The Achievement Habit Rhetorical Analysis

Professor Bernard Roth is a horrible persuasive writer. Bernard Roth is a Professor of Engineering and an academic director of the d.school, which is the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, at Stanford University. He has done many amazing things in his life, including writing a book. Although he may be a great teacher, he is not the best writer. In Roth’s book titled The Achievement Habit, Roth did a poor job with his arguments in the chapter “Reasons Are Bullshit.” Roth uses pathos to much, his ethos can be demeaning or cocky, and how he uses logos can be confusing to the readers. The first reason Roth’s argument is weak is because, even though he uses great pathos, not everyone can connect to all of his stories. Using pathos is a great …show more content…
Roth does mention his credibility in different parts in the book. However, most of his use of ethos can be interpreted as cockiness, as a way to say ‘look at all of the things I accomplished, yet do not care about’. Roth, who is a Professor at Stanford, said “I get a lot of requests from students around the world who want to join my research group at Stanford.(Roth,pg.45).” This sentences can be interpreted as Roth being cocky, he is bragging about his research group at Stanford. This makes readers want to ignore his academic success, because he sounds like he is demeaning his readers, because the person will think if they had that much success with something than they would be happy. Roth would connect to people more if his ethos was put in a more humble …show more content…
Being in a car accident, that one did not cause, is a very good reason for being late. They are not trying to make themselves seem reasonable they are stating the reason for why they are late. Roth never brings up incident like that one in his book, which will make people not want to believe his claim even more. Yes, some reasons are bullshit, but Roth should go over accidents that can not be avoided in his book to cover all aspects of the claim that “reasons are bullshit”. In Bernard Roth’s book The Achievement Habit, Bernard Roth had weak arguments in his book, but the chapter “Reasons are Bullshit” is the worst. Roth used too much pathos, which can be hard for people to relate too. His ethos might come of as demeaning or cocky to the reader, making Roth lose his credibility. The last reason is that his logos is confusing, so people will doubt his claim. Bernard Roth may be a Professor of Engineering and academic director of