Saturday, January 10, 2015

TOW #15 "Outliers by Malcom Gladwell" (IRB)

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell redefines the meaning of success. Success to him can be a matter of luck and the circumstances you are under. Through logos and detailed evidence Gladwell shows his audience what success truly is. To most people it is defined as the story of a true hero creating themselves and achieving against all odds. We love the good rags to riches stories, but this is not always true. 
Gladwell is a psychologist and analyzes the pattern of success and peoples background stories. Establishing his credibility, he sets stage for other psychology books. Gladwell most prominently uses exemplification to show a relation between surrounding environment and peak achievement. In order to clearly show arguments, Gladwell appeals to logos. In an example of why Korean flights crash more than others, he demonstrates how they lack connection. “Klotz: One-five-zero maintaining two thousand Avianca zero-five-two heavy. The captain is clearly on the edge of panic. Caviedes: Advise him we don’t have fuel...Klotz: Climb and maintain three thousand and, ah, we’re running out of fuel, sir” (199). Using this example makes it clear for the reader to see the relationship between crashing and communication.

Through the rhetorical devices, and pattern of a narrative Gladwell achieves his purpose of describing the factors of what success is. The only drawback of how Gladwell describes success is that he discourages people from trying to achieve it. But by making success seem too rare to achieve Gladwell encourages me to defy the odds and achieve.

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