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Lena Demir

Profesor Ditch

English 115

11 September, 2020

Project space essay

Most people want to learn how to be happy and in these three articles they show people's

different perspectives on being happy. The first article is ​How Happy Are You and Why?

Written by Sonja Lyubomirsky, this article showed examples that were emotional. Lyubomirsky

also had an interactive section and also used statistics. This article also showed us that people

who you would think are happy are not very happy and people who you would assume to not be

happy are actually happier. The next article is ​Living will Less. A Lot Less ​Written by Graham

Hill, I think that this article didn’t have a good argument while using rhetorical strategies, like

ethos logos and pathos, because Hill’s article was mostly his own opinion. But in Hill's article he

did have many great points on the things that people think make them happy. The last article is

The Source of happiness ​by The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler this article had strong pathos

and logos but their ethos was a bit weaker than Sonja Lyubomirsky’s artical because their article

didn’t have as much credibility. I personally believe that The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler

article was a close second to Lyubomirsky’s article because they both had very strong pathos

and logos but in my opinion Lyubomirsky’s article had the strongest argument while using all

three rhetorical stratagies.

The first rhetorical strategy is pathos, this is when there is emotion and views, and in my

personal opinion I think that ​How Happy Are You and Why?​ by Sonja Lyubomirsky has the
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most effective argument by using pathos. Sonja Lyubomirsky’s artical shows Pathos by giving us

the example of Angela and how she was happy even though she had a hard time growing up and

how she still doesn't have the best life she is still happy. Then there is Shannon, she had a lovely

life growing up and now she still has a pretty good life and should be happy but she is not as

happy as it seems. In this article it shows a strong argument while using pathos because we are

able to see the emotions of two different peoples lives and what they went through to still be

happy. Then there is The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler’s article, their article had an effective

argument while using pathos when they were giving the example of one of their friends who had

HIV and they still seemed to live life to the fullest even though they were in a tough time. This

article also has a strong argument while using pathos because there was emotion given when we

read about the life that one of their friends live but the argument is not as strong as

Lyubomirsky's article because she shows us the emotions of two different people . Lastly for

pathos there was Graham Hill’s article ​Living will Less. A Lot Less​, he explained to us how you

don't need many things to make you happy and that you will always want more. Hill’s article had

a weak pathos because it was only showing his life and in his life it didn’t have a lot of emotion;

it was mainly about how he wanted to live with less and how you should be content with living

with less. I think that the Dalai Lama and Howards article had a strong argument while using

pathos. But Sonja Lyubomirsky’s article shows the strongest argument while using pathos, in

this article we are given two different examples of people's emotions who have different life

experiences.

Another rhetorical strategy is ethos, which means having credibility and trust in your

article and writer, in my opinion Sonja Lyubomirsky also has the strongest argument while using
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ethos. Lyubomirsky used scientific examples about people being happy because of the genetics

of twins then there was also a data table about generations and how happy they are and pie charts

about what determines our happiness and this makes her ethos very powerful. Then in this article

she also explains the myths that there is about being happy. This is a strong ethos because the

article had credibility and trust by showing us the charts and using facts. Then there was the

Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler’s article, they used multiple people's examples about their lives

as well as facts. Their article did have trust but didn’t have as much credibility because they only

used examples and didn’t use as much statistics and facts. Lastly there is Hill and in his article

he also didn’t have much credibility because it was all his experience in life and how he liked

living with less. His article needed to have credibility and more trust because there was a bit of

trust because he was telling us about his life and what he went through. I think that all of the

articles didn’t have a strong argument while using ethos but if I had to choose one of the articles

that had the strongest ethos it would be Lyubomirsky’s article because her artical had the most

amount of credibility and trust because of all of the examples and tables that were provided.

The last rhetorical strategy is logos, this means logic reasoning and proof, the Dalai

Lama and Howard Cutler's article and Sonja Lyubomirsky article both had a strong argument

while using logos. In Sonja Lyubomirsky’s article she explained that people are not just born

happy. Some people have to work to be happy or be content with life and can’t just be happy by

doing nothing that makes them happy. Sonja says that people say things like, “I would be happy

if I do ____.” or “I will be happy when ____.” (pg 20). I think that this article has the strong

rhetorical strategy of logos because she was able to give us an example that many people can

relate to or even understand if they don’t relate. Then there is ​The Source of Happiness ​by the
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Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, they use logos by starting the article strong and adding facts as

well as giving us a lot of information on the mind of being happy. This has a very good amount

of logos because they gave us a lot of proof and a lot of the things that they were saying were

logical. Lastly there's Graham Hill, he uses logos by explaining to us how he is happier now than

he was before because now he doesn’t have as many gadgets just sitting around and he has a

more simplistic and simple life. I think that he doesn’t use the strongest form of logos because he

only gives his opinion and talks about his life, so he has logic and reasoning but there is no proof

in his article. So with logos I think the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler’s logos was a tie with

Sonja Lyubomirsky’s article because they both had a good amount of logic, reasoning, and proof

in both of their articles.

In all of the articles they used rhetorical strategies to improve their argument some were

not as strong as others like Graham Hill’s article. Hill's article was good but it was too

opinionated so the argument while using rhetorical strategies were not as strong as the other two

articles. Then there was the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler’s article, they had a good argument

while using rhetorical strategies but their ethos was not as strong as Lyubomirsky’s article

because there was not as much credibility in their article. Lastly there was Sonja Lyubomirsky’s

article and in my opinion this article had the strongest argument while using all the rhetorical

strategies. So all of the articles had a semi strong argument while using rhetorical strategies with

The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler’s article was a close second to Sonja Lyubomirsky’s article

because she had the strongest argument while using the three rhetorical strategies out of all of the

three articles.
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Work Cited

● Hill, Graham. “Living Will Less. A Lot Less.” ​Pursuing Happiness: a Bedford Spotlight

Reader​, by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St. Martin's, Macmillan

Learning, 2020, pp. 254–257.

● Lama, Dalai, and Howard Cutler. “The Source of Happiness.” ​Pursuing Happiness: a

Bedford Spotlight Reader,​ by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St.

Martin's, Macmillan Learning, 2020, pp. 15–26.

● Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “ How Happy Are You and Why? .” ​Pursuing Happiness: a

Bedford Spotlight Reader,​ by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St.

Martin's, Macmillan Learning, 2020, pp. 141–157.