Rhetorical Strategies Minimum Wage - 1470 Words

Rhetorical Strategies: Minimum Wage Whether an opinion piece is effective depends on the expertise of rhetorical strategy of an author. This can either make a written piece convincing or unconvincing to the target audience. A clear example of how rhetorical strategies make a piece more convincing is the comparison of David Laska’s, â€Å"Minimum Need for a Minimum Wage Increase†, and Shamus Khan’s, â€Å"The Promise of More: Why We Should Raise the Minimum Wage†. By using rhetorical analysis on both opinion pieces Laska clearly makes a better argument. He makes use of logos by including statistics, an expert’s research in the field of minimum wage, and historical data to attack Obama’s decision to raising the minimum wage. He includes pathos to†¦show more content†¦He also makes use of logos by including historical statistical facts, like: As the minimum wage has remained flat, productivity has increased, and so too have corporate profits. If the minimum wage of the 1960s had increased with productivity, it would stand at around $15/hour. If it increased with inflation, it would be more than $10/hour (Khan, 1). This long quote appeals to his liberal audience in an important way because it gives light on how the government, which they may perceive is working for the conservative agenda, wronged the people of the country. A problem I see with Khan’s use of logos is that he tries to back his opinion piece at one point with the use of a hyperlink to another article. The information that he links is very important because he was referring to the benefits of minimum wage, which are vital to his argument of raising the minimum wage. He also fails to provide other expert opinions other than his own as opposed to Laska. Third, the two opinion pieces also make use of pathos. Laska makes use of pathos to further push his ideal that Obama is making the wrong decision about raising the minimum wage. He tries to create a sense of disappointment and hopelessness with Obama by stating that â€Å"the minority youths that will be hurt the most by Obama’s latest economic folly are among his mos t loyal supporters†, and how he basically â€Å"left them out in the cold† with his decision (Laska, 1). The â€Å"leftShow MoreRelatedClass Today : America And Its Universal Influence On The Lives Of Americans1311 Words   |  6 Pagesricher and the poor are getting poorer due to many different factors. Similarly, in her text, Serving in Florida, author Barbara Ehrenreich writes about her experiences working multiple minimum wage jobs to make ends meet after going undercover in the working class life. She argues that people working minimum wage jobs are treated very poorly, and receive pay that isn’t enough to get by. 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The idea of this project came in mind when she discussed with Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper’s, about future articles in magazines and then asked â€Å"How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled? How, in particularRead MoreEthos And Pathos In Sherman Alexies Superman And Me1183 Words   |  5 Pagesauthor’s points plausible. Sherman purposely uses â€Å"we† in this quote to emphasize that he has cultivated the struggles of Indian stereotypes surrounding education. We were poor by most standards, but one of my parents usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or another, which made us middle-class by reservation standards. I had a brother and three sisters. We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope fear, and government surplus food. (Sherman 1) By establishing that he came from