When analyzing the article “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” written by Mike Rose, and the article “Shop Class as Soulcraft,” by Matthew B. Crawford, you can see several differences in the strategies they use. Rose’s text was an educational article about the intelligence gained through manual labor trades. Roses intended audience is the well educated, professional class, as well as educators, and individuals working in white collar jobs. His purpose is to prove that not all blue-collar workers need an education to succeed and to bust the stereotype that blue-collar individuals can gain the essential skills and education from their jobs. Crawford also based his article around blue-collar work, he mainly focuses on the values the craftsman, being a craftsman …show more content…
means you’re a person skilled in a particular craft, Crawford encourages those individuals to get an education and to pursue their passion. Crawfords audience is for the educated class. He uses a wide range of vocabulary to better connect with them. In the articles written by Rose and Crawford, they use two different rhetorical strategies to appeal their audience. Rose uses storytelling, he wants his readers to witness first hand that blue-collar workers don’t need a formal education to succeed in their trade. As for Crawford, he uses style and tone to portray himself as educated and how he’s passionate about his trade. “Blue-Collar Brilliance” was published in “The American Scholar” magazine, June 1, 2009.
Rose begins his article with his first rhetorical strategy of storytelling and description to describe his mother and uncle’s work environments and the hardship they go through. As a child, he would go to his mother’s work to watch her, “Rosie took customers’ orders, pencil poised over pad, while fielding questions about the food. She walked full tilt through the room with plates stretching up her left arm and two cups of coffee somehow cradled in her right hand.” (Rose 1) Another example that we see Rose’s use of storytelling is when he was brought to his uncle’s factory. “Joe took me on a tour of the factory. The floor was loud—in some places deafening—and when I turned a corner or opened a door, the smell of chemicals knocked my head back. The work was repetitive and taxing, and the pace was inhumane.” (Rose 3) He uses these moments to relate to you and show you the hardship they go through in their workforce. Rose wants his audience to understand that blue-collar workers, even though they don’t have a proper education for their trade, that have the hands on experience to gain the proper knowledge they need to know to successfully complete their job. He’s showing the type of environment they work in and the chaos that’s …show more content…
brewing. Rose wants his readers to witness first hand that blue-collar workers don’t need an education to succeed in their trade, referring back to his mothers work, Rose states, “I’ve since studied the working habits of blue-collar workers and have come to understand how much my mother’s kind of work demands of both body and brain.
Another example, “Rosie devised memory strategies so that she could remember who ordered what.” (Rose 1) His mother gained skills through her job that an individual could never learn from just going to school. “Joe the shop floor provided what school did not; it was like schooling, he said, a place where you’re constantly learning. Joe learned the most efficient way to use his body by acquiring a set of routines that were quick and preserved energy. Otherwise he would never have survived on the line.” (Rose 3) Roses uncle brings up that school isn’t the only this that teaches you. Hands on work is just as effective as schooling. In school you aren’t always going to get that “hands on” experience like you would working in Joe’s
trade. Matthew B. Crawfords “Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work” was published in 2009 by Penguin Press. Crawfords indented audience would have to be individuals who believe trade work is a lesson of the past; and the beliefs that students needed to be trained as, “knowledgeable workers,” for preparation of their rolls in the future. (Crawford) Educators could use this information to better their students in the long run. Crawford takes a different approach in his writing. Instead of using storytelling to catch the reader's attention, he uses style and tone to portray himself as educated and how he’s passionate about his trade. The use of style is used through his wording, the way he expresses his thoughts, and his wide range of vocabulary all portray him to the audience as an educated individual who is passionate about his trade. “Essentially, there is another hood under the hood. This creeping concealedness takes various forms. The fasteners holding small appliances together now often require esoteric screwdrivers not commonly available, apparently to prevent the curious or the angry from interrogating the innards.” (Crawford 7) From this quote, the audience will understand that Crawford is knowledgeable of mechanical parts, his use of play on words, and uses unfamiliar words like “esoteric” and “interrogating” to portrays him as an educated person. His use of tone is this essay portrays it as an important matter. Crawford uses this strategy throughout his essay, an example of this is, “What sort of men were these first, the 100 out of 963 who stuck it out on the new assembly line? Perhaps it was the men who felt less revulsion because they had less pride in their own powers, and were therefore more tractable. Less republican, we might say. But if there was initially such a self-selection process, it quickly gave way to something less deliberate, more systemic.” (Crawford 20) He uses this tone to strengthen his purpose of the article. He's showing the end result of the decline of factory jobs thanks to the invention of the assembly line. Crawford is saying that individuals are at a loss of work, that they’re easily controlled because of it. The men were loathing because they “had less pride of their powers.” (Crawford) They were giving away their abilities to a machine, no one would know how hard they worked to become a craftsman. The authors, Mike Rose and Matthew B. Crawford wrote about the importance of blue-collar workers and craftsman. These two authors, although having the same writing topic, used different rhetorical writing strategies to educate their audience and strengthen their argument. They both gave the blue-collar workforce kutos for what they do. The authors both highlight the importance of trades, and that blue-collar workers can gain experience through their jobs. This successfully busts the stereotype that blue-collar workers are less than white-collars.
Mike Rose describes his first-hand experience of blue collar workers in his monograph “Blue Collar Brilliance”. Patiently, he observed the cooks and waitresses whilst he waited for his mother’s shift to end. He noticed how his mother called out abbreviated orders, tag tables and so on. Mike Rose describes how his mother, Rosie, took orders whilst holding cups of coffee and removed plates in motion. Rose observed how her mother and other waiters worked and concluded that blue collar work “demands both body and brain” (Rose 274). He describes that Rosie devised memory strategies and knew whether an order was being delayed. She was assiduous in sequencing and clustering her tasks and solved any technical or human problem simultaneously. Managing
“for blue-collar workers, the zombie stories are tales of comeuppance, of trial” norton field guild to writing with readings and handbook 653. Bosch implies that blue collar workers do not always get the gratitude they deserve for their skills but, in the apocalypse they are praised for their knowledge of survival. One of Bosches strong points of ethos would be how she can
Many of the lives that were taken in the fire tried to fight their way out it but they could not, because doors were locked and also because they just could not escape. The story also involves stories of women and immigrant women’s who came to America to find a difference and fight hard to maintain their families. The Triangle Factory was three floors and was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the Triangle Waist Company produced shirtwaists, or women’s blouses and employed more than five hundred workers, many who were Jewish and Italian women. The author talks about how unjustly the girls were treated while working, being at work in the machine since seven in the morning and leaving the machine at 8 at night, with just a one-half hour lunch in that time. That was the life the girls were living in the shop, a life that could have been handled better. Many argument that Argersinger had were sweatshop conditions in the factories during this tragic event, development of series of laws and regulations to protect the safety of the
time; yet, nerds and geeks are still oppressed by others. To illustrate his intolerant attitude of the
Rick Reilly, in his ESPN column (2007), contends that sports competitions are more than simple games, instead, they are events capable of bringing people together in unique ways. He reinforces his contention by integrating inspirational anecdotal evidence, bold syntax, and unvarnished diction. Reilly’s purpose is to point out the importance and humanity of sports in order to convince a college professor and readers of sports magazines that sports writing is indeed an advanced and valuable profession. He assumes a humorous tone (“...most important- sports is the place where beer tastes best”) for an audience of sports magazine readers, but more specifically, a professor that told him that he was “better than sports.”
Author and Harvard graduate, Leonid Fridman, in an excerpt of his article, America Needs Its Nerds, points out America’s anti-intellectualism. Fridman’s purpose is to inform the reader of the contempt held for the intellectually curious and call for a change in the country’s attitude. He adopts a condemning tone to make the reader aware of the issue and encourage them to change their mindset.
Rose took that into consideration when presenting his article. He included 2 significant photographs of his family members at work. The image of his mother evoked a strong sense of accomplishment, and a happy productive mother that many can relate to. Captioned as “Rosie solved technical problems and human problems on the fly” (Rose 273). This image, along with the description in the preceding paragraph, provides the reader with a heart filled example of a brilliant mother at work. A job which does not require schooling, is referred to as a Blue-Collar position. Needless to say, a waitress job, such as that of Rosie’s, is indeed a Blue-Collar occupation. Furthermore, Rosie’s content features, and the ability to hold many cups in one hand, as seen in the image, adheres towards the admiration that Rose has on blue-collar workers. “I’m struck by the thinking-in-motion that some works require, by all the mental activity that can be involved in simply getting from one place to another” (Rose279). Rose’s admiration towards blue-collar workers allows his argument to become credible in the reader’s
In the article, “Blue-Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose, he begins with an anecdote of his mother working her blue-collar job at a diner as a waitress. Rose vividly describes her common day that is packed with a constant array of tedious tasks she has to accomplish to make her living. The authors goal appears to be making the reader appreciate the hard work of blue-collar workers because society places a stereotype on them as being less intelligent than someone with more schooling or even a white-collar job: “Our cultural iconography promotes the muscled arm, sleeve rolled tight against biceps, but no brightness behind the eye, no inmate that links hand and brain” (282). I agree with Rose’s conclusion that if we continue to place a stigma on
Rose uses very detailed description of what his mother did on a regular basis to get a point across to his readers. He wants us to see that working a blue collar job requires a tremendous amount of brain power. And the reason he is so successful, is because of the detail he uses. When I read this specific paragraph I honestly can imagine what Rosie used to do while at her job. How she adapted to new situations. How she was able to remember what each person ordered out the nine tables she was in charge of. To being able to know if something was taking too long to cook and check-in with the chef to see if there was a problem. These are just some of the problems Rosie would face each day while working as a waitress. I believe that even today waitresses are looked down upon by most people. But they are hard working people and deserve respect for what they
“Intelligence is closely associated with formal education- the type of schooling a person has, how much and how long- and most people seem to move comfortably from the notion to a belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (Rose 276). My Dad has worked blue collar jobs his entire life. Security guard, lawn service, woodworker, carpenter, plus anything else that involves his hands. He didn’t have any schooling past his high school diploma. But he’s always told me, “Yeah, I wish I went to college, but I’m sure as hell glad I was taught and forced to learn the skills I have now. Like doing things on my own and working with my hands, my work ethic, and my ability to absorb as many things as I could to get the job done.” Blue collar jobs can never be outsourced. There will always be a need for plumbers, electricians, machine operators, carpenters and many, many more
Mike Rose’s article “Blue-Collar Brilliance” talks about people judging other people’s intelligence based on their jobs. Mike Rose explains in his article that people with blue collar jobs are just as intelligent as people with white collar jobs because they both use critical thinking and multi task while they are working. The standard of their jobs might be different because of their different ways of learning. People who are considered professionals or white collared individuals learn by studying or reading reports where blue collared individuals learn by performing a task. They learn faster ways to perform the task after they have done it multiple times. I believe that Rose’s thinking is very effective as it tells us that we should not judge
The poem describes workers to be “Killing the overtime ‘cause the dream is your life, / Refusing to take holidays or go home to your spouse, / But for many the overtime comes, ‘cause the work is not done. / Deadlines to be met. So you continue to dream like a war vet, / Having flashbacks to make you shiver and scream” (Jones, stanza 7, lines 2-6). Jones reinforces that overworking for an incentive of money does not give one a sense of gratification, and it also distracts them from the values that should matter more to them than anything else. Both Kohn and Jones have a similar approach to showing the reader the effect that overworking can have on a person, and how it will change their values in life, causing unhappiness. Many students go through school dispirited and do not join various clubs and activities for their own enjoyment. A friend of Kohn’s who was also a high school guidance counsellor had a student with ‘…amazing grade and board scores. It remained only to knock out a dazzling essay on his college applications that would clinch the sale. “Why don’t we start with some books that
In “ Blue Collar Brilliance” Mike Rose argues that intelligences can’t be measured by the education we received in school but how we learn them in our everyday lives. He talks about his life growing up and watching his mother waitressing at a restaurant. He described her orders perfectly by who got what, how long each dish takes to make, and how she could read her customers. He also talks about his uncles working at the General Motors factory and showed the amount of intelligence that was need to work at the factory. Rose goes on talking about the different types of blue-collar and how he came up with the idea that a person has skills that takes a lot of mind power to achieve.
The articles “Blue-Collar Brilliance” has an excellence style that is very organized that helps the reader understand and collect their thoughts. The author gives us many examples including the author’s mother and uncle. Further in the article the author also examines many other jobs that others may not respect in society, The examples are very effective and support the author’s point of view very well. The article states “Eight years ago I began a study of the thought processes involved in work like that of my mother and uncle” (Rose 910). We also learn that the author has been researching and studying his topic for many years which shows us that the information is credible. The author uses very good language and tone while addressing the reader, he may have his own opinion but he is not harsh and abrupt about it. The article also has a great amount of detail that helps the reader understand the author’s point of view clearly. An example of great detail is when the article mentions “ Planning and problem solving have been studied since the earliest days of modern cognitive psychology and are considered core elements in Western definitions of intelligence. To work is to solve problems. The big difference between the psychologist’s laboratory and the workplace is that in the former the problems are isolated and in the latter they are embedded in the real-time flow of work with
While this is a dramatized statement regarding the plight of the worker under the new machine driven industrial system, rhetoric such as this did represent the fears of the working class. Over time as industrialization appeared more commonly there emerged more heated debates between the working class and business owners.