Malcolm Gladwell Small Change Rhetorical Analysis

Today planes are one of the leading methods of transportation, but is there a way to accurately predict which company is most likely to suffer from a crash? In chapter 7 of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell makes the intriguing argument‒ with persuasive rhetorical strategies‒ that cultural values are not only key indicators of the likelihood of a plane crash, but influence how one reacts to situations, and impacts prospects for success. Malcolm Gladwell’s use of rhetorical strategies in chapter 7 of Outliers: including parallel structure and providing a plethora of ethos, logos, and pathos, successfully convey Gladwell’s argument that cultural values influence how one reacts to situations, and impacts prospects for success.

How many times have you dropped those swimming classes? When was last time you put off in getting that enrollment for the gym? “Unlimited” ads campaign by Nike, appeals to its audience by showing people who even having certain difficulties, go after what they want and push their limits as much as they can, which is not a little. The ads feature a grown Sister competing in a triathlon, a transgender who runs with the National men’s team and a climber with no extremities. Nike didn’t choose these actors for its ads by accident, they are source of inspiration for all those athletes that always put the best of themselves in whichever the activity that passionate them is. People who would be the main target for this campaign.

Accredited journalist, Malcolm Gladwell, delves into the hidden truth behind the subconscious mind and explores the psychological process of intuitive thinking, both good and bad, in the novel Blink. Gladwell’s purpose is to exploit how the unconscious works and to expose the connection between your intuition and the real world which helps educate the reader on how to develop advanced decision making skills. He adopts an informative and passionate tone in order to establish credibility with his older audience and emphasize his dedication toward his works. Through the use of rhetorical questions and repetition, Gladwell demonstrates that a thin-slice of information can be used to deduce deeper comprehension.

How many hours of someone’s life are necessary to perfect a skill? 300? 5000? Perhaps try 10,000 hours. In this chapter from Outliers, “The 10,000-Hour Rule”, Malcolm Gladwell argues that talent isn’t innate, but takes 10,000 hours to perfect a skill based on opportunity, talent, and practice. Throughout the chapter “The 10,000-Hour Rule”, Malcolm Gladwell effectively relies on logos--evidence from well-known figures and charts that show age similarities--to support his theory that it takes a particular window of time to offer someone the opportunity to practice for 10,000 hours to succeed at a skill. However, Gladwell ineffectively relies on repetition of evidence and failure to

When communicating any type of text, the way you deliver it to the audience is just as significant as the content of your writing. Authors tend to use multiple rhetorical devices that add additional excitement or interest to their work. By performing this, it helps to engage the audience so the text appeals to them sincerely. The novel March, written by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell does an excellent job at exhibiting this over the various uses of rhetoric throughout the text. Therefore, March persuades that an individual’s approach to their mission requires a great effort by displaying concerned expressions, lonely narrative texts and the chaotic graphics of the protests.

Elie Wiesel uses many different styles to present his main purpose, one of the most widely used is anaphora. He does this to help the audience further develop a context of the situations Wiesel went through as a child. Wiesel asserts, “ They no longer feel pain, hunger, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it,” this creates a reaction of the audience to feel sympathy for the “musselmanners” that were left to die, it also forces the audience to imagine the horrific details of Wiesel’s childhood. Furthermore, towards the end of his speech to change tones to appeal to the audience while he questions the American government on why they chose not to intervene. He then creates another tonal shift, patronizing

This paper analyzes and responds to Malcolm Gladwell’s The New Yorker article, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted,” concluding that though Gladwell provides a decent context for his argument, it is ultimately made less effective because of its comparisons and underlying assumptions. This paper shows how Gladwell’s comparison of contemporary social movements to those of a prior non-digital age works against his main argument by drawing an unfair parallel in which the two systems of comparison are far too different to draw any binary conclusions. The purpose of this paper is to consider how rhetoric, including the use of ethos and pathos, can influence how readers think about issues of social and political justice.

In Martin Luther King Junior’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, MLK uses ethos, logos, and pathos powerfully and effectively to present his argument that the discrimination of African Americans all over the country is unbearable and should be outlawed forever. King wrote the letter in Birmingham, Alabama after a peaceful protest against segregation which was King’s way of reinforcing his belief that without forceful, direct actions (such as his own), true civil rights could never be achieved.

The context in which a statement is made can change the entire meaning of what was said.  This is why many times people will use context as a defense for statements they make that offend or cause some sort of public backlash.   The manner in which a person delivers a message and what messages the rhetor chooses to deliver can be a great indication of foundation of that persons value and belief system. There are a number of value systems present in Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech that he delivered in the storied election year of 1964. There are many statements made in the ballot or the bullet

April 3, 1964, Malcolm X gives his well renowned speech; The Ballot or the Bullet in Cleveland Ohio. His purpose behind the speech is to encourage African-Americans of the United States to stand up to the unfair treatment that he believes they receive. Throughout the speech, Malcolm X creates an ambition in the audience, encouraging change through the numerous uses of ethos, logos, and pathos. Malcolm X uses his personal experiences to show the audience that he has experienced the same negativity that they do everyday. X suggests everyone should be treated equally; religion, gender and race aside. His audience was made up of a majority of African-Americans, he uses the common ground of wanting to achieve equal treatment to show his audience he is on the same side as them. Through the organization of the speech, it is rhetorically effective. He practices the phrase “The Ballot or the Bullet” which uses repetition, forcing listeners to remember the phrase which later becomes more effective. X begins using ethos by introducing himself, immediately gaining the attention of the audience as well as respect of the audience. X then makes the current problem in the African-American community extremely clear to the audience, this is his use of pathos, where he engages them in his thought process and bringing them in using emotion. The speech uses rhetoric to emotionally and logically

Additionally, King builds his credibility with the utilization of ethos in his text in order to convince them of his argument. By appealing to the readers’ ethics, they can see how trustworthy King’s words are and then can let themselves be persuaded by his matter-of fact tone and professionalism in writing. King is a realist, which means that he almost always represents things as they really are, which profoundly helps establish his honest persona. Most of Stephen King’s writing represents more than one tenet, as his stories that he tells about his childhood and road to recovery from drug addiction and alcoholism can be seen as not only pathos, but and etho as well, as these stories help the readers to understand what kind of person he is, and how he accomplished all of his success despite a couple of major roadblocks. This is why it can be seen that King uses pathos most heavily in his writing, by telling vivid stories, etc. in order to touch upon human emotion towards human experiences/traits, while also creating a strong voice in his writing as well. The overlapping of these appeals help support the ethics and sensibility of King’s work. There are scores of times where it can be clearly identified where ethos have been used in his writing. For example, King says “I’m a slow reader, but i usually get through seventy or eighty books a year, mostly fiction. I don't read in order to study the craft; i read because i like to read.- Similarly, I don't read to study the art of fiction, but simply because I like stories-Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (King, pg 145) This helps to support the idea that writing is learned through reading, and also is learned through the mistakes of other writers. There is no better way to learn than to look at a piece of writing that has some minor or even major flaws and to analyze the piece to see what the issue is, and learn from their mistake to better your own writing in the future. Another one of King’s main arguments is that no writer is perfect. There are always things that you can do to make your writing even better, no matter how small the adjustment may be. It’s a learning process

Gladwell used Aristotle’s techniques of rhetoric, by appealing to ethos, pathos, and logos successfully to further persuade his audience of his argument. First, Gladwell established his character by displaying himself as an intellectual, honest, and of good intentions through his writing style and word choice. Secondly, Gladwell masterfully used pathos to emotionally influenced his audience from their interests and concerns about success to make his argument appeal to his specific audience. Third, Gladwell utilized logos to make his argument strong without emotional and trustworthy factors interfering, and his case stood on its own. Gladwell also mentioned problems and his offered solutions which would alter his thesis of success through a hockey example that is trying to fix the age gap concerning development, “We could set up two or even three hockey leagues, divided up by month of birth. Let the players develop on separate tracks and then pick all-star teams,” (33). As a society, we must change the pattern of success and prove Gladwell’s thesis wrong; we can help one another to be the community required so everyone can prosper and create a sense of equity. Through Gladwell’s efficient use of establishing an image to

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he defines an outlier as someone who does something out of the ordinary or differently. The author is very credible and has a few awards for writing, “Outliers.” We should listen to Gladwell because some of his information is knowledgeable and can help with everyday life. His purpose is to teach us about the many rules that are being described in the book. The main intended audience would have to be the world and how he displays his values to millions of people. Malcolm Gladwell discusses how someone’s IQ that is in the upper one hundreds is the same as someone’s IQ in the lower one hundreds. Malcolm Gladwell has a lot of credibility and is a reliable source for information. He went to school for a

As Gladwell conducts his argument, he writes with confidence and authority, which expresses his passion and knowledge about the subject. Gladwell’s poise throughout the essay, combined with his resume, establishes his credibility and constructs a rhetorically effective argument. Being a best-selling author as well as a professional

Gladwell carefully constructs his argument by offering the real life story of Bernie Goetz. Gladwell uses this example in order to provide a