Rhetoric Analysis of “Hidden Intellectualism” By Gerald Graff
In his article, Hidden Intellectualism, Graff targets college students to inform them about being street smart rather than book smart. He argues that there is a hidden intellectualism that can be found in our everyday society. Graff gives draws attention to the way people can use intellectualism by using real-life examples of other people. Besides, he argues that people have various types of intellectualism, which they need to incorporate into the school like setting to enjoy it. Additionally, he uses his example of intellect in sports during the adolescent stage. He also uses emotional appeals to the audience to drive his point home.
Graff also uses pathos to appeal to the emotional appeal of the audience to make them feel sorrowful and sympathetic about the issue. For instance, his statement, “people would rather be socially accepted than to be known as book smart”. He argues this to prove that students are not intellect anymore in society. As a result, Graff wants the audience to feel anger and resonate with what he thinks is right.
Additionally, the author also uses logic to demonstrate the truth to support his information or claim in the text. For instance, in his statement, “when Marilyn Monroe married the playwright author miller in 1956 after divorcing retired baseball star Di Maggio the symbolism triumph of geek over jock suggested the way the wind was blowing” (Graff 2001). Graff uses this argument to prove to the audience that being intellect is a good thing and does not make someone a geek.
In conclusion, the author has successfully used al the rhetoric response elements to convince his audience that he is credible and aware of the information he is giving out. Using his own life experience makes him appear more credible, Additionally, giving real-life examples of other people about intellectualism appeals to logic on his audience. Also, the author uses emotional appeals to the audience to convince them to resonate with him. To sum up, the article was well written since it has successfully used all the rhetoric response elements.
Graff, Gerald. “Hidden intellectualism.” Pedagogy 1.1 (2001): 21-36.