preview

Rhetorical Analysis Of Bernard Roth's The Achievement Habit

Decent Essays
Open Document

Achievement Habit Chapter 2 Rhetorical Analysis The second chapter of Bernard Roth’s The Achievement Habit makes some very bold claims about the excuses we make for not accomplishing certain tasks. In this chapter he states that the reasons that we come up for why we did or did not do something are simply justifications to others that make us seem reasonable and not simply lazy. According to Roth, our reasons are a way to hide the fact that a task was not a high enough priority in our lives to put warrant more attention. Bernard Roth’s argument is highly effective because of its ethical, emotional, and logical appeal. Bernard Roth dose at excellent job at conveying to his audience his knowledge and credibility on the topic at hand. Roth himself gives of a sense authority and wisdom due to his background. Given how he is a long time Stanford professor, he most certainly has had many opportunities to gain experience from his career, his own education, and dealing with a wide variety of students and other professors. It is the kind of situation that would require a higher level of both knowledge and wisdom than your average person possesses. This makes him feel as if he is mentally on a higher level than his audience. The title of the chapter, “Reasons Are Bullshit”, is incredibly jarring coming from someone with such a lofty background, because it is something that you would never expect a Stanford professor to say. At the same, a person with Roth’s background using such wording would never do so without proper reasoning. It heightens the reader’s curiosity before they even begin reading what he has to say and sets the precedent that the author is confident in what he is talking about. Roth wastes no time when it comes to attempting to help his audience relate to his message. He begins by making his point perfectly clear with both the title of the chapter and its opening sentence. Then he immediately provides the reader with a personal account of how he previously used reasons to cover up the fact that he used to be late for his meetings. Being late is a habit of many people which allows the audience to relate to the issue in some way and step inside Roth’s shoes to a certain degree. That kind of

Get Access
Related
Get Access