In the article “No Spanking, No Time-out, No Problems”, Olga Khazan uses many rhetorical strategies to support and persuade her audience. That traditional punishment methods of parents will not change a child’s/children’s unruly behavior overall, but positive reinforcement will increase the chances of better behavior not only now, but in the future as well. “Positive reinforcement is the presentation of a pleasurable consequence following a behavior” (Craighead). This twist to traditional discipline teaches children to work towards a resolution instead of teaching them to lean toward violence. “For example, the way that parents discipline their children is how children discipline their peers” (Khazan). Positive reinforcement will in turn improve …show more content…
Pathos a form of rhetoric that targets readers through emotion becomes a key part of Khazan’s and Kazdin’s argument against parents using traditional acts of discipline to raise their child/children. Khazan uses this method by targeting readers with finger-pointing and accusing parents of being the key reason a child/children’s behavior may not improve overall. Dr. Kazdin insists, “Punishment might make you feel better, but it won’t change the kid’s behavior” (Khazan). Dr. Kazdin’s statement implies that afflicting traditional punishments will only be a temporary outlet for the parent as well as the false notion that the problem has been resolved, but in fact it only provides a negative example for the child to follow. This example then results in the child/children expressing bad behavior repeatedly instead of the child conveying more patient and positive behavior. Conjointly, Khazan extensively exercises the use of pronouns such as, you sixty-seven times, I thirteen times, they sixteen times, we/we’re eight-teen times, along with many others. The excessive use of first person pronouns connects to the reader on a personal level. The use of these pronouns implies a relationship between the reader and the author along with establishing a sense of a