Munoz-Gallegos 1

Brian Munoz-Gallegos

Corri Ditch

English 115

29 September 2020

Project Space Essay: Effective Arguments

Happiness is the feeling almost everyone will strive for in life, it will come easy to

some and will come hard for others, but no matter the circumstances happiness is more like a

state of mind, and it depends on a person’s perspective and outlook on life. The three articles

"The Sources of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, "How Happy Are You

and Why?" by Sonia Lyubomirsky, and "Living with Less. A Lot Less." by Graham Hill all

share an identical claim that a person is in control of their happiness. Although they all argue

the same claim, they have different ways of incorporating rhetorical appeals in their writing.

The writers use a very vast amount of Rhetorical strategies in many formats such as personal

stories, experience, and even genetic studies. While all three authors argue the same claim, the

one who is proven to have the most effective argument from their use of rhetorical appeals, by

including relatable personal stories and valid scientific experiments is Sonia Lyubomirsky in

the article "How Happy Are You and Why?"

In the article "The Sources of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler the

use of rhetorical techniques is done nicely, but not perfect when compared to the others. At

the beginning of the article, the writers reveal to the audience information that the speaker is

the Dalai Lama who is known as the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan

government in India. Along with the introduction of Howard Cutler, showing he is a writer

and psychiatrist and studies in the field of happiness (Cutler and Dalai Lama, 21). The
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introduction of these individuals reveals their biggest use of rhetorical techniques, which is

ethos. This builds their credibility of talking on this subject since one is a very well-known

name in India and the other is an expert on happiness studies. The Dalai Lama and Howard

Cutler show their use of logos while presenting experiments done by professionals which

show how a person’s happiness can be controlled by changing their perspective on life (Cutler

and Dalai Lama, 23). These experiments present a good use of logos within this article, but

compared to Lyubomirsky this article is lacking enough logos to have a stronger argument.

The author shows a compelling use of pathos within this article by sharing a very personal

story that trails back to when they were diagnosed with HIV and how it affected his well-

being (Cutler and Dalai Lama 21). The use of emotions within this article makes his personal

story of controlling happiness very convincing, but being compared to Lyubomirsky and Hill

these two falls short in being the most effective. The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler’s use of

rhetorical devices succeed in using rhetorical devices to support their argument, but it is

presenting the most effective argument out of all the articles.

In the article "Living with Less. A Lot Less." by Graham Hill, the speaker presents his

story of coming to peace with his own happiness during a time he experiences an

overwhelming amount of success. While doing so the author mostly focuses on the use of

pathos, which takes away from the use of other appeals and ultimately makes his argument

weaker than the others. Firstly the use of ethos is shown at the beginning of the article. Hill’s

credibility is revealed when it shows he is an entrepreneur and has a degree in architecture

although it doesn’t give much credibility to the argument at hand (308). He also includes the

experience that he went through, from huge success and lots of materialistic items to a simple

life. His ethos is based on personal experience and contributes to ethos but it is not as
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professional when compared to the other two articles. On the other hand, Graham Hill

presents the use of logos within this article when supplying evidence from a study done by

UCLA which supports the idea that it is stressful when you have a large number of material

items (pg 310). This evidence is a good piece of logos in this argument due to the fact that it is

the same issue that he had faced, which helps support his argument throughout the article.

Third Hill’s use of logos is implemented into the article well, but Lyubomirsky uses a greater

amount of stronger experiments done, which makes her argument done better. When Hill

includes pathos within this article it is the most effective rhetorical strategy for him, since he

shows the shift in emotions he faces in life as he switches lifestyles (310). By showing how

much the life he lived affected his happiness, using his strong emotional memories can

influence the audience to agree with his argument. Then Hill includes pathos when he shares

his story about his personal relationship that occurred and how it had affected his happiness

when changing lifestyles (311). Overall Graham Hill did well in using rhetorical techniques to

make his argument effective, but the issue is the fact that he mainly focused on pathos took

away the strength it could’ve had if it had more of the other appeals like the other two articles.

In the article "How Happy Are You and Why?" by Sonia Lyubomirsky, The author

continuously uses a large amount of ethos, pathos, and logos throughout the entire article, the

stronger use of rhetorical appeals makes her article have the most powerful argument. In order

to make her claim effective Lyubomirsky uses personal stories and many experiments that

support the topic at hand from experiences to scientifically. Firstly the article begins with

displaying the credibility of Sonia Lyubomirsky, it starts with showing her credentials that she

has a Ph.D. in social psychology and is a psychology professor, along with the fact that she

has done over 80 experiments within the topic of controlled happiness (pg 179). Without
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doubt with Lyubomirsky’s titles it is proven she is the most credible out of the other authors

listed above, although she is lacking personal experience, she has done many scientific

experiments and is a professional in this topic. When compared to the others, Sonia

Lyubomirsky is the most credible when speaking about the topic of controlled happiness.

Then the author includes an important use of pathos within the first portion of this article

when she mentions the many personal stories based on real people who have come across

difficult hardships growing up from abusive parents to extreme poverty (Lyubomirsky 180).

The point of these stories was to display how these people eventually found happiness in life

even though they faced major problems throughout their life. The pathos included in this part

of the article is very strong, these emotional stories have the ability to have a strong effect on

the audience by the connection to these stories the audience can have. While the other articles

have personal stories by the authors, Lyubomirsky not having a story makes it up by including

stories of others which is a very smart use of pathos and proves her argument to be effective

in an emotional sense. This article is largely made up of logos, Lyubomirsky uses a number of

experiments, facts, and data in order to prove that her argument is accurate. There are many

examples of experiments that Soni Lyubomirsky references, one of them being a study done

that proves the correlation of happiness to genetics by using twins (pg 188). Another strong

fact that supports her claim is data that confirms 50% of a person's set happiness is concluded

by genetics but the other 40% is based on intentional activity which means it is based on your

perspective and actions in life (Lyubomirsky 184). The studies referenced in this article was

the most influencing use of logos from all three articles. Evidently, these experiments that

were shown by Lyubomirsky have more scientifically accurate answers on the question “can

you control your happiness”, therefore the logos in this article is more convincing than the
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others. All details considered the article "How Happy Are You and Why?" by Sonia

Lyubomirsky has the strongest use of rhetorical appeals, which proves to make her argument

the most effective.

The three articles known as "The Sources of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama and

Howard Cutler, "How Happy Are You and Why?" by Sonia Lyubomirsky, and "Living with

Less. A Lot Less." by Graham Hill all relate by arguing the same claim. Although sharing a

similar argument the author who uses rhetorical appeals in the most effective way is Sonia

Lyubomirsky. The two articles by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, and Graham Hill

support their claims very well by using rhetorical techniques but in the end, fall short to Sonia

Lyubomirsky. The article done by Lyubomirsky is proven to be more effective because of her

implementation of ethos, pathos, and logos, from emotional stories to compelling scientific

experiments, and her remarkable background in the study of happiness. In conclusion, the

article “How Happy Are You and Why?” by Sonia Lyubomirsky has the most persuasive use

of rhetorical appeals out of the three articles above, which ultimately supports the idea that her

argument is the utmost effective from the set.

Works Cited

Parfitt, Matthew, Dawn Skorczewski, Daila Lama, et al. “Pursuing Happiness: A Bedford Spotlight

Reader.” Does Spiritual Happiness Lead to Happiness?, Second, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019,

pp. 21–33.
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Parfitt, Matthew, Dawn Skorczewski, and Graham Hill. “Pursuing Happiness: A Bedford Spotlight

Reader.” Can We Create Our Own Happiness?, Second, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019, pp.

308–13.

Parfitt, Matthew, and Dawn Skorczewski, and Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “Pursuing Happiness.” How

Happy Are You And Why?, 2nd ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019, pp. 179–97.