Single Motherhood

Comparative Analysis

Jiacheng Xu

English3003

In most jurisdictions, matrimonial or family law oversees the domestic relations and matters of the family. This law advocates for the continuous payment of some amount of money for the sake of a child's financial benefit as a result of a failed marriage, divorce or an end of a relationship between the two parents. In most cases, child support sets in scenarios of single parenthood. Rebecca M. Blank's "Absent Fathers: Why Don't We Ever Talk About the Unmarried Men?" and Lynn Olcott's "The Ballard of a Single Mother" are two articles that focus on the issue of child support and single parenting. In modern families, the problems of single motherhood, child support, and unmarried

The author intends to depict the hardships a single mother experiences by trying to to be the breadwinner and the bread maker of a family, or the challenges of balancing family responsibilities and career. The author's target audience is the society which knows little about the hardships of being a single mother. Besides, the author targets employers who overwork but underpay single mothers. The author uses different modes of persuasion to achieve the purpose of the article. The author of the personal essay is a single mother. Therefore, use of ethos as a method of persuasion is apparent because Olcott is a mother. When the author tries to outline the challenges of a being a single mother, she is credible and worth listening to, since she is a single mom. Besides, the author uses pathos or emotional appeal to achieve the purpose of the article. An instance where the Olcott uses pathos is the time her neighbor called her informing her that her son had stood up in his crib for the first time. This instance is one that a mother would never want to miss, but the author was not there with her son, which made her weep. Lastly, Olcott uses logos in her article. The author supports her claims of the plight of a single mother by stating the hardships of her co-workers, most of who were working and single

In the first article, the use of ethos is conspicuous because the author has vast knowledge in economics, thus assuming that she knows the living conditions of most absent fathers and unmarried men. However, in the second article, the use of ethos is more substantial since it is from the first-hand experience, where the author talks of the plight of single mothers from her experience as one of them. It is evident that the Blank, the author of the first article is credible and worth listening to about the impacts of the economic status of the world to child support since she is an economist. However, Olcott, the author of the second article is more credible about the plight of single mothers since she is a single