Rhetorical Analysis Of Blue Collar Brilliance

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“Intelligence is closely associated with formal education- the type of schooling a person has, how much and how long- and most people seem to move comfortably from that notion to a belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (Rose). What Rose is trying to infer is that just because you are labeled blue collar: meaning you have to earn your income from manual labor, and have lack of educational knowledge, does not mean you cannot earn the knowledge in your work career. There are many opportunities to learn from your job even if you are less experienced. “...One who is so intelligent about so many things in life seems unable to apply that intelligence to academic work. What doesn’t occur to us, though, is that schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street …show more content…

Rose realized that the capability of of one's job performance should be based on one's level of education but the individual ability to handle everyday situations. Rose uses rhetorical tool ethos in his essay. He uses his mother's personal story of accomplishments to connect with readers. He also includes examples and reasonings to back up his claim. Mike Rose’s essay provides enough literary background to prove his claim and allow the audience to believe “Blue Collar Brilliance” is the more effective essay.
To conclude this analyzation of Mike Rose’s essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” and Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism”, Mike Rose’s essay was more effective. He gave readers examples of real life scenarios to validate his point. He used rhetorical tools that would help the more academic successful audience. He also connected with the audience labeled as “Blue Collars”, with stories from his mother and uncle