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Rhetorical Analysis Of How Humanities Can Help Fix The World

Decent Essays

Teacher at UCLA, John McCumber, In his recently published article, “How Humanities Can Help Fix the World” published in October 2, 2016 on The Chronicle, emphasizes the importance of humanities, which is the study of how people process and document human experiences, on how it influences the choices people make in their daily lives. McCumber establishes his credibility through experiences at UCLA, convincing incidents, figures of speech, and the usage of rhetorical appeals while maintaining a serious tone throughout his article in order to prove his point to his audience. McCumber starts off by using Alexander I. Jacobs’ essay from Chronicle to support his argument. It is stated on Jacobs’ essay that, “defenses of humanities tend to take two paths”. One, life is not simply a matter of careers and the second path argues that people with humanistic training tend to succeed in both careers and life. McCumber points out Jacobs’ essay persuades people but it doesn’t really do its job by persuading people to live interesting lives. McCumber explains the reason to why it doesn’t really persuade people which is the lack of money that leads people to worry more on how they can survive and earn money rather than worrying …show more content…

At the beginning of the article, McCumber opens up his article with a simile saying, “As academe’s hoped-for recovery from the 2008 financial crisis recedes before it like the shimmer of water on a hot roadway” (1). McCumber strategically begins his essay through a simile to get the attention of his readers to promote enthusiasm among readers. By the end of his article, McCumber talks about scientists, when explaining, engage in humanistic thoughts as well, then McCumber proceeds to mention a metaphor from the Roman playwright Terence, “nothing human is truly alien” to end his paragraph as well as provide a transition to his next paragraph which would present his usage of the rhetorical appeal,

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