhetorical triangle.
Malcolm Gladwell’s piece, “The Science of Shopping”, causes his audience to fear retail anthropologists such as Paco Underhill. On the surface, Gladwell appears to write a short documentary of sorts about the manipulation of businesses and stores. Venturing deeper into the story provides the reader with vision of the importance businesses place on their layouts and strategies. Gladwell continues to assure his point that consumers are not mindlessly obeying what retailors want them to do. Store owners are required to accommodate to how their customers behave, and what their target market wants. Gladwell refers to significant moments with Underhill by directly quoting Paco. He also vividly describes different aspects of Paco’s practice.
Joey Franklin makes masterful use of rhetoric in his essay “Working at Wendy’s” to construct an entertaining and compelling argument in favor of recognizing that the workers of the service industry are more than just undistinguished drones, but rather complicated people, each with their own desires and stories. To this end, the author utilizes the effective rhetoric device of pathos, logos, and ethos. Franklin demonstrates an excellent use of imagery that serves as a conduit for empathy, which is vital for the use of pathos, the emotional appeal. In reference to logos, the appeal to logic, he paints the picture of a hard-working father that needs to provide for his family. This is a clear representation of common logic and ties into ethos, which is the rhetorical appeal to authority and ethics, in the sense that many people can relate to caring about and working to support family. For ethos, he establishes himself as your everyday working man — part of the working class. This shows that he’s clearly apt for speaking of the position he’s in, and allows the audience to relate to him through pathos.
In the article “Don’t Blame the Eater” written by David Zinczenko he argues that children suing the fast food industries may not be entirely wrong for doing so. He goes on to advocate that fast food companies neglect to fully inform their consumers properly. Throughout his arguments, he uses the different forms of rhetorical analysis to emphasize his point. These persuasion techniques allow us as the reader to see the article with further clarity. One of the persuasion techniques he uses is logos (logic), this is the act of stating facts, evidence, and reasons. The next persuasion technique is ethos (credibility), he briefly educates us on his current occupation which allows us to trust his words. Lastly, Zinczenko uses pathos (emotion), he appeals to our emotions and feelings by giving
In addition from the two previews rhetorical strategies, the article “How Social Media Is Having a Positive Impact on Our Culture” have a good example of rhetorical strategy when it comes to ethos. One example is when “he elaborates how the internet and social media makes society to act upon actions that are never seen before. Also, that the internet is very difficult yet entertaining and we often do not appreciate it as much as we should” (613). By this time, the author is preparing himself to establish his trustworthiness by adding, “consider peer-to-peer networking as just one example, where the tasks are distributed among the group to form a whole” (613). The audience can conclude that he has the knowledge necessary in order to build his
A famous writer for the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell has written an article, “The Science of Shopping”, which is based on Paco Underhill’s study of retail anthropology. The intention of a retail store is obvious- that is to attract customers and convince them to perchance as much as they can. There is so much knowledge that we can study, such that how the environment affects people’s thinking. These are tiny details that we don’t usually think about. The reason of how Paco Underhill success is because he notices these details. Details determine success or failure. Paco Undnerhill—a talent and passion environmental psychologist, provides us a new point of view of the science of displaying products,
In many papers you will notice different types of persuasion that help the writer to give a reader a better of understanding of the paper. These types of persuasion are called rhetorical appeals. Each appeal has its own ability to give to the writer's paper, ethos is the credibility of the work the writer is using, pathos is appealing to the audience’s emotions, and lastly logos is the logical appeal. When writing a paper a person generally uses at least one rhetorical appeal to persuade their audience.
Malcolm Gladwell is currently a non-fiction writer for The New Yorker. After college, he took a journalism position in Indiana and later took a position in Washington. In 1996, he moved to New York, where he is today. He has written five books and each has been on the New York Times best seller list (Famous Authors). In his first year of working as a journalist for The New Yorker, he wrote, “The Science of Shopping.” In this piece, Gladwell objectively evaluates Paco Underhill’s research within the business industry. Underhill “would have from a hundred to five hundred pages and pages of carefully annotated tracking sheets and anywhere from a hundred to five hundred hours of films” for each experiment that he conducts (99). With Underhill’s determination and research, and Gladwell’s journalistic qualities, this report changes the way anyone views shopping.
Author Malcolm Gladwell in “Science of Shopping” argues about the study of shopping and how important position of advisement is to attract customers. Gladwell uses Paco Underhill as his claim. Underhill has five theories including downshift theory, Decompression zone, the butt brush, and “petting” Gladwell uses these Underhill’s theories in his writing to describe the customers. For example, downshift period is even customers are looking so fast they cannot even see the sign; this theory came about by studding people when walk fast and slow. This theory is important because this is why position of the advertisement is important.
In the article, Useem notes that “The price of a can of soda in a vending machine can now vary with the temperature outside” (64). By utilizing aggrandizement, he avails the readers understand the way price discrimination would look if it was applied in a live shopping scenario, making it simpler to understand his conceptions. In additament, he withal states that “the practice of setting a fine-tuned price for a good or an accommodation-which took hold in the 1860s” (64). By utilizing an allusion with the current times and the 1860s it engenders thought to occur in the reader’s mind causing them to optically discern how the price system has transmuted. Furthermore, Useem had a very negative posture towards the online shopping system topic since he was very critical and astringent with many of the things he verbalized about. Useem verbalized “the initial consumer experience of online shopping-so simple! and such deals!-was losing some of its sheen.” (66). Useem verbalizes about this in a dismissive and mordacious manner which leads the reader to believe that his views on this are negative and
The idea behind this study is of great significance because e-commerce (online shopping) has grown tremendously since the turn of the century. It has shaped the way people do shopping for the most part.
The essay will from my example show that individual including myself are not rational when making decisions. I will be using a diverse range of theories from the standard economic model to explain how the decision made during these experiences showed a rational behaviour and how it violates the standard economic model. Behavioural Economics according to is the combination of psychology and economics that investigates what happens in markets in which some of the agents display human limitations and complications. The major theories that I will be discussing for the standard economic model will be (Smith, 1976. Schiffman, 2007. Lowenstein et al, 1991) to understand the economic model and its assumptions on individual rationality. Behavioural economics theory helped explains my observation from my online shopping experience and irrationality of individuals when it involves decision making.
Today, people consume for pleasure. The act of consuming goods may allow one to fit in, feel confident, or participate socially in shopping culture. Consumerism has become a universal behaviour amongst most people and groups. According to Sharon Boden, consumption is affected by both external and internal constraints and expectations (150). I argue that consumerism and consumption is no longer an accurate indicator of a person’s actual status and wealth. As a society, we have increased accessibility to commodities and experiences. For example, driving a Mercedes-Benz is no longer a symbol of being wealthy or belonging to the upper class. Leases or loans have brought such luxuries to a broader spectrum of social