Rhetorical Devices in Freakonomics - 1293 Words

Lucy Dineen Ms. Remmey Freakonomics Assignment August 2015 Argument: What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common? Based on Paul Feldman’s findings, the authors of Freakonomics argue that a person, who is faced with an efficient way to cheat, will not necessarily choose to. The data involved in Feldman’s accidental bagel study proves that not all humans are corrupt. However,†¦show more content†¦Both zeniths occurred BEFORE the birth of the internet’s easily accessible communicative properties. Once these groups lost control of the information that kept others below them, they began to fail. 1. Asyndeton- â€Å"Information is a beacon, a cudgel, an olive branch, a deterrent-† (Levitt/Dubner 63) 2. Simile- â€Å"The internet acts like a gigantic horseshoe magnet waved over an endless sea of haystacks, plucking the needle out of each one.† (Levitt/Dubner 64) 3. Personification- â€Å"The Internet, powerful as it is, has hardly slain the beast that is information asymmetry† 4. Anaphora- â€Å"Fear that your children will find you dead on the bath ­room floor of a heart attack if you do not have angioplasty surgery. Fear that a cheap casket will expose your grandmother to a terrible underground fate. Fear that a $25,000 car will crumple like a toy in an accident, whereas a $50,000 car will wrap your loved ones in a cocoon of impregnable steel.† (Levitt/Dubner 67-68) 5. Ethos- â€Å"Consider this true story, related by John Donohue, a law professor who in 2001 was teaching at Stanford Uni ­versity† (Levitt/Dubner 69) Argument: Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms? Drug dealers still bunk with their mothers due to the fact that they uphold subpar jobs. The reason for this is proven in the third chapter of Freakonomics. The