Persuasive Analysis

1015 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Is recycling effective

Melanie Scruggs recently wrote an article titled “Cost will be too great if Houston doesn’t recycle” about the dangers that Houston may face if they continue to put recycling as a last priority. I believe that Melanie Scruggs does an amazing job describing the issues that we are facing and poses an effective argument on why we should recycle. Melanie Scruggs graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, and she was awarded with a Plan 11 Honors degree. (TCE 1) Melanie then joined the TCE in 2012 and she served as a organizer, field manager, program staff member, and a program director. Melanie then moved back to Houston around 2013 where she now serves on the board of the Houston Clean City Commission, the League of Women Voters, as well
I also believe that Scruggs has a clear claim in which she states that if the city of Houston fails to recycle effectively it will end up costing Houstonians more, due to pollution and waste of energy. Scruggs supports her claim by reasoning that recycling allows humans to safely get rid of waste without emitting poisonous gasses into the air, as well as saving our water from pollution that landfills may cause. She also gives grounds to support her claim by stating that landfills are inconvenient because they cause pollution and cost lots of money to maintain, as well as saying that if we recycled more and created products out of recycled material we would be able to save energy and reduce pollution effectively. I believe that Scruggs’s reason is audience based because her reason gives the impression that she cares for the greater good of the audience. Although I do believe that Scrugg’s argument addresses her audience I do not believe that she answers questions that may oppose her argument because she seems to just continue to justify her
I do have my doubts as well because Scruggs does not address the opposing argument. I believe that Scrugg’s character is extremely important in her argument because many people write about recycling but have no experience on what they are writing about, but Scruggs is involved in many committees that have to do with recycling, and she is educated on the topic as well. I also believe that Scruggs does not rely on pathos in her argument and instead relies on logic. In conclusion I believe that Melanie Scruggs uses many different approaches such as logos, and ethos to effectively persuade her audience to believe that she is in fact correct about recycling, and landfills. Although Scruggs fails to apply pathos, and address her opposing argument I believe her argument is still

Show More
Related

  • Nydia Marquez In Search Of Justice Summary

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    Velazquez focuses on the unfair treatment of the poor community by large corporations. Because of this focus, she ignores the fact that in this distribution of waste-transfer stations, it can bring enormous economic values for this country’s development. Velazquez conveys that large corporations dump lots of waste and she has “personally never see a waste-transfer station on the upper East Side of Manhattan, or in the Hamptons” while almost forty percent of New York City’s waste-transfer stations are in her district (766). As a representative of her district, it is reasonable for Velazquez to be outraged by the waste-transfer stations’ distribution from her district’s residents’ points of view.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Landfills

    1533 Words  | 4 Pages

    Barlaz says, “Recycling still causes some emissions” (62). However recycling starts at home with the consumer. When people go out to buy groceries, clothes, food or any other things they should think about the purchases before they buy them. Consumers buy groceries but they chose to use plastic or paper bags. Instead of using those they could use reusable cloth bags. Some people would rather use the plastic or paper bags. If they do then they should recycle those bags instead of just throwing them away in the garbage and hoping they get in the recycling area. Recycling cans and glass jars saves energy needed to make new ones. People can save energy by recycling other things like paper and plastic. Humes says, “Recycling aluminum cans saves ninety-six percent of the energy needed to produce aluminum from bauxite ore” (260). Also, “recycling the glass jars and bottles saves twenty-one percent of the energy needed to make new glass” (260). So if everyone could start recycling their cans, glass, paper and plastic that would save us a lot of energy that would need to be used to make new ones. If we can start recycling at home that will make things much easier on the waste management plants and our world. If people don’t want to recycle at their homes and separate everything they can just put all their trash in the can and it will eventually be separated and recycled. As people become more educated about

    Read More

  • To What Exetent Does Recycling Decrease the Carbon Footprint

    3211 Words  | 7 Pages

    In conclusion to this investigation one thing is clear and that is that recycling reeks benefits to the environment, Recycling material when compared to making material from raw material is a more efficient energy saving and more environmentally friendly way to reuse material that is usually consider as trash such as empty glass, and plastic bottles, or old newspapers. Recycling helps reduce the possible carbon emissions greatly and does reduce the human carbon footprint. But Recycling doesn’t resolve the pollution that is around the world today. Leading to new questions, questions like what about the landfills are they sustainable, and if so for how long. How long until the air becomes unbreathable? How long until Earth becomes its own furnace?

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Bill Mckibben's 'Waste Not, Want Not'

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    Waste Not, Want Not: if you use a resource carefully and without extravagance, you will never be in need. In a 2009 essay, “Waste Not, Want Not”, writer Bill McKibben argues on the excess of unnecessary waste. To halt climate change, he proposes to convince the reader to shift priorities in waste management and go back to the frugality of simpler times. Bill approaches his argument with a vast amount of informative charged words to convince the reader into taking his side of the argument. The writer’s intended purpose in writing this piece is to make a statement and develop his argument against the unnecessary waste. To make this argument effective, the writer utilizes logic to persuade the audience with overwhelming data and reason. His primary instrument of choice in this essay is using logically charged words followed by factual evidence to back up his claims. Although his use of emotion and pathos are less obvious, but where used, is effective.

    Read More

  • Bag Ban Bad For Freedom And Environment Rhetorical Analysis

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    He states, “environmentalists have every right to try to convince people to adopt certain beliefs or lifestyles, but they do not have the right to use government force to compel people to live the way they think best.” Summers reveals a flaw in the plan to use the government to ban plastic bags. Studies show plastic bags actually help society, so banning them would force society to adopt a lifestyle change. However, America allows people to make choices and live life freely. Ending his essay, Summers summarizes his point, “In a free society, we are able to live our lives as we please…That includes the right to make such fundamental decisions as “Paper or plastic?” Environmentalists know they need freedom to continue advocating for their causes, so they must show this freedom to others. By saving this argument for the end, Summers clinches an already strong argument by showing readers why Americans have an inherent right to choose plastic

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay About Recycling

    1105 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recycling was never really a big impact for people, in fact even when the percentage of people using it increases greatly throughout the years 1990 following up to present time only rose up to the 30s. Out of the 100 percentage of total population, only 30 percent practice some sort of recycling; not even half of the population (Evans). If

    Read More

  • Plastic Bag Ban Pros And Cons

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    A narrow rejection of a potential plastic bag ban has spurred up discussion among many newspaper journalists, one of them being Adam B Summers. In his editorial “Bag ban bad for Freedom and environment,” Summers used estimation, an appeal to Logos, and an appeal to Ethos to demonstrate the toll of a plastic bag ban would far outweigh its benefits.

    Read More

  • Neal Stephenson's Plastic Island: How Our Throwaway Culture

    1776 Words  | 4 Pages

    Waste regulation in the United States did not always consist of large green Groot trucks arriving weekly on Fridays, strict EPA environmental protection laws, and the widespread implementation of teaching children to “save and recycle” in schools. In fact, the US has a long and disheveled history with waste management, with some infamous disasters longing to be forgotten. Neal Stephenson’s Zodiac, a self-dubbed “eco-thriller,” tackles in a fictional setting some of these waste management dilemmas using politicians, industry/company leaders, media, and technology. Stephenson’s 1988 novel was published at a time of heightening public consciousness of waste management and addresses the core factors of regulating this crisis,

    Read More

  • Larry Summers Memo

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    By doing this, it would cause more people to want to live in a less populated area and work for higher wages. A sudden increase in population would also increase the number of the labor force. By doing this, more workers and industries would rapidly affect the growth of the economy. (R1) In closing the first argument Summer commits to subjective fallacy when he states dumping toxic waste is “logical” and “impeccable”.

    Read More

  • Consumerism In The Story Of Bottled Water

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    She developed a fun, informative, and engaging video on such a serious topic. She did this by making a cartoon movie that illustrates how the companies are manipulating consumer decisions. She is also the narrator of the movie, which shows viewers how passionate she is about the epidemic of waste. Additionally, she supports her claims with research and her own personal experience. When watching the video, it immediately pulled me in and told me what I needed to know; it is both engaging and educational.

    Read More

  • Essays On Recycling

    812 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some people say recycling is a waste of time. If one is a very busy person, then maybe. But taking that extra two seconds to recycle, saving energy, money, resources, and the world isn’t a bad plan either. If everyone would take the extra two seconds to recycle, the extra effort would help to make the world would be a much cleaner and more efficient place. Recycling could also help to lower taxes in the long run. Recycled materials have value, and trash costs money. A city recycling program could sell it and make money. Then, with the extra money, the city wouldn’t have to charge as much money on taxes. Now how does those two extra seconds sound now? One can better the place they live in and save some money by taking two extra seconds to recycle.

    Read More

  • Materialism In America

    1529 Words  | 4 Pages

    Society's connection to materialism has grown to the point where the amount of garbage produced is becoming an issues to the health of America. The byproduct of our materialistic desires is explained by, Berry, he states, “The truth is that we Americans, all of us, have become a kind of human trash, living our lives in the midst of a ubiquitous damned mess of which we are once the victims and the perpetrators.” (p. 3, 485) That is to say, materialism has created a society where the materials we produce and desire, causes America to generate waste polluting the land. We tend to take advantage of the materials we have, we throw away our excess food, we toss all our broken possessions, we buy gas that pollutes the air. These material goods, are seen as common necessity in everyday life, we give no insight to when we throw away our garbage because it has become a normality, because of the large amount of materials created, we assume that throwing away garbage is acceptable, not knowing what happens to trash. But Americans all together, produce such a large amount of waste that our country is beginning to show the effects of pollution. Because of climate change, our season are changing, animals are going extinct, lakes and rivers are drying up all because of the contributions we make towards climate change. The materials that are created are originated from our desires, when we create this perpetual loop of supply and

    Read More

  • Recycling Essay

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imagine you are on vacation on a cruise having a great time. You look around and see the ocean is covered with garbage. According to Discovermagazine.com, there are patches of garbage present in the middle of the oceans. If you collect all garbage in the oceans, it would be double in height to Mount Everest. According to climatechange.com, if we do not act immediately, not recycling is going to affect our environment. Refusing to recycle the waste materials would poison the food and water we use, leading to our death. Recycling affects the earth more than we can imagine. We’ve got be more aggressive towards reducing and reusing the waste material, as there is an increase in the amount of garbage production.

    Read More

  • Recycling: Save Planet Earth

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    Preserving the environment is very important. One way that would be possible is by recycling. Recycling is the recovery and reprocessing of waste materials for use in new products. There are important environmental and economic benefits connected with recycling. Common materials that are recycled consist of aluminum cans, glass, paper, wood, and plastic (“Recycling”). Cleveland, Ohio joined the ranks of requiring recycling and also fines the homeowners for not disposing of waste correctly or leaving cans out too early or too long (McElroy 1). Michele McCay says that recycling is one of the easiest, most tangible ways of taking action for the planet (par. 1). If that is the case, why is it not required in all states? Recycling should be mandatory because it saves natural resources, it conserves energy, and it reduces pollution.

    Read More

  • Everyone Should Care About The Environment

    1297 Words  | 3 Pages

    While walking through the park last Sunday, I observed a shocking scene. There were two cans: one for recycling and one for trash. The recycling receptacle had only an empty Dr. Pepper can and a few used Ozarka water bottles. On the other hand, the trash can had a plethora of half eaten meals, wrappers, banana peels and disgustingly even bottles, cans, newspapers and plastics that could have been recycled. Because people do not understand or do not care to understand about conserving our resources, many reusable items are being put in landfills when recycling these items could help save the environment. People should know the negative impact of throwing away a water bottle or newspaper, purchasing meat from the grocery store or consuming gasoline has on the environment, and many do not. By informing society about how their decisions affect the environment, we can help save our planet and change our attitude toward the land we live on, the water we drink and the air we breathe” and truly show respect for the stuff that we depend on.

    Read More

More about Persuasive Analysis

Open Document