Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Oscar Hernandez
Professor Beadle
English 115
22 September 2019
In today’s modern world, many people are becoming less happy due to a variety of
factors such as an increase in the global population and an increase in the time spent using
electronic devices. The three authors, David Brooks, Graham Hill, and Sonja Lyubomirsky
provide their own arguments as to how one can be happier. Although their approaches to the
topic are different, they all use different rhetorical strategies to help support their argument. The
article titled “How Happy are You and Why” by Sonja Lyubomirsky presents the most effective
argument out of the three because she uses all rhetorical strategies effectively to support her
claim while Hill relies heavily on his personal experiences and Brooks lacks an emotional
Throughout her article, Lyubomirsky argues that some people tend to be happier than
others as genetics has a huge role in how happy one can be. She uses the rhetorical strategy of
Logos, which is evident in her use of Pie charts and bar graphs. In her pie chart she demonstrates
the factors that lead to happiness and how much of an impact they have on it. Meanwhile her bar
graph displays happiness in different generations which can help the reader gain a better
understanding of how happy people truly are. The data that she provides in her article is crucial
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in making her argument more effective as it shows that not only is she well informed about the
topic that she is discussing but she has evidence to back up her claim. Another rhetorical strategy
that she utilizes is Ethos which can also be seen through the data that she provides. The scientific
data that she uses helps establish credibility in her article as the sources of that data are credible
sources. For the bar graph, data is taken from Proper Insights & Analytics, and throughout the
rest of the article she provides more scientific discoveries taken from credible sources. The use
of Ethos in her article helps make her argument more effective as she has credible sources to
support her claim which makes her more credible which allows the readers to trust in what she
has to say more. Finally, she uses the rhetorical strategy of Pathos, which is evident in the use of
her case studies. In one of them she writes, “Randy endured a lot as a child. He lost two people
close to him to suicide, at age twelve his father and at age seventeen his best friend… today
Randy is one of those happy people that make everyone around them smile and laugh” (pp. 181).
This quote demonstrates how Lyubomirsky utilizes these personal stories to get the reader to
react in a more emotional way to her reading. By using the personal experiences in her article,
she can get the reader to relate to the people in her case studies which makes them trust agree
with her claim more. While Lyubomirsky uses all three rhetorical strategies to support her
argument, David Brooks does not use them all which causes his argument to be less effective.
In David Brook’s article titled, “What Suffering Does”, he argues that although there is a
negative connotation with suffering, it can be positive as it is valuable in shaping the way people
are. As the article begins, it is evident that Brooks uses the rhetorical strategy of Ethos in the first
lines, “Over the past few weeks, I’ve found myself in a bunch of conversations in which the
unspoken assumption was that the main goal of life is to maximize happiness…” (pp. 284). This
quote is important as Brooks describes how he has spoken to many people prior to writing the
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article to gain more information about the topic which makes him more credible. Even the
diction that is used throughout the article, the more advanced vocabulary that is used, as well as
the serious tone helps add to his credibility. Brooks also uses the rhetorical strategy of Logos as
he incorporates a variety of historical examples such as, “Abraham Lincoln suffered through the
pain of conducting a civil war, and he came out of that with the second inaugural. He emerged
with the sense that there were deep currents of agony and redemption…” (pp. 286). This quote
serves to show that Brooks’ use of Logos helps make his argument more effective as these
historical examples help support his claim and at the same time help establish his credibility.
Besides relying heavily on ethos, one of Brooks’ main flaws is that there in little to no use of
Pathos in his article. The lack of this rhetorical strategy means that he has no emotional
connection to his audience and that can lead to a less effective argument. His overwhelming use
of ethos in the article, such as the use of more sophisticated language and tone, leads to having a
certain audience, a more educated one, which means that his article is meant for a small group of
people whereas the articles of Lyubomirsky and Hill are for the general population. Like Brooks,
Hill also does not use the rhetorical strategies to their full potential leading to a less effective
article.
In his article, “Living with Less. A Lot Less”, Graham Hill argues that being less
materialistic leads to being happier. Hill uses the rhetorical strategy of Pathos throughout the
entirety of the article as he talks about his own experiences. This can make his argument more
effective as he relies more on his emotions and therefore can connect with his audience easier.
By talking about his own experiences with being materialistic, he is able to make his audience
relate with him more easily which can help strengthen his argument. Hill also uses the rhetorical
strategy of Ethos as he establishes his credibility through talking about how he has dealt with the
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issue he is writing about. Unlike Brooks, Hill uses more simplistic language which means that
more people can understand what he is trying to argue making his article more effective.
Although Hill did utilize Logos by providing facts such as how the size of American home had
increased drastically during the past sixty years, most of his article was dominated by his
experiences If he relied less on his own experiences and used more facts, then his article would
have been as effective as Lyubomirsky’s article. Another of his major flaws is that most of his
audience has never been in the same situation as him and for that reason they cannot relate with
him. Hill discusses how buying many products never made him happy but once he stopped, he
became more content with himself. The fact that he uses language that is simple and easy to
understand means that he is trying to appeal to a large audience, but they will not be able to
relate to him as many people have not been fortunate enough to be in a similar situation.
Sonja Lyubomirsky’s article was the most effective out of the three as she uses all the
rhetorical strategies in a perfectly balanced manner to help support her argument. To make an
argument more effective it is important that the rhetorical strategies are utilized especially in a
balanced way. If one was to rely heavily on one of the rhetorical strategies, they miss out on the
opportunities in making their argument more effective by utilizing the others. It is also very
important that one considers the audience, the audience should be able to relate with what the
reader is saying, as it will help the audience be interested in the subject matter of the article.
Hill’s mistake was that he relied to much on his own experiences whereas Brooks lacked an
emotional connection to his audience. The two of them made their own arguments less effective
due to the way they used the rhetorical strategies. Unlike those two, Lyubomirsky had the most
effective argument simply because of the way she wrote her article, all three strategies were
used, not relying on one, which allowed for her audience to better understand her claim.
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Works Cited
Brooks, David. “What Suffering Does?” Pursuing Happiness. edited by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn
Hill, Graham. “Living with Less. A Lot Less.” Pursuing Happiness. edited by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn
Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “How Happy Are You and Why?” Pursuing Happiness. edited by Matthew Parfitt and