finalRhetorical Analysis Essay
English 110-133
09/14/2015
A Critique of Alexis Sacarese's “Why the #$%! Do We Curse”
In Alexis Sacareses's essay, “Why the #$%! Do We Curse” she explores the reasoning behind why we curse and argues the positive attributes cursing can play in our daily lives. By adding in facts and research done by professionals, she can argue her belief in a variety of different ways. Throughout this essay, Sacarese makes a strong essay by addressing despite the controversy, cursing can help us express our emotions, improve mental health, improve communication, and add creditably to our stories. Although, she makes a strong argument, and her paper is well written she fails to add statistics, lacks in pathos appeals, and uses a lot of redundancy throughout the essay.
Alexis Sacarese is successful in getting her argument across in her essay because of the structure of her paper. Sacarese begins by grabbing in the reader with a hook in the introduction. She says, “Fucking Bastard!” My eyes grew wide and my muscles tightened as I heard my dad utter these words for the first time.” Immediately we are tied in and want to continue reading what she has to say. After getting the reader's attention she sets up her essay in a way that flows well. Sacarese first addresses where cursing came from and how it originated. Giving the reader background information about the topic helps us understand whether or not cursing really is a “bad” thing. Throughout the essay, Sacarese continuously links her ideas with facts to back them up and puts complex ideas into simpler terms, which helps the essay flow and also helps the reader better understand her arguments.
Throughout her essay, Sacarese uses numerous sources that build her argument and appeals to ethos, as well strengthens her credibility. These sources include, Wiley, David A., and Don C. Locke. "Profanity as a Critical Variable in Counseling," Stone, Teresa E., and Mike Hazelton. "An Overview of Swearing and Its Impact on Mental Health Nursing Practice," and Rassin, Eric, and Simone Van Der Heijden. “Appearing Credible? Swearing Helps!” Citing these sources increases Sacarese's credibility by showing she has done her research and has provided facts and expert opinions to support her arguments. She also uses a personal example at the beginning of the essay from her childhood to introduce the issue, which shows she has an individual experience with the issue.
Along with her ethos appeals, Sacarese uses appeals to logos with many facts to back her arguments up. She points out facts that language comes from the higher structure within the brain called the cerebral cortex, but cursing comes from the lower, subcortical portion of the cerebral cortex. She then begins to explain the lower part of the cerebral cortex controls aggression and emotions and states that when a person decides to curse they connect with the emotional portion of the brain allowing them to release their emotions in a healthy way. Ultimately if a person chooses not to curse he or she will not connect with his or her emotional side and instead avoid a way to confront his or her feelings. Sacarese also points out facts that cursing can help to improve the mental health of an individual. She says when a person uses curse words to express their thoughts, he or she releases actual tension due to the linguistic of the word and anger due to the part of the brain cursing originates from. She backs up this argument by using evidence from a study conducted by David Wiley and Don lock that investigated the use of profanity in counseling mentally ill patients. The results showed that counselors were more effective when they used profanity versus when they did not. By adding biological and scientific facts to back up her argument Sacarse makes her argument stronger and more believable.
In addition, with strong logos appeals, Sacarese affectively makes appeals to pathos in the beginning of the essay. Her introduction brings us back to a childhood memory recalling the first time she heard curse words. She says, “Fucking Bastard!” My eyes grew wide and my muscles tightened as I heard my dad utter these words for the first time.” As the readers, we get an evoking image of a child hearing scary words like that for the first time, something all of us can relate to. Adding a personal connection to the essay makes the reader feel engaged and is a great way to start a paper and get the readers ready for the essay. Sacarese also appeals to pathos in word choices she uses such as bringing actual curse words into the essay. Using these words is going to grab the reader's attention and makes her argument seem more compelling. (use her resource)
Although Sacaerese sets up her essay in a successful way and uses techniques to make her argument come across strong she lacks in ethos appeals. Even though she adds the one personal experience in the introduction her argument would come off stronger if she appealed to ethos more throughout the essay. As the audience, we are going to believe an argument better if we can relate to the issue. Throughout the essay, I did not feel emotionally connected to what she was saying except for the beginning of the essay when she told us the story about her father. If Sarcarese were to add more vivid language, emotional language, and sensory details throughout her essay readers would connect more to the paper ultimately allowing us to connect to her argument on an emotional level.
Along with a lack of appeals to ethos, Sacaerese doesn't add many statistical facts to her essay. She uses arguments such as; cursing will increase your credibility in a conversation, and it will also allow you to connect with others more emotionally. Although, she states these facts, she doesn't include statistical evidence to back up her claim. In order to make her arguments seem more valid she should have added numbers or some type of statistical evidence to strengthen her point. Sacaerese also makes the claim that if nurses were to promote profanity to their patients, it would reduce nurses urge to respond defensively against cursing, and it would help facilitate the therapeutic process. In order to make this argument more believable Sacarse should have added a statistic to show, in fact, that if nurses did use this tactic, they would have better outcomes for their patients.
Finally, throughout the essay, Sacarese uses a lot of redundancy in her paper. She uses multiple claims over in different ways. For example, she used the claim that cursing can help you communicate between one another in an effective way. While that is a valid argument, she goes on about it throughout the whole paper and keeps using that argument. All of her arguments are based on that cursing just helps us connect to one another within communication, and she does not use many other arguments that could have strengthened her points. Moreover, she does not really answer the question as to why we curse and why we think this a bad thing. In her introduction, she stated she was going to investigate the reasons behind why we think cursing is negative. She did not really go into detail or give many examples as to why our society tries to stray away from cursing. Valid arguments should always look at the point of view from the other side something she did not do in this essay.
Overall Alexis Sacrese's essay “Why the #$%! Do We Curse?” is well written and she is effectively able to get her point across using appeals to pathos, logos, and ethos. Sacrasese provides plentiful information, facts, and studies that back up her argument. Although, there were some drawbacks in the essay, including the lack of appeals to ethos, lack of statistical evidence, and redundancy when people finish reading her essay, they are able to understand a different point of view on cursing and how this can potentially help us in a healthy and positive way.