Rohani 1

Dariush Rohani

Ms. Ditch

ENGL 115 APPR UNIV WRITING

9 December 2020

Why Graham Hill’s Article had the Strongest Argument

All three of the articles that will be talked about are strong and interesting arguments, but

we are going to see which one had the strongest. Graham Hills “Living with Less. A Lot Less”

had quite the strong message and a very impactful argument as well. The main point of his

writing was that money doesn't bring you happiness, enjoying good times with people you are

close to and having those amazing relationships are what really can give true happiness. He had

the most effective argument because he used all three rhetorical devices which were ethos pathos

and logos. He used pathos to appeal to the audience’s emotion by telling his heartfelt story about

how he misses his girlfriend and all the time spent with her and used ethos by explaining his life

as an example and showing you that’s he has been through it and would know. Finally, he uses

logos by telling us how much problems money brings and how a person’s life would be much

simpler spent with the one’s they love.

The first article that will be analyzed is “Living with Less. A Lot Less” by Graham Hill.

His main argument is that true happiness cannot be obtained from a large amount of wealth and

many expensive materialistic things, but by building relationships with people and spending time

with them and having great experiences and memories. In his excerpts, he builds this argument

by using a lot of real-life scenarios that he has been through and by applying three very strong

rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos and logos. The first and most used one throughout the

article was ethos. Ethos gives the audience a good sense of credibility and builds trust with the
Rohani 2

author. He used ethos by establishing his authority and credibility on the argument by giving

these examples from his own experiences when he's said the quote, “But my experiences show

after a certain point, material objects have a tendency to crowd out the emotionless needs they

are meant to support” (Living, Graham, 255). In this quote, he is explaining how materialistic

things can make you happy temporarily and after a certain point, they tend to lose the effect

fully. He would know so much about the topic because he has been through the ringer and would

know. This example he has given is another display of his credibility showing he has been

through many experiences and how he has the knowledge on the topic of true happiness. The

next rhetorical device that will be discussed that he uses several times throughout the writing is

pathos. He used the rhetorical device to sway the audience's emotion when he talked about his

heartfelt story about how he loved every second spent with his ex-girlfriend traveling the world

more than any of his materialistic things. “I wouldn't trade a second spent wandering the streets

of Bangkok with Olga for anything I’ve owned” (Living, Graham, 257). By telling us his

preference, he is saying how the time spent with someone he admired and loved was more sacred

and appreciated than any materialistic item he has owned. The last rhetorical device he uses to

strengthen his argument was Logos. He talks about the way it affected his life when he said, “My

life became unnecessarily complicated” (Living, Graham, 254). He brings up the fact that having

all these extra materialistic things caused a big headache due to the fact he had to tend to all of

them. He used this rhetorical device to show how illogical it was to have all these items and how

much unnecessary stress it brought such as many errands that came with the items like cleaning

and maintaining. With these three strong rhetorical devices, he backs up his argument and gives

a strong message. 
Rohani 3

The biggest story that compelled the audience was the one where he brought up his ex-

girlfriend. They began dating and both didn’t have an attachment to materialistic things, which

ultimately led to their happiness together. Since they were not attached to objects, they felt more

free to travel the world. They started to live in these apartments in many countries all over the

world. They moved after a few months to each new country to experience different lives in

different and unique areas. This time that he spent with his ex-girlfriend was the most enjoyable

time in his life. As said in the quote before, he would not trade that experience with her for any

materialistic item ever. That time in his life was the peak of his happiness. This is when he let go

the obsession over objects and simply spent time with the ones he loved in fascinating places.

This is showing how happiness is obtainable if you just don't obsess over materialistic things and

just enjoy life with the ones you love.

One of the main reasons that the article by Graham Hill was chosen is because the other

two articles had an inadequate use of theoretical devices and their arguments were not as strong

and did not have that strong of evidence. The first out of the other two articles that will be

analyzed is “The Source of Happiness” by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. Most of the

article is based on how well one can handle a situation in order to keep peace within and create

happiness which is not a strong rhetorical strategy due to the fact it is not enough to persuade the

reader. This fact alone, is not enough to know how one could truly be happy. It differs with

different people. The article continuously talks about self-satisfaction and shows happiness can

be affected by that. Another big part of the author's readings is how well one can perceive a

situation or handle a difficult one. The authors say, “...it is a function of how we perceive our

situation, how satisfied we are with what we have” (The, Lama/Cutler, 17). A big problem with

this is that many people cannot handle a situation as well as others and this is the issue to finding
Rohani 4

true happiness. Many people could be able to take and handle situations differently. Not

everyone is mentally as strong to just be able to cope with whatever happened. How could one

solve this issue when going through such a crisis? When going through the article, I never saw

any answers to the questions but more talk about how people who can perceive situations well,

are usually happy. The biggest reason that this article didn't have the strongest argument was

because it did not have a smooth and well put together combination of rhetoric devices. It

seemed to just have different ways to cope with sadness and to obtain happiness. All strong

arguments should have a good combination of rhetorical devices to use to persuade the reader,

but this article did not.

The last article that will be analyzed will be “How happy Are You and Why?” by Sonja

Lyubomirsky. This article had the weakest argument due to the lack and inadequate use of

rhetorical strategies and devices. This article used a lot of facts and statistics and this led to the

use of too much of the logos rhetoric which causes it to not have a good balance between

rhetorical devices and there being too much of one. To have a strong argument, you must have

more than the use of one rhetoric. She states she can figure out how happy you are, “I have used

a popular simple four-item measure of overall happiness that I developed and call the Subjective

Happiness Scale” (How, Lyubomirsky, 143). One cannot really be determined on how happy

they are by just some normal test. This isn’t enough to see how one is truly feeling. Her use of

statistics wasn’t the best for this topic of argument. Only a person’s conscious knows how truly

happy or sad they are. There really wasn't enough strong information to persuade the reader.

There is a lack of other devices such as ethos and pathos. There needs to be a good amount of

these devices to structure the argument. The article wasn't bad at all though. It just did not have a

strong backbone for the argument. It should have given more textual evidence with a blend of
Rohani 5

more rhetorical strategies. The audience is not going to get easily persuaded on the topic of

happiness by simply just statistical numbers and a happiness scale. Overall, this article gave the

weakest argument due to the fact that it did not have a good use of rhetorical strategies and it did

not have a strong sense of persuasion at all in the text.

“Living with Less. A Lot Less.” by Graham Hill had a great combination of rhetorical

devices to persuade the reader and give a strong argument. He used rhetorical devices to

persuade the reader and to show them that his argument was the strongest which would lead to

them agreeing with his article. He told the reader great stories and real-life examples to give a

lesson on what really matters in life and how happiness can be obtained or achieved. His main

point was that you shouldn’t latch onto materialistic things and that you should enjoy the time

you have and spent it with people you love to truly be happy. The other two arguments just

lacked the adequate use of rhetorical strategy for persuasion. In the end, the article that presented

the most effective argument was “Living with Less. A Lot Less.” by Graham Hill.
Rohani 6

Work Cited

Cutler, Howard and The Dalai Lama. “The Sources of Happiness” Pursuing Happiness

2nd Edition(2020)

Hill, Graham. “The Sources of Happiness” Pursuing Happiness 2nd Edition(2020)

Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “The Sources of Happiness” Pursuing Happiness 2nd

Edition(2020)