In the article “Standing Up for the Rights of New Fathers,” author Tara Siegel Bernard is writing about the controversial discussion of equal rights between genders, especially about paid paternity leave. Bernard is a personal finance reporter for The New York Times and has worked as a news editor for Consumer News and Business Channel (211). The author begins the article by introducing a father that is concerned about the amount of paternity leave that is available to him from his employer. After examining the father’s situation, the writer examines paternity leaves from other American employers, reviews the policies between mothers, biological fathers, and adoptive fathers, and questions whether or not the policies are discriminatory (Bernard
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She does this by telling a story about how unfair paternity leave has affected a father and his new child. The author introduces Josh Levs, who is a father of a new baby girl, but can only get two weeks of paid paternity leave to bond with his new child. This is compared to how birth mothers and employees that adopt or have a children are entitled to ten weeks of paid leave. This starts to invoke the audience’s emotions and make them sympathetic or heartbroken for the father and also makes them outraged about the unequal opportunities biological fathers get when it comes to paternity leave. Bernard includes a quote from Levs blog that states “if I gave up my child for adoption, and some other guy at Time Warner adopted her, he would get 10 weeks off, paid, to take care of her… however, the biological father, can’t” (212). This quote really causes the readers’ emotions to come out and maybe even make them start to become compassionate about this …show more content…
This appeals to the audience’s ethics and makes them believe her argument because the opinions are from “experts”. One expert she includes is Justine Lisser. Lisser is an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (E.E.O.C) lawyer and spokeswoman, and she feels that it is not inappropriate to give women a longer time period of paid leave to recover from pregnancy and child birth (Bernard 212). However, she feels it would be considered sex discrimination to give women paid time off (Bernard 213). Another expert opinion the writers includes is A. Lee Parks Jr. opinion. Parks is a civil lawyer and thinks that the policies could and potentially should be different for men and women, but not to an outrageous extent (Bernard 213). These experts’ opinions help strengthen Bernard’s argument because their credibility and knowledge help gain the approval of the audience. Bernard’s argument that biological fathers do not have equal rights when it comes to paternity leave at the workplace is very persuasive. She makes her argument majorly effective by not only supporting it with strong evidence and reasoning, but also impacting readers by telling a story about a father it has affected, and including many expert opinions in areas related to the problem. The writer ability to appeal to the readers in an emotion, ethical, and logical way makes her article very compelling.
She does this by telling a story about how unfair paternity leave has affected a father and his new child. The author introduces Josh Levs, who is a father of a new baby girl, but can only get two weeks of paid paternity leave to bond with his new child. This is compared to how birth mothers and employees that adopt or have a children are entitled to ten weeks of paid leave. This starts to invoke the audience’s emotions and make them sympathetic or heartbroken for the father and also makes them outraged about the unequal opportunities biological fathers get when it comes to paternity leave. Bernard includes a quote from Levs blog that states “if I gave up my child for adoption, and some other guy at Time Warner adopted her, he would get 10 weeks off, paid, to take care of her… however, the biological father, can’t” (212). This quote really causes the readers’ emotions to come out and maybe even make them start to become compassionate about this …show more content…
This appeals to the audience’s ethics and makes them believe her argument because the opinions are from “experts”. One expert she includes is Justine Lisser. Lisser is an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (E.E.O.C) lawyer and spokeswoman, and she feels that it is not inappropriate to give women a longer time period of paid leave to recover from pregnancy and child birth (Bernard 212). However, she feels it would be considered sex discrimination to give women paid time off (Bernard 213). Another expert opinion the writers includes is A. Lee Parks Jr. opinion. Parks is a civil lawyer and thinks that the policies could and potentially should be different for men and women, but not to an outrageous extent (Bernard 213). These experts’ opinions help strengthen Bernard’s argument because their credibility and knowledge help gain the approval of the audience. Bernard’s argument that biological fathers do not have equal rights when it comes to paternity leave at the workplace is very persuasive. She makes her argument majorly effective by not only supporting it with strong evidence and reasoning, but also impacting readers by telling a story about a father it has affected, and including many expert opinions in areas related to the problem. The writer ability to appeal to the readers in an emotion, ethical, and logical way makes her article very compelling.