Hypocrisy Of Rhetorics By Victoria Riskin And Mike Farrell

What is the most effective way to bring someone around to your side of thinking, is it long winded numbers and scientific sounding statistics? The use of powerful wording that brings tears to the eyes of those you are trying to convince? Or is credibility the factor driving your argument? These ways of convincing people are better known as the three rhetoric styles of arguments; logos, the use of numbers and logic; pathos, the act of stirring the emotions of the readers; and ethos, the credibility of the author. One essay by the co-chairs of the California committee (south) of Human Rights Watch, Victoria Riskin and Mike Farrell, use all three in their essay to show the grueling pain suffered by children in the agriculture industry in America, they try to persuade their readers, in an effective argument, to end the hypocrisy of the United States. Riskin and Farrell use many statistics to show the huge number of child laborers in the agricultural industry, and the terrifying work conditions they have to live and work with. One of their biggest use of statistics …show more content…
They exepertly use stories of kids like Damaris the thirteen year old who works in broccoli and lettuce fields , and an unnamed sixteen year-old who mixes and sprays pesticides several times a week. These stories of kids working on “rickety ladders” and “risk serious injury” brings forth the desired emotion of fear for the children’s lives, which helps the authors persuade the readers to their side of thinking. The authors also use very strong words which, in this essay, are connoted with a deep sense of evil and wrongdoings. Some examples of these Powerful words are “poison”, “shameful”, and “hypocritical”. These emotions the authors bring forth are an excellent way to soften someone to their