Belew

Nathan Belew

Justin Jory

English 1010

August 3, 2017

Rhetoric analysis

In this rhetoric analysis essay, youll find the study of two essays, Mike Rose Blue-

collar brilliance and Matthew Crawford Shopclass as Soulcraft. In Roses essay youll find his

main purpose is to break the biased assumption the higher intelligence tends to have on blue

collar workers. Their belief is that blue collars require no real bronze to perform their jobs. Mike

Rose published his essay on Theamericanscholar.org which is a website with an audience

considered to be on the higher intelligence scale whom may not know what blue collar work is

like. With Matthew Crawfords essay, his main purpose he gets at in his essay is that people

should learn a manual labor trade to benefit themselves by increasing their capabilities. Crawford

posted his essay onto - thenewatlantis.com his audience ranges from professors, journalist,

policy experts, and public intellectuals.

Mike and Matthew both used similar rhetoric strategies to convey their main purpose to

their audience. Though they both may use the same strategies, the format of their strategies

creates a separate way of understanding their purposes. Mikes use of storytelling, description,

and imagery gave a base foundation to how he began viewing blue collar workers. Mikes use of

empirical evidence came from his studies of what he called Cognitive biographies giving his

audience a variety of observations he made on blue collar workers. Matthew approaches the use

of storytelling, description, and imagery with his own experiences creating a more personal

persona in his writings. From Matthews own experience and knowledge as a craftsman, he could
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go in more depth of how another craftsman may cherish their work with the use of invoking

authority from using various perspectives throughout his essay.

Firstly, with Blue-collar Brilliance Mike establishes a good visualization to his

audience by storytelling his mothers experience as a waitress. He talks about what she had to

adapt to on the job, The restaurant became the place where she studied human behavior,

puzzling over the problems of her regular customers and refining her ability to deal with people

in a difficult world. (Rose) This sentence gives a perspective of how she had to not only focus

on herself at work, but also how she had to adapt to handling various kinds of customers. This

contributed to Mikes main purpose by giving an example of how his mother had to study people

to meet their demands to overall achieve a successful customer satisfaction. The ongoing study

of her customers was something she had to develop in the work field, this is a skill trait not easily

acquired from getting a higher education.

Matthews essay Shopclass as Soulcraft gave an ideal picture to what working as a laborer was

like using the storytelling, description, and imagery rhetoric strategy. Socially, being the

proprietor of a bike shop in a small city gave me a feeling I never had before. I felt I had a place

in society. Whereas think tank is an answer that, at best, buys you a few seconds when

someone asks what you do, while you try to figure out what it is that you in fact do, with

motorcycle mechanic I got immediate recognition. I bartered services with machinists and

metal fabricators, which has a very different feel than transactions with money, and further

increased my sense of social embeddedness. (Crawford) This is an example of storytelling,

description, and imagery because the author describes the feelings he had as a worker in the

Think tank comparing it to how he feels now as an auto mechanic and the accomplishing

feeling he has being one. The author uses this strategy to show his audience that labors get
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recognition for their hard work. This instance gives clarity to the main purpose because knowing

an additional trade, increases your capabilities which adds value to you in other peoples eyes.

With Mikes Cognitive biographies (Rose) he could fluently use the empirical evidence strategy

to support his defense of blue collars. Though work-related actions become routine with

experience, they were learned at some point through observation, trial and error, and, often,

physical or verbal assistance from a co-worker or trainer. Ive frequently observed novices

talking to themselves as they take on a task, or shaking their head or hand as if to erase an

attempt before trying again. (Rose) The observations he makes in how blue collars develop their

skills and the various techniques they use to develop them creates his empirical evidence

strategy. Using the empirical evidence strategy gave the author credibility with his audience.

Where Mike began to deploy his empirical evidence in the essay, helped lay a path for him to

start using claims of fact and value to strengthen his main argument.

Matthews essay invokes a form of authority when opposing side challenges craftmanship. The

craftsman is proud of what he has made, and cherishes it, while the consumer discards things that

are perfectly serviceable in his restless pursuit of the new. (Crawford) The author presents an

insider perspective on how a craftsman would perceive the value they hold in something they

made, comparing it to someone who may not be a craftsman and seeing the value in something

they bought. This instance adds to the purpose of the essay because it gives the perspective of

how a craftsman can take pride in their own work. This gives the audience encouragement to

adopting a trade because the way Crawford presented his language described how craftsman take

pride in their work.

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Crawford and Rose may have similar rhetoric strategies deployed throughout their essays

but each has their own special format in the way they used them. Mike used storytelling to

describe how his mother became an intelligent woman working at a restaurant. Rose also

included empirical evidence to boost credibility with his audience which gave him foundation to

presenting his claims of fact and value. Crawford surfaced his storytelling, description, and

imagery by giving descriptions of his own craftmanship, relaying to his purpose that admiration

is found in having a trade skill. Both authors had well developed strategies used to effectively

deploy their purposes and used a strategic form of language to captivate their audiences.
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Rose Mike. Blue-Collar Brilliance The American scholar, https://theamericanscholar.org/blue-

collar-brilliance/#.WYUyUbpFxPY, Accessed 4 August 2017

Crawford Matthew. Shopclass as Soulcraft The New Atlantis,

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/shop-class-as-soulcraft, Accessed 4 August 2017