Running head: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 1

Rhetorical Analysis:

Down on Their Luck

by David A. Snow & Leon Anderson

Michael Kneeskern

University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1301

Dr. Vierra

October 18, 2018

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 2

Abstract

This paper assesses the value of the monograph titled Down on Their Luck. It focuses on

the rhetorical appeal and audience to find the book’s academic value in an objective manner.

Most of this research was conducted via interviews with peers, the professor and a multitude of

articles written on rhetoric. Through this deep analysis of this book, it was discovered that this

book is credible source that makes use of the rhetorical appeals. This means that this is a

valuable source to use while researching homelessness and other related topics.
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 3

Rhetorical Analysis:

Down on their Luck

Downs (2017) claims in his essay that rhetoric has too many meanings making the

interpretation of it difficult to understand (p. 459). This claim is made because the common uses

of the word rhetoric range from the political definition in which it means baseless lies

to the academic definition where it is a claim supported rigorously other sources. The evidence

supporting his claim is a series of principles which he claims can be thought about like the

physics principles that describe gravity. This disagrees with Covino (1995) who says that

rhetoric is difficult to understand because there is no definite body of knowledge, and even say

that it is not like physics (p. 3). Downs (2017) continues to list these elements, farther

supporting his point. Among these elements are the rhetorical appeals (p. 469). Rhetorical

appeals are a set of options for getting others to agree with you. They were proposed by Aristotle

and are known as “ethos, pathos and logos.” They mean credibility, emotions and logic

respectively. The last concept that requires defining is audience. According to Vierra (2018),

there are two audiences for any given piece of work, the invoked audience and the actual

audience. The invoked audience is the person or people the author had in mind while writing,

and the actual audience is the people who are actually reading the material. Based on the three

rhetorical appeals and the concept of audience, Down on Their Luck by David Snow is a good

source of information.

Down on Their Luck is a non-fiction book published by the University of California

press. It is a monograph, which is a type of non-fiction book that is characterized by having one

overarching argument that is thoroughly proven throughout the book without the direct use of

other author’s works. The easiest way to identify a monograph is to check whether it says

“Edited by” or not. If the book has editors instead of authors, it is not a monograph. Down on
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 4

Their Luck looks at homelessness in Austin, Texas during the 1980s. It is written by David Snow

and Leon Anderson, both of which are sociologists at their respective colleges (University of

California, Irvine 2016; Utah State University 2017). As stated before, Down on Their Luck is a

monograph, which is a type of academic genre.

According to Swales (1990), a genre is an established set of expectations (pp. 7-8). These

expectations were developed because documents were needed as a form of communication, and

these expectations made them faster and easier to read and process for experienced members of

the discourse community (Ortu, 2014, pp. 5). This understanding of genres has since extended to

all forms of communications, like film and music. The genre of a medium prepares its observers

for the experience they are about to undertake, whether it be in advancing their knowledge

through some academic source, sitting on the edge of their seat watching a heart stopping thriller,

or the drive to dance to an upbeat song.

According to Snow (1993), the 1980s was a decade characterized by the highest of highs

and the lowest of lows (p. ix). This is in response to the continued debate and misunderstanding

of homelessness in general leading up into the 1990s. The authors’ evidence is a selection of case

studies focused on the situation in Austin, Texas during 1984. During this time many homeless

people moved to the city to try and find work, but due to the influx of people very few found

long-lasting or meaningful work. The first three to four pages of the introduction are dedicated to

an account of a group of people in mid-January who had no refuge from the storming cold (pp.

3-6).

Discussion

Audience

Down on Their Luck makes great use of audience. According to Vierra (2018), there are

two audiences for any given piece of work, the invoked audience and the actual audience. The
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 5

invoked audience is the person or people the author had in mind while writing, and the actual

audience is the people who are actually reading the material. According to Snow (1993), this

book was written with several audiences in mind (p. x). This collection of audiences changes the

tone of a piece. When creating anything with an audience in mind, you tend to follow their

preferred or most common genre. For Snow, as a sociologist first and foremost, this audience is

his academic discourse community. This means that the overlaying genre is an academic one.

However, this is far from the only group the authors of this book want to address. They also list

policy makers, and college students who are far removed from those living on the streets. This

audience of college students who often harbor misconceptions of the homeless might help to

explain their use of pathos to a higher degree than other works. This is a seemingly common

theme among the subject of homelessness, as it’s also found in Timmer’s work “Paths to

Homelessness” where they forgo a method of viewing the topic of homelessness because it

neglects the suffering of the people in this situation (1994, p. 5). The importance of this

collection of audiences is that Snow is writing to both his invoked audience and the actual

audience.

Ethos

Down on Their Luck displays a large amount of ethos. According to Downs (2017), ethos

is the credibility of an author (p. 469). In other words, it’s how you prove they can be trusted.

Using the book “Down on their luck,” by Snow and Anderson (1993), examples of ethos would

be the fact that it was published by the University of California Press (p. iii). Likewise, the

authors list their academic colleagues who gave constructive suggestions (p. xiii). Later in the

same paragraph, they thank specific colleagues for various things such as constructing part of the

initial data-gathering team, co-authoring academic papers that resulted from the discoveries of
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 6

their research, late night discussions on their topic and bail money to get them out of jail very

early on a Saturday morning.

Pathos

Pathos, as described by Downs (2017), as the emotional appeal of some work (p. 469).

Normally, works of these types, are short on pathos due to the clinical nature of the genre. As

mentioned in the audience portion, this topic seems to be a special case. This can come in many

forms and is identified by an emotional reaction from the reader. This can be seen on page one of

the afore mentioned book “Down on their luck.” There, you will find an image of a man

climbing into a dumpster. The reason is unclear, but based on context, it appears that he is a

homeless man in a desperate search for something be it shelter for the night, some discarded food

or miscellaneous methods of insulating himself in preparation for the cold nights of the 1980s

Austin, Texas (Snow, 1993, p. 1). However, the examples are few and far between due to the

clinical nature of these works.

Logos

Down on Their Luck displays predominantly logos. Downs (2017) describes logos ass the

logic of a piece, or how they rationally explain their ideas using facts and research (p. 469). The

logos of Snow’s work comes mostly through his direct case-study research of the homeless

population in Austin, Texas (1993, p. 7). Through these studies, Snow can speak for his claim

that the 1980s were characterized by the disparity between those above the poverty line and

those below (p. ix).

According to Snow (1993), the 1980s were a decade characterized by the highest of

highs and the lowest of lows (p. ix). This is in response to the continued debate and

misunderstanding of homelessness in general leading up into the 1990s. The authors’

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 7

evidence is a selection of case studies focused on the situation in Austin, Texas during 1984.

During this time many homeless people moved to the city to try and find work, but due to the

influx of people very few found long-lasting or meaningful work. The first three to four pages of

the introduction are dedicated to an account of a group of people in mid-January who had no

refuge from the storming cold (pp. 3-6).

Conclusion

Between the three rhetorical appeals and Snow’s approach to audience while writing this

monograph, this book is a good book to use when researching homelessness and other related

topics. Especially because, as it was written, Snow was considering the students who would use

this book in the future.

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 8

References

Covino, William & Jolliffe, David. (1995). What is rhetoric? In Covino, William & Jolliffe,

David (Ed.), Rhetoric: Concepts, definitions, boundaries (pp. 3-26). Boston: Allyn &

Bacon. Retrieved from https://blackboardlearn.utep.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2313264-dt-

content-rid-

50958002_1/courses/15921.201910/Covino%20%26%20Joliffe%202014%20What%20is

%20Rhetoric.pdf

Downs, D. (2017). Rhetoric: Making sense of human interaction and meanina-making. In D. D.

Elizabeth Wardle (Ed.), Writing about writing (third ed., pp. 457-483). United States

of Americe: bedford/st. martins.

Ortu, C. (2014). Tension and Conflict in the Labour Discourse Community: A Critical Genre

Analysis of Labour Prime Ministers' Speeches to the TUC (1969-2008). Lingue E

Linguaggi, 12, 161-175. doi:10.1285/i22390359v12p161

Snow, D. A. (1993). Down on their luck: A study of homeless street people. Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press.

Swales, J. (1990). The concept of discourse community. Retrieved from

https://blackboardlearn.utep.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2292695-dt-content-rid-

48633758_1/courses/15921.201910/Swales%201990%20Concept%20of%20a%20Disco

urse%20Community.pdf

Timmer, D., Eitzen, S., & Talley, K. (1994). Paths to homelessness. Boulder, San Francisco:

Westview press.

University of California, I. (2016). Dr. David Snow. Retrieved from

https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/dsnow/
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Utah State Univerity. (2017). Leon Anserson | sociology. Retrieved from

https://sociology.usu.edu/people/directory/leon-anderson

Vierra P.J. (2018). Audience. [Lecture].