Bates Literary Fiction

Throughout our educational careers reading literary fiction has been one of the most important aspects of our learning experience and most students would agree; it’s definitely not a waste of time. In Jordan Bates’s article, “Three Cognitive Benefits of Reading Fiction,” he refutes Noel Gallagher's comment that reading literary fiction, in summary, is a lost cause. Bates goes into detail about how reading literary fiction improves many aspects of life including social perception, emotional intelligence, empathy, and more at ease with ambiguity. He’s able to convince his reader of this by successfully using three rhetorical appeals throughout his argument. Even though Jordan Bates uses ethos as his strongest appeal by his knowledge of reading

He continues to use the rhetorical appeal, ethos, by making sure the studies and sources he is getting his information from are reliable sources. Jordan Bates’s first study mentions came out of the journal, Science which is the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Furthermore, he uses another study orchestrated by York University psychologist Raymond Mar which was published in the peer reviewed journal, the European Journal of Communication Research. The use of these journals adds to his credibility of an author because peer-reviewed journals are published only after they have been exposed to many critiques by scholars in that field. By using journals that his readers can find trustworthy, Bates is able to add to his believability in his argument. Although ethos is Bates strongest use of the three modes of persuasion, he is able to implement another one through his logical use of

When analyzing a study relates to social perception and emotional intelligence Bates notes, "This is the first study that suggests that reading literary fiction has immediate effects in terms of influencing how well we can understand our peers"(Bates). By evaluating the study, Bates makes it easier for his readers to understand the significance of the results from the study. In addition, Bates accomplishes being able to analyze another study discussing literary fiction making one more comfortable with ambiguity: "...people who have just read a short story have less need for ‘cognitive closure’ than people who’ve just read a non-fiction essay"(Bates). His analytical reasoning of the study allows his reader to assure his side of the argument. Throughout his article, Bates continues to interpret the studies to match what the study suggests, as well as his claim that he is trying to validate by using logos. At the same time, he also successfully finds unique ways to "fire-up' his audience by evoking emotions using another rhetorical