Comment: Language devices engaging the reader
Question 2 in your exam set asks you to look at the way Catharine Hamm, the author of text 2, “Learning the wonders of the sharing economy in trip to Denver”, engages the reader.
In general, in order to engage readers and make a text more persuasive, authors resort to a series of language and rhetorical techniques designed to make the text more appealing. In what follows, we will look at the forms of appeal and rhetorical devices Catharine Hamm uses.
Forms of appeal
In “Learning the wonders of the sharing economy in trip to Denver”, Hamm resorts mainly to two forms of appeal, ethos and pathos.
Ethos
Ethos – which means using references to authority – is used in two ways in the article. Firstly, the author creates authority through the fact that she shares a personal experience;
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Pathos
Pathos refers to appealing to the readership’s feelings by the use of emotional language.
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Rhetorical devices
Rhetorical devices include a variety of language techniques which make arguments more compelling or what is being said more appealing:
- Humour and Irony
- Metaphors and euphemisms
- Enumeration and Idioms
- Rhetorical questions
- Repetitions
- Change in style
Metaphors and euphemisms
Several metaphors and euphemisms (indirect words or expressions substituting one considered to be too blunt) contribute to creating interesting images in the minds of the readers.
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Enumeration and Idioms
Enumeration helps the author present in brief the variety of advantages she has experienced when she tested the sharing economy:
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