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Rhetorical Analysis: The Dumbest Generation

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Mark Bauerlein is a professor at Emory University and has been teaching for over twenty years ("Mark Bauerlein"). In his introduction to his critically acclaimed book The Dumbest Generation: How The Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans And Jeopardizes Our Future, the author presents and argument on the idea of the intellectual condition of the youth of today and how they are not up to standard and underdeveloped considering all the technological advances that are available to them. While Mark Bauerlein uses a multitude of data that he has collected along with general knowledge he obtained as a professor to support his main claim against the educational development of todays youth, his personal biases and selective use of evidence cause his …show more content…
He takes information from an interview done by David Brooks at Princeton. These interview from the students revel a different picture from the one Bauerlein is trying to portray. While on the surface he seems to be presenting the counter evidence on his main claim by closely reading the way he presents the information in a satirical manner. His diction while presenting his counter evidence if a peek into how he feel about sources of his counter …show more content…
He takes a sensitive topic and tries to transform the ideas and perception of the reader. His target audience consists of people over the age of 30 and people who have read some of the opposing articles and formed their own opinion. His strong diction strikes up certain feelings in his audience. This age group is more likely to have children in the new generation making his comments almost a personal jab at their parenting abilities. This puts some of the blame for the “dumbest generation” squarly in the parents hand. The author also appeals to logos by using statistics, surveys and first hand conversation. Bauerlein uses the statics that he found to support his augment that the youth of today, with all of their advancements in technology are even less educated than then the generation that preceded them. The data and numbers made the authors argument seem more tangible and realistic. Surveys put the information into perspective that people can more easily understand. He also uses highly accredited recognized sources so that the audience would automatically assume that what he is referring to is reliable. The author does revel the high degree of ethos in the “dumbest generation”. He says that their “ vices have diminished, one must acknowledge, as teens and young adults harbor fewer stereotypes and social prejudices” giving praise and accentuating a positive about youth of today(Bauerlein 9). He also

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