Ch 3- rachel cummer - analysis and summary of article \"Right to Fail\" PDF

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analysis and summary of article "Right to Fail"...

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Rachel Cummer Chapter 3 Assignment I.

Analysis The main forms of evidence in “Right to Fail” that are prominent are facts and expert testimonies and all types of appeals are prominent in this essay, including logos, pathos, and ethos. Pathos and facts overlap to form a lot of strong examples throughout the essay. Zinsser uses facts for pathos appeal to appeal to the audience’s mind or intellect. There are many examples of this in paragraphs 7-10. Zinsser provides facts about certain celebrities and one fictional character that show that failures can in turn lead to great success later in life. The first example of this is Thomas P.F. Hoving; he dropped out of several schools throughout his life, and then later became New York’s Park Commissioner and then later the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Another example is Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, who was a dropout and then later became a successful person. The last example of this type is when Zinsser mentions Fred Zinnemann. He created a movie that was deemed a “box office disaster,” but his next moving won almost every prize. He goes on to talk about learning a lot from his failures that helped him to be successful for his next movie. One more example of Zinsser using a fact to support his claims is in paragraph 13, where he states that 200,000 Americans have inquired about the Peace Corps and more than 3 million American college students would serve the Peace Corps if given the opportunity. He states that sometimes people “drop out” of college to join the Peace Corps and that this is not seen as a huge success, but the volunteers feel more internal success and satisfaction. This proves his point that even though they are not seen as successful in terms of money, but they are still successful in their own way, even though society sees them as a drop out. Zinsser also uses an expert testimony to prove his point and show his knowledge in the field. The best example of this is in paragraph 9. In this paragraph, Zinsser talks about his education and why he is able to make the claims that he is making throughout the essays and it lets us an audience know that what he is saying is credible and we should believe him. Another one of the appeals that Zinsser uses frequently within his essay is pathos. He uses pathos to appeal to the reader’s heart and pulls at our emotional strings in order for use to buy into what he saying and believe that it’s true. The first example of this within the essay is in paragraph 3. Zinsser discusses how the media and advertisements make it out to sound that if you don’t have the best of everything, you aren’t successful and you’re not as good as other people. He then goes into saying that even though you aren’t as successful in society’s eyes, you still can be successful. This has an emotional appeal on the readers because they just want to be seen as successful and they can still achieve that even if they don’t follow into society’s mainstream ways. The next example is in paragraph 5. He talks about people

wondering what happens if they fail, and that usually the most common answer is “don’t fail.” This can make people feel something because all too often there is too much pressure not to “fail” and things, especially from one’s parents. He uses this appeal to later tell us that instead of hearing “don’t fail,” we should be encouraging more people not to be afraid to fail because it can lead to success. This, in turn, makes the reader feel better about themselves and hopes that even if they do fail, they can still turn it around into something good and achieve their own personal form of success. And lastly, Zinsser uses ethos appeal a few times throughout to get the audience’s attention. The first example of ethos within this essay is in paragraph 13. In this paragraph, he talks about individuals that leave college on the back burner and volunteer for the Peace Corps. He says that it isn’t “successful” in a monetary sense, but those that participate in it feel successful and satisfied because they are doing the right thing. This shows the readers that doing the right or more ethically correct thing can often feel like more of a success, even though it may not be considered a high achievement or make you rich. And the last example of this within the essay is in paragraph 15. Zinsser talks about how everyone has a different version of what success means to them and no one truly knows the correct answer to being successful. He talks cherishing each individual’s right to succeed in their own way and not to judge others for their “failures” because they can end up leading them to their own type of success. This leads the readers to be more ethical because they are not judging other individuals and focusing more on themselves and doing what is right to get their own form of success, despite failures. I think that the most successful evidence and appeals within this essay are facts, logos, and pathos. Zinsser uses facts and credible knowledge to show that even though people fail, they still can move towards success by learning from their mistakes and past failures. He then uses the readers’ emotions to push them into thinking the same thing. Everyone has failed at something in their life, and he uses that basic knowledge to reach out to those that have failed and make them feel better about it. This empowers people to keep trying and I think that it was very successful in helping me, personally, to get on board with the main points of this essay.

II.

Summary In this essay, Zinsser talks about failures in a new light that most people don’t see. He states that a lot of times a person is seen like a failure to society because they dropped out of college, don’t have much money, or created something that was a failure. But then he talks about it in a new and empowering way. He says that even if you fail once, that doesn’t mean that you still won’t become a huge success. It basically tells the readers to embrace failures and to use them as a learning experience to become a better you. He also talks about how everyone has their own definition of success and you should work towards achieving what is successful to you, whether that’s graduating college, getting a job you love (not necessarily high paying), volunteering,

or traveling. He encourages the audience to respect that everyone has their own idea of success and to not put others down because they don’t see them as much of a success.

III.

Annotations I annotated this essay much differently than I did in Brooks essay for the chapter 2 assignment because of the different questions that were asked of me. I read through this piece three times in its entirety while completing annotations and formulating answers to the questions. Most, if not all, of my annotations were regarding the different forms of evidence and appeals written in the text. I would underline portions of the text that I though fit into one of these categories, and then wrote short notes on the side saying which category it falls into and a brief description of why I thought that. For this assignment, I found it very helpful to make these annotations before beginning and I think I would’ve completed it even if the assignment didn’t say anything about annotating. It helped me to organize my thoughts and touch on all the examples from the text that I read originally, without missing details....