Answer to Question #201868 in English for Jen

Question

Compose a short essay that analyzes and evaluates an opinion article. Examine the rhetorical context (author, audience, topic, purpose) of each piece as well as the strategies used to convey their respective messages (diction, tone, evidence, source reliability, and/or images). Type 1 page and word cited page

Answer 1

This essay develops an analysis of the opinion article: If you don’t understand how people fall into poverty, you’re probably a sociopath by Lucy Mangan. Within the article, Mangan evaluates the various harmful activities and behaviours that poor people adopt regardless of their financial status, worsening their lives (Lucy Maghan, 2017). Based on the analysis, the author seems to have not used characters as she gives her opinion about poverty and how poor people continue to be poorer. The author of the article addresses the poor, especially in Britain. The topic revolves around behaviours such as uptake of junk food, drug abuse, and adopting an expensive lifestyle, which are common among the poor, thus welcoming more poverty (Lucy Maghan, 2017). The article aims to address the poor to adopt better behaviours that will help them come out of poverty. Poverty is a common thing globally, and places with a high population of poor people are connected to issues such as drug abuse, crime, suicide, and rape, which result in more financial constraints. This explains why Mangan developed an article on this topic to address the issue. 

          In creating the opinion article, the author has applied various literacy approaches to convey her message to the poor and all people in the globe. First, the author applies diction throughout the article. For example, in explaining why women from low-income families do not just leave their husbands when abused, she explains “…agency and financial independence (if you had any to begin with), coupled with a sense of shame and stigma and a lack of practical options; no money, no supportive family or friends, nowhere to run…” (Lucy Maghan, 2017) this reflects a good selection of words to drive her point home on why women do not just leave even when abused by their husbands. The author applied a candid tone as she explains everything as it is without hiding anything; she is unreserved in her description. At the beginning of the article, she has used an image of someone biting a sandwich, reflecting one behaviour of the poor of consuming junk food (Lucy Maghan, 2017). In conclusion, the article is very reliable as it is developed by a professional and was developed in 2015, thus not old. In addition, the article is published by “The Guardian,” which is a reliable and trusted media company.