Climb-Out Of Poverty

In “Millions in U.S. Climb Out of Poverty, at Long Last”, the author Patricia Cohen effectively achieves her purpose of informing readers of The New York Times about the recent decreasing poverty rate in America and somewhat motivating people currently in poverty to climb over the poverty line. She effectively supports her thoughts with logos and examples of success stories from people who rose out of poverty.

Cohen begins her article with a brief success story about Alex Caicedo, who overcame poverty, and continues to introduce the main idea of her article by informing her audience about the decreasing poverty rate. Cohen continues to support the idea of the decrease in poverty by presenting statistics and facts about the situation. She claims that the “1.2 percentage point decline in the poverty rate” was due to the

Stories presented about Alex Caicedo, who went from working all sorts of odd jobs to being an assistant manager at a pizzeria, Cheyvonné Grayson, who worked hard everyday for years to finally open his very first bank account, and many others inspire current people with a low income to rise out of poverty. Christine Magee, a mother of four who went bankrupt and is now working a steady job at a veterans hospital, set three goals for herself: buy a house, raise her credit score, and get a job that would help prepare her for retirement. Her counselor commented that Magee was “really motivated….Not everyone is”. This comment from her counselor helps current underprivileged people to realize that they must be motivated and hard-working to climb out of poverty. Cohen’s examples of success stories of people who rose out of poverty inspire current poor people to use these stories as an example to help them get out of poverty as