Analyzing Paul Bogard's Let There Be Dark

Author of “Let There Be Dark,” Paul Bogard, provides awareness of a very significant problem in humanity to his readers. Opening his article with a personal story uses pathos reasoning. Immediately he pulls his reader into his article with a personal story and then slowly broadens to logical evidence. His vivid language such as “the famed ‘city of light’” and our “nights growing brighter” keep the reader’s attention. He uses strong logical appeal to explain how such a problem can affect us. Credible facts back up his claim and provide strong evidence for his readers. By the end of his article, Bogard causes his readers to concern themselves about such a problem and desire to fix it with a suggested solution he provides. Paul Bogard argues that decreasing darkness over time negatively affects humanity. Logical appeal throughout Paul Bogard’s article supports his claim. He structures his article in a logical order—each paragraph discusses how lack of darkness hinders man. In his very first paragraph after introducing his topic, he brings in outside statistics by saying that “8 of 10 children born in the United States will never know a sky dark enough for the Milky Way.” Later he brings in the World Health Organization

Paul Bogard successfully does this in his article. He says that “light pollution is readily within our ability to solve” because of our “new lighting technologies and shielding existing light.” Then he goes on to say that many cities already work towards a solution. “Paris,” he says, “already turns off its monument lighting after 1 a.m.” Moreover, though “primarily designed to save energy,” Bogard says that “such reductions in light will also go far in addressing light pollution.” He ends with an emotional appeal to particularly artists and passionate people, saying “we become aware of the irreplaceable value and beauty of the darkness we are