Outliers Rhetorical Analysis

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell expresses his theory of success through the 10,000 hour rule that is used to associate practice with success and achieving certain goals. He strives to influence the audience of his point of view and assumptions of successful people throughout the history of the world. Gladwell relates to various historical figures and people of well known talent and intelligence. As the author, Malcolm Gladwell believes to be very knowledgeable, influential throughout the novel. Although he provides interesting facts and statistics to his piece, Gladwell is unable to establish credibility to this information. During college and high school, he did not attain high grades that altered his decision to engage in advertising. After being rejected numerous times, he was later accepted to a journalism position. His insufficient experience and skills contributes to his low credibility and reliability. Gladwell aims to persuade or influence the audience of the importance of practice to fulfill success by also trying to teach the reader new skills. He reaches out to society to capture his inspiring discoveries including young adults in particular who are aspiring to grasp their desired dreams. He introduces the 10,000 hour rule as a goal to reach around the age of twenty or higher. Gladwell compares the lives of professional hockey players, Bill Gates, the Beatles, and Mozart to display their achievements in their later lives due to the amount of experience and practice they were able to endure. He claims that with exactly 10,000 hours of practice, expert level will be sustained in any given skill. Although Gladwell expresses his knowledge and theories of success through devices that exemplify logos and repetition of the 10,00...

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...e relatable to the audience.

Malcolm Gladwell demonstrates use of figurative language including repition and exemplum, along with ethos and pathos current in the 10,000 hour rule; however, his credibility of his sources and knowledge is not present. He makes use of successful people who have impacted the world in analyzing their previous lives and how they had obtained 10,000 hours of practice. Outliers affects the audience to make them feel more knowledgable and aware of the characteristics of success, inlcuding a more relatable and understanding concept established by figurative language. Gladwell provides an ambition, or goal, for young people to achieve success in future generations. Outliers is a very inspiring novel that maintains many aspects of practice through the 10,000 hour rule, and will transform how society views success in many other generations.