Rhetorical Analysis of “End in Walking” American Are Losing the Walkability

Introduction: The rhetorical analysis is to summarize and analyze rhetorical devices in an article. This analysis contains three appeals: patho, etho, and logo. Patho is applying emotional approaches and etho is building credibility of a writer. While logo is using logic. The topic of this rhetorical analysis is about an news report " End in Walking" by Malchik. It is a social focus that worth being discussed.

Walking is a fundamental privilege for human beings. However, the privilege is gradually prohibited by American.

Antonia Malchik states that American are losing their walking abilities and rights. She points to a serious situation in her article “end in walking”.

By the Raquel Nelson‘s events, Malchik asserts that walking is a based action. Unexpectedly, American lose the right of walking because more pedestrians were killed by traffic accidents. In this case, in America, walking should be encouraged. She expects American to pay attention to the loss of walkability. Besides, people in America are supposed to go out and enjoy walking.

Malchik uses a lot of efficient appeals to build her arguments. Many facts and news help to show strong logic in her article. Additionally, many quotations and personal experiences are used to strengthen her credibility. Her emotional words and sentences make her argument persuasive. Conversely, some of her quotations are weak. They are so personal that might distract readers. Some are unnecessarily sufficient for her arguments. Likewise, the ethos needs to be strong in the end of the article.

First of all, Malchik uses the appeal to logos in her article. She begins with a generous news, Raquel Nelson’s event. Raquel Nelson, a mother who was sentenced due to jaywalking as her boy died by a car accident. The news shows the fact that walkability is losing in America. It is true that a mother faced more jail time than the truck driver who kill her son. It reflects a generous situation that American are losing the right of walking so that the introduction of the topic is supported by logic. Besides, she quotes the specific statistics, like “4700” and “66000”, which based on real traffic accidents. The statistics demonstrate that more pedestrians are killed or hurt by cars so they are losing the right of walking. The arguments are showed logically. Similarly, she uses accurate years, such as “1969”, “2009”, and number, such as “14”, “13”. Those statistics illustrate the serious situation that American get tired of walking. Those genenious stastics strengthen her arguments logically.

In tandem with this, Malchik uses appeal to ethos as well. She uses many quotations from authorities to build her credibility. For example, the words from evolutionary biologist Daniel E Lieberman are used to show the walking benefit for human health. Additionally, Malchik adoptes words from Kate Kraft, the NCD for AW to argue the loss of walking. Furthermore, television show Mad Men is mentioned as well as “Journalist and National Geographic fellow Paul Salopek “’s journal is used to show the importance of walking. Those strong quotations make the article trustworthy. Readers will trust her article by reading the authentic or common saying.

Along with those, Malchik also adopts a plenty of her personal experience to convince readers. The sentences, such as “ When I was in a Montana grade school”, “I live in Montana” and “ In Russian, where I spent stretches of my teens and twenties”, show her vibrant experiences so that readers would like to trust her words. In addition, the comparison is adopted in the article. For instance, Malchik compares the walking situation in Russian with that in America. The comparaison is from her own life, so she show the diffeneces clearly. It will convince readers that American are losing the freedom of walking.

Apart from appeal to ethos, Malchik uses appeal to pathos in her article. The most strongest one is the Raquel Nelson’s event in the beginning of the article. She trys to picture the dilamma where a helpless mother was in. The mother did something common but faced the pain of losing her child and a long jail time. Malchik asserts it is unjusted so that she can irretate readers’s outrage. Additionally, there are many emotional sentences, especially in the beginning of the article, “ I am writing from a position of privilege.” It sounds powerful and enthusiastic so might arouse the same feelings from readers. In similarity, she assumes a situation that is the same with Raquel Nelson’s. She states that common people will do the same things when facing the situation, just like the poor mother’. The words and phrases, like “ cranky””worn out” “longing for sleep”, “weighed down” and “pounding”, illustrate how dire the situation is. That picture may set off the mercy from readers.Similarly, at the end of the essay, Malchik also uses pathos. She writes down the beautiful sentences to appeal to readers. “feel the spring in your step, the buoyancy in your spine, the loose- limed gait, as more than cliches.”. readers can have a beautiful imagination by reading the sentence and try walking outside. Those support her arguments emotionally. They also strength her purpose in the article.

However, although Miachik tries to set up her creditity, some of the appeal to ethos are not efficient to strengthen her argument. For example, in paragraph 12, she tries to use her own feelings to explain how innocent the mother is. However, her own opinion cannot represent the common one. Besides, she only considers about morality and overlooks the law. Thus, her analysis weakens her argument. Additionally, In paragraph 21, she uses “anecdotal” saying to demonstrate the loss of walking. That is unreasonable because the saying cannot be proved. Hence, it might make the article unreliable.

What’s more, although the article uses a lot of quotations to build her credibility, the quotations for walking loss are too many so other parts are weakened. She is supposed to keep a balance to every part of the article. The purpose of Malchik is to show the situation and to persuade American to pick up walking again. She is supposed to use ethos to strengthen her purpose. She can qoutates more methods of keeping walking in the end. Otherwise, the purpose of her article is not powerful enough.

Clearly, Malchik’s essay, which focuses on the problem of walking, is effected. She manages to use appeals of ethos, pathos, logos to convince her readers. Readers can get the point easily by reading her clear argument and strong explanation. Although there are some small weaknesses, they won’t affect the direction of the essay. In general, Malchik mangaes to show the loss of walkability in America. Her arguments are powerful and successful.

Works Cited

Malchik, Antonia. "The end of walking." Aug,12,2015. March.19,2017. <https://aeon.co/essays/step-by-step-americans-are-sacrificing-the-right-to-walk>.