Argumentation

The following analytical elements we addressed regarding “It’s Perfectly OK to Not Always Be Perfect” by Sarah Persinger will help you understand the structure of the article and the writer’s intentions with the text.

Open and closed argumentation

Most of the article is written using open argumentation. Unlike closed argumentation where senders convey their arguments indirectly, open argumentation means that senders express their views and arguments openly and directly. 

The article begins with the writer’s personal story about her experiences as a gymnast which indirectly suggest that putting too much pressure on oneself can have negative consequences: “Screaming at myself in my head, I continued with my choreography: ‘Of course you would mess up now. Every time the pressure is on you crumble.’” (ll. 34-37)

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Rhetorical devices

By rhetorical devices, we refer to those language devices that help senders convey their message in a convincing manner and make readers accept their views. In the case of Sarah Persinger’s blog article, the author uses rhetorical questions, allusions, self-irony, and direct address to capture readers’ attention.

Rhetorical questions help the sender convey her frustrations and dilemmas and make readers reflect together with her on her situation: “How could I have a voice on the sidelines? How could I speak up if I had no actions to back up my words?” (ll. 121-123)

In the subheading, the writer alludes to Nadia Comaneci, a Romanian gymnast who got the first perfect ten in a gymnastic competition. This allusion helps the writer suggest from the opening lines that her article is about achieving perfection. It also gives her credibility as a sender, as...

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Forms of appeal

There are three main forms of appeal that senders can use to connect with their audiences and make them accept their arguments. They can appeal to emotions (pathos), authority and shared values (ethos), or logical reasoning (logos).

Ethos is first built through the writer’s identity. Persinger has the authority to speak on the topic of striving to achieve perfection in sports, and of finding one’s path in life because she has been a gymnast herself and struggled with these issues.

The sender also constructs ethos by appealing to the idea of shared values among her team through the use of the personal pronoun “we” or...

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