Analysis

This analysis of Bryce Covert’s article “The Trump Administration Says Poverty Is Over. They’re Lying.” is inspired by the rhetorical pentagram model. Below you will find a short overview of the main points in our analysis.

The topics of the article are the Trump administration’s stance on poverty, the real situation of poverty in the US, and the effects of work requirements on welfare recipients.

The writer of the article is Bryce Covert, an independent American journalist who wrote the article for The Huffington Post.

The potential readers of the article and the writer’s target audience generally consist of the American public, though reader who lean towards Democratic, left-wing policies will probably be more sympathetic to its message.

The writer engages the reader by using certain argumentative and linguistic features such as antithesis and direct references, and appeals to the audience’s trust, reason, and emotions to achieve her intentions.

The circumstances of the article refer, broadly, to the issue of poverty in the US, which the writer explores in connection with the Trump administration’s intention to impose work requirements on welfare programs. In her article, Covert also mentions other circumstances such as the US Ambassador Nikki Haley’s declaration about poverty in the US, the release of a report on poverty in the US by the Council of Economic Advisers, and the 1990 welfare reform. 

The writer’s intentions are to expose the administration’s faulty position on poverty, to inform the audience about poverty in the US, and to persuade the audience that work requirements in welfare programs are harmful to the poor. These intentions are connected to the circumstances and the topics of the speech, and they are achieved by using certain language tools.

You can read the full analysis of the speech in the next pages.

Further help

Do you want additional help with analysis of non-fiction? See our general guide to non-fiction analysis.