A Rhetorical Analysis Of The New Greatest Generation By Joel Stein

In the article named The New Greatest Generation, Joel Stein conveys that “millennials’ self-involvement is more a continuation of a trend than a revolutionary break from previous generations. They’re not a new species; they’ve just mutated to adapt to their environment” (Stein 31). He supports this suggestion by first using logos to advance his claim, and then by using sentence variety and a conversational tone. Stein’s purpose is to show that the way that millennials act is just a small change from what previous generations did in order to illustrate the usefulness of millennials. Furthermore, he establishes an informal tone, that starts out negative but then becomes positive, for the readers of Time Magazine and older generations that look down upon the behaviours of millennials. All in all, the combination of these elements in Stein’s captivating writing makes him an effective writer.

Stein’s use of logos in his article greatly helps advance his claim.

He uses many statistics in his article, like how the “median age for an American woman’s first marriage went from 20.6 in 1967 to 26.9 in 2011”(Stein 31), to justify and support his claims with hard, irrefutable facts. Stein has a common pattern of first introducing a topic with a comparison, an opinion, or an assumption, and then provides a reasoning or analysis for it. He finally uses logos near the end of his topic, ending it with data that cannot be countered, and uses it to powerfully display to his audience that his topic statements are correct. This greatly helps further his goal of convincing the audience that his claim is

accurate.
Secondly, Stein uses sentence variety to grab the readers and make the article more interesting to read. “The information revolution has further empowered individuals by handing them the technology to compete against huge organizations …. Millennials don’t need us” (Stein 28) is one example of sentence variety in Stein’s writing. This helps captivate the reader and indirectly helps convince the audience that Stein’s claim is correct. Also, sentence variety shows the reader that Stein is an experienced writer, therefore establishing his credibility and helping the audience agree to his claim.
Along with sentence variety, Stein uses different tones to establish a connection with the reader. Stein first talks about how millennials are “lazy, entitled, selfish, and shallow” (Stein 28), but then goes on to reveal that “millennials’ perceived entitlement… is an adaption to a world of abundance” (Stein 31).The tone in the writing is first negative and lists the bad qualities of millennials, which helps the audience relate to Stein. He then changes the tone to optimistic as he explains how millennials actually have the same qualities as older generations, just adapted to the modern world. This helps the audience view millennials from another angle, and aids in convincing the audience that Stein’s claim is correct.
All in all, Stein’s use of different writing techniques in his article helps the audience understand and accept the claim that he has put forth. This is accomplished by Stein’s use of logos, sentence variety, and a casual but shifting tone.It is his master of these three techniques that lets Stein prove his thesis, that millennials are a continuation of older trends adapting to a new world. The strong grasp that Stein has on the English language plays a major role in showing the audience how Stein’s claim is, overall, correct. It gives Stein the power to convince a whole generation, and more, to change their understanding and view of millennials to being positive. And that is groundbreaking.