Megan O’Keefe
General Education Writing 101
St. George
20 September 2011
English Loses Ground: Rhetorical Analysis
In Rochelle Sharpe's writing, "English Lose Ground," she attempts to persuade and inform her readers of one of America's growing problems. To persuade her readers, Sharpe utilizes statistics, logic, and expert opinion to show that in the United States, non-English speakers and linguistically isolated households in the United States has increased to a point where it is becoming an issue. However, the way Sharpe utilizes statistics, and fails to see the other side of the argument reduces her credibility and ultimately makes her argument less persuasive. Effective writing requires many different tools, strategies, and devices, which could be applied by Sharpe to improve her argument.
Although Sharpe has many flaws in her argument, she also utilizes many positive tools. One of these positive aspects in her argument was the comparing of time periods. By stating that there has been a significant increase in foreign language speakers from 1990 to 2007, and specifically stating how much, she concretely gives an example of her argument and the scale in which her argument is relevant. Although this comparison of time periods is a positive aspect in her paper, there is also a problem with her information. Sharpe’s data is no longer current. Now that the current year is 2011, any 2007 data is considered out dated, and is less relevant to the present day. Now that her positive aspect of time comparison has been evaluated, a second positive aspect of Sharpe’s argument must be discussed.
The second positive aspect of Sharpe's writing is the fact that she gave a reason for the problem. Sharpe states in her article, "gone are the old night schools that once taught English to immigrants"(722). She includes this fact in her article to further back up her