Ariely’s incorporates a variety of rhetorical strategies to effectively present his argument, persuade the audience of his subject’s importance, and instruct them on methods of overcoming the tendency to make irrational decisions. His style of language switches back and forth between a formal and scientific tone with a conventional, familiar, and informal tone. Ariely demonstrates a good control in appropriately balancing his familiar style of speaking, implementing humorous personal anecdotes and lighthearted side comments, with his didactic tone when providing research and collected date, to inform the readers while keeping them amused and entertained. He first introduces the reader with the higher level information using
high-level …show more content…
Every chapter in his book is titled after a different force that influences human decision-making. He categorizes the different forces by the type of lifestyle sphere it impacts (first few chapters discuss economics and marketing, middle chapters talk about society, then the last few talk about moral character and personality). Thus, the format does contribute to the natural flow of the information, as the order and placement of the chapters parallel the thematic structure of Ariely’s research. The pattern is easy to follow because the format divides each chapter into a manageable length. Moreover, the book consists of illustrations that also help the readers visualize the message that Ariely deduces from his experiments. In regards to the book’s universal and major subject, the length is relatively small, Ariely provides just enough information to effectively and sufficiently inform the readers of the subject, yet makes sure that he does not go overboard with data and statistics. In short, Ariely demonstrates a very skilled and capable ability to summarize what he has to stay without losing the power in his original discoveries form his extensive studies. The cover, unfortunately, does not do justice to the striking subject that Ariely presents and completely undermine’s Ariely’s interested tone. It is relatively bland and unoriginal, with nothing visually eye-catching except for the word “Irrational” in the title being upside down and a small, barely noticeable, “New York Times Bestseller” label. It has only two colors, orange and blue, that bear an extremely ordinary and boring appearance that heavily contrasts with the thought-provoking content of the book. The only clever and significant aspect of the cover is the divided line that splits the words in the title, with, as mentioned before, the word “Irrational” being upside-down to represent the underlying forces that