Analyzing Authority and Ethos in Alice Wong The Last Straw and Maya Rupert I, Wonder: Imagining a Black Wonder Woman

When it comes to persuasive writing, one of the biggest areas of focus is ethos or establishing the author’s credibility to ensure the audience pays attention. This paper focuses on the rhetorical devices used by Alice Wong in the essay “The Last Straw” and Maya Rupert in “I, Wonder: Imagining a Black Wonder Woman” paradigm. The two authors demonstrate mastery in their respective disciplines by using distinctive textual markers of authority that appeal to their audience and, therefore, enhance their credibility and persuasive appeal: Analyzing Authority and Ethos in Alice Wong The Last Straw and Maya Rupert I, Wonder: Imagining a Black Wonder Woman.

Alice Wong’s “The Last Straw”

In “The Last Straw,” Alice Wong addresses the ban on plastic straws and the ableism that comes with it. Wong’s credibility is ascertained by her experience as a person with a disability and her position as the founder of the Disability Visibility Project. By telling her story, Wong gets the readers to emotionally resonate with her, which is crucial in establishing her ethos. Wong cites personal experiences in which she utilizes first-person pronouns such as “I” and “me,” and in doing so, she explains her life to the audience and, in turn, elicits sympathy and compassion (Wong).

Wong’s language is both powerful and unifying as she refutes the perceptions of the straw ban. She cites rhetorical questions that obligate the audience to reexamine their perspectives on disability, like, “Why would a disabled customer have to bring something to drink while non-disabled people have the convenience and ability to use what is provided for free?” (Wong). This method of questioning equally serves to show the discrimination faced by individuals with disabilities and positions Wong as an informed defender of people with disabilities. She further boosts her authority by circumstantially outlining the limitations of ableism and exclusion through imagery and personal experience.

In addition, Wong’s mention of her connection to the Disability Visibility Project, as well as her edited work “Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People,” provides more examples of textual authority. Citing these initiatives, Wong buttresses the claim of her proficiency and advocacy for people with disabilities, thus enhancing her ethos.

Maya Rupert’s “I, Wonder: Imagining a Black Wonder Woman”

Maya Rupert’s “I, Wonder: Imagining a Black Wonder Woman” deals with issues of identity, representation, and empowerment from a racial and gendered lens. Rupert traces her authority to her identity as a black woman and her lived experiences of trying to fit into societal norms and stereotypes. Her tone is self-reflective and candid, prodding readers to grapple with her thoughts and emotions concerning the representation of culture in the media.

In addition, her anecdotes and references to popular culture position her as a legitimate participant in the race and feminism debate. For instance, she reminisces about her childhood and how she was fascinated by Wonder Woman, saying, “I wondered if I could be both a Black girl and a superhero if those identities could coexist” (Rupert). This self-reflective stance not only portrays her as human but also enables the audience to relate with her, thus bolstering her ethos.

Additionally, Rupert utilizes highly figurative and metaphorical language, supporting her claim even further. By delineating the components of her identity and the social norms that come with it, Rupert captures the audience’s emotions, thereby motivating the audience to reflect on their concepts of race and gender. With respect to her social justice work and training, she constantly refers to them so that her position can be defended throughout the essay.

Mini-Reflection

When comparing Wong’s essay to Rupert’s, one thing stands out: the authors change their language, tone, and even rhetoric to fit different discourse communities and audiences. Wong’s authoritative voice stems from her personal history and advocacy work and should grasp the attention of readers concerned with disability issues.

On the other hand, Rupert’s audience’s contemplation of race and her depiction of it is better done through her use of metaphorical and reflective prose. Meeting their situational context, the two authors embed within the text what the audience expects and values so that authority is signified. These are the expectations and values within the text.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the analysis of “The Last Straw” and “I, Wonder: Imagining a Black Wonder Woman” shows the necessity of ethos in the context of persuasive writing. Understanding an audience’s different needs appropriately or differently is crucial to winning authority through the use of various rhetorical strategies by both writers. This ‘explanation’ suggests the necessity of tailoring one’s writing to different discourse communities while allowing for engagement with complex social problems.

Works Cited

Rupert, Maya. “Imagining a Black Wonder Woman.” The Atlantic, 29 May 2017, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/05/imagining-a-black-wonder-woman/528375.

Wong, Alice. “The Last Straw.” Eater, 19 July 2018, www.eater.com/2018/7/19/17586742/plastic-straw-ban-disabilities.

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MODULE 7 ASSIGNMENT PROMPT

Background and Purpose
For this assignment, you will explore how authors can create authority/ethos within a variety of writing environments. An awareness of authority in writing situations helps as you work to gain membership in the discourse communities, such as that of your major.

As a student, you may feel you don’t have authority/ethos in your field, but that shouldn’t stop you from writing as though you do. So, this assignment benefits you in two ways: as you are sharpening your skills in assessing other rhetor’s authority, you are also building your own as you compose the text of this assignment.

Compare the decisions made by the authors that accommodate the expectations of their respective audiences. Look at their word choice, their assumptions, their arguments, and their negotiation of authority present in the form of textual signifiers of authority.

Your job for this assignment is to draw conclusions about the differences you observe in the texts. Your goal is to answer this: How and why do authors adjust for different discourse communities, different audiences?

This will be somewhat like what you wrote in the Module 2 Assignment, except you will be analyzing two, not just one text to compare them, with your focus on ethos and authority in the text and its rhetor, and you will be including summaries, paraphrases, and (occasional) quotations from both texts in order to illustrate your points.

Each time you summarize, paraphrase, or quote the essays, you will be using in-text citations to cite these sources properly.

For this assignment, you will need to read the “Ethos and Authority” LibGuide content and view the videos included in Module 7.

Objectives
• Analyze how writers navigate authority/ethos in various situations
• Identify textual signifiers of authority as listed in the LibGuide
• Explain authorial decisions in terms of audience awareness and accommodation in the REFLECTION concluding your writing.

In Your Writing,
1. From the list of writings included below, select the one which you will be comparing with Alice Wong’s “The Last Straw.”
2. Explain how the language and other textual signifiers of authority used by each rhetor indicate the authors’ ability to respond to audience expectations showcasing their ethos/credibility.

3. Please, structure your writing by discussing the first essay completely, then moving on to discussing the second one, and concluding with a Mini-Reflection, answering the following question: How and why do authors make adjustments for different discourse communities, different audiences?
PLEASE, BOLD YOUR THESIS STATEMENT IN THE ASSIGNMENT PRIOR TO UPLOADING IT.

You will be choosing one of the following texts to compare with the “The Last Straw,” the essay they analyzed for M2 and Peer Reviewed for M3:

Maya Rupert, “I, Wonder: Imagining a Black Wonder Woman”

Ben Greenman, “The online Curiosity Killer”

Clayton Pangelinan,” #socialnetworking: Why It’s Really So Popular”

Ian Bogost, “Brands Are Not Our Friends”

Isiah Holmes, “The Heroin and Opioid Crisis Is Real”

Manuel Muñoz, “Leave Your Name at the Border”

Melanie Tannenbaum, “The Problem When Sexism Just Sounds So Darn Friendly”

Miya Tokumitsu, “In the Name of Love”

Maryanne Wolf, “Skim Reading Is the New Normal”

Michael Pollan, “Altered State: Why “Natural” Doesn’t Mean Anything”

Stephen King, “Why We Crave Horror Movies”

Daniel J. Solove, “Why Privacy Matters Even If You Have ‘Nothing to Hide’”

Christine Rosen, “The Myth of Multitasking”

Anna Maria Barry-Jester, “Patterns of Death in the South Still Show the Outlines of Slavery”

Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”

Sendhil Mullainathan, “The Mental Strain of Making Do with Less”

Sherry Turkle, “The Flight from Conversation”

To access all the above readings, please Google them: they are available in full text online.Should you have a hard time locating any of these, please, contact a librarian.

Keep in mind that if you use someone else’s words, definitions, ideas, whether via quoting, or paraphrasing, or summarizing, you are required to cite them and follow the MLA format in doing so to prevent plagiarism.

This means that some of your writing in the document will include in-text citations and that your list of sources will be included within a Works Cited at the end of your writing.