The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

2016 Composition Contest Winnners 17 definition of satisfaction.” This may hold true for some families. In other cases, though, both spouses work out of necessity, not because they’re enslaved to Schor’s hypothetical definition of success and contentedness. When Schor evaluates the American definition of satisfaction, she introduces an appeal to spite. Instead of countering her opponents logically, she colors readers’ opinions by stating, “Now anyone with just a little bit of psychological sophistication (to go with this little bit of common sense) can spot the flaw in the economist’s argument.” Readers will likely concede with her position simply to avoid the accusation of lacking psychological sophistication and common sense. Logical fallacies pepper her pathos as well. For example, she portrays herself as sympathetic and attuned the plight of Americans when she says, “while academics have missed the decline of leisure time, ordinary Americans have not.” Ironically, she, an academic herself, blames the “academics” for “missing the decline of leisure time.” In this way, she aligns herself with the American people—a “plain folks” fallacy. Schor qualifies her warrant by admitting that “there’s more going on here than lack of time.”The insubstantial qualifier, however, is overshadowed by her appeal to fear. To persuade readers to adopt her warrant, she attributes rising stress levels to overwork. If the plethora of negative effects that she lists are the result of overwork, then her audience will naturally agree that Americans need more leisure time. Again, readers must scrutinize the validity of the cause- and-effect relationship. Does less work guarantee reduced stress? Perhaps her argument is valid to some degree, but is she amplifying her emotional appeal to persuade readers? The substantial space that she dedicates to prove her warrant distracts from the initial argument, effectually introducing a red herring. Directing her readers away from the main thrust, she argues that Americans need of more leisure time by pointing out social ills supposedly exacerbated by overwork. Another instance of a red herring occurs on a smaller scale. In context, Schor is arguing that overwork places strain on marriages. To prove her point, she quotes a legal secretary from California as saying that her husband “does no cooking, no washing, no anything else…If our marriage ends, it will be on this issue.” She introduces the red herring when