Summary Of The Downside Of Living Together

In the essay The Downside of Living Together written by Meg Jay a clinical psychologist. She informs the audience of the effects of cohabitation and what research she has gathered to provide the reader a better understanding about living with a partner before marriage. Jay’s essay begins with a real-life example of a woman who explains how she felt, and gives information about why she and her partner decided to live together before marriage to begin with. Then Jay moves from an example to statistics and definitions that are applied to her example’s story. After, she revisits her example with the new given information, and then ends by introducing other research studies that offer additional information about marriages. She then concludes her

The real-life example that Jay begins her essay with appeals the pathos, because the reader can see what negative impact the divorce of the woman had on her. She also uses quotes from the woman to emphasize how she felt, and to show that she also used an exclamation and question mark at the end of her quotes. Jay quotes the woman a few more times saying what the woman was thinking when they started to move in together to show the reader that her emotions were real. Then Jay uses the term “sliding, not deciding” to explain in real terms what exactly was going on when her example began to lose track. This appeals the pathos and logos, because now the reader is acknowledged about why the woman ended up where she did. Jay also uses word choice to portray a curtain opinion about cohabitation. Some examples of her word choices are, “Sliding into cohabitation wouldn’t be a problem if sliding out were as easy. But it isn’t.” Jay uses sliding as a word that means gradual, and ends that comment with a small three-word sentence that has a big impact on the reader. When there is a small sentence at the end of a large one, it puts more emphasis and importance to it. Another example would be, “A life built on top of “maybe you’ll do” simply may not feel as dedicated as a life built on top of the “we do” of the commitment or marriage”. The word choice of maybe you’ll do

The whole message that Jay wants to deliver is about the effects of cohabitation, so it makes sense that she uses the word several times throughout her essay to relate all her information back to her topic. She also repeats her example a few different times to relay the information that she is introducing to the reader back to the example. This can show that Jay is guiding the reader through her essay, and gives reason to her example. The last bit of repetition comes from Jay’s use of parentheses. She uses quotation from her examples and parentheses to show importance and emphasize the message she is trying to