Jared Stephens

English 1010
Professor Carver
7 November 2019

Blue Collar-Brilliance and Shop Class as Soulcraft Rhetorical Analysis

What is the best way to write an essay? There are many opinions on this subject, but one thing

everyone can agree on is that the inclusivity of good rhetoric in an essay can improve its quality

immensely. Two great examples of this would be the rhetoric included in ​Blue Collar-Brilliance

by Mike Rose and ​Shop Class as Soulcraft​ by Matthew Crawford. In Blue Collar-Brilliance, the

main idea is for the reader to consider changing viewpoints and initial assumptions on blue-collar

workers, and remove the stigma that is placed upon blue-collar workers. In ​Shop Class as

Soulcraft​, the main idea is very similar, however, it has an additional request. Crawford asks the

reader to approach college with a craftsmanship viewpoint and learn a manual trade during the

summertime to help continue the practice of manual labor and construction without the aid of

machines. Simultaneously, he’s able to change their viewpoints and initial assumptions on

blue-collar workers. Both of the authors have a very similar audience; aiming to convince a

young, college-oriented audience of their notions; college students who are going into

white-collar jobs; college students who contribute to the stigma placed on blue-collar workers in

the first place. To accomplish this, Rose and Crawford used two different rhetorical strategies in

order to connect to their audiences. Crawford uses claims of fact and value throughout the essay,

which helps convince the reader by using factual evidence and emotional value. Rose used

storytelling and invoking authority as his choice of rhetoric to show his superiority in the subject,

as well as use convincing stories to sway the reader’s opinion. Ultimately, Rose’s rhetorical
choices were more effective at convincing the audience, because the audience is more likely to

understand his reasoning because he represents both blue-collar, and white-collar positions,

while Crawford’s is less likely to appeal to his audience because it uses values the younger

generations are less likely to understand.

After examining both pieces of text, it was clear that there were two rhetorical strategies were

involved with both of the essays, one of which was, “invoking authority,” and the other was

“Claims of Fact/Value.

In ​Blue-Collar Brilliance​, Rose, was able to invoke authority by establishing a background of

familiarity on his subject, which he accomplished by using first-hand experiences from his past.

Initially, he uses his mother’s experiences to further his point, describing his observation of his

mother’s blue-collar lifestyle and explained how daily tasks require a lot more intelligence and

effort than what most white-collar workers might expect. Rose would then go onto to describe

his experience with schooling. He stated, “My freshman year was academically bumpy, but

gradually I began to see formal education as a means of fulfillment and as a road toward making

a living.” He used his firsthand experiences to relate to his claims stating that blue collar-work

can be very similar to white-collar work and shouldn’t be devalued in society. Using this

method, he’s able to establish the authority he needs over the reader in order to properly

convince them of his of this idea because his previous experience makes him seem like a

trustworthy source.

Crawford however, uses a different technique. He frequently uses claims of value and claims

of fact to further his stance made in the essay, for example, Older generations accomplish tasks

with much more spirit than younger generations, and, The Modern Day economy is focused on
potential rather than creation. Crawford uses these sentences as a claim of value, saying that

older generations work with much more spirit than the younger generation. This implies that

younger generations are doing the work because they have a different desire in mind when

completing the task. Rather than focusing on doing the work because it’s enjoyable to

accomplish and provides a sentimental value, they complete the work because of materialistic

values. In other words, money. This establishes a sense of importance on accomplishing work for

personal value’s sake and helps the reader suggest completing a manual trade. This allows

Crawford to elaborate on a different point in his essay which goes as follows: Accomplishing a

task should be done because it allows the creator to appreciate and develop a sentimental value

towards the item. Doing so allows our lives to be reflected in the things we do and can extend

past our lifetimes. This is another claim of value he used in his essay, which adds to Crawford’s

purpose for writing the essay. It explains to the reader that our work is reflected in the things we

do, and the only way to make an impression is to complete something that was made from your

own hands. Once again, this targets a moral value that makes the reader feel obligated to at least

consider what Crawford is saying. Lastly, we have an example of a claim of fact. Crawford

points out an example where a program was tasked with teaching students how to fold an

origami net. He points out that the solution to the problem was technically correct but otherwise

disastrous. It would have been better for an instructor who knew how to accomplish the task to

demonstrate the correct solution. Using this, he’s able to push the idea that manual labor can be

just as if not more important than intellectual knowledge or textbook training. This example

provides factual evidence that this notion is plausible.

one of them did do a better job of using it to connect to their readers. Taking a look at

Blue-Collar Brilliance​, we can see that the intended audience for the article was meant to be

young, aspiring college students because the article frequently addresses things related to them.

Additionally, the article was posted to a website that is dedicated to articles related to and built

on a scholarly level. Rose uses empirical evidence with this audience to gain the trust of his

audience. College kids, generally, are normalized to the method of determining trust based on the

content of an individual's work, and using this method was a good choice on Rose’s part because

this was his target audience. As for Crawford, his intended audience was supposed to aspiring

college students based on whom he addresses at the end of the essay, however, his actual

audience is probably much different. Crawford uses claims of fact but also uses claims of value.

The problem occurs when Crawford targets values that were frequently used by an older

generation, and tries to convince younger generations of values that are considered old, or out of

practice, which leads to possible rejection of the idea. Both Crawford and Rose use a multitude

of rhetorical strategies in their articles to sway the reader’s opinion. Rose combines storytelling

with the use of empirical evidence to strengthen his points, while Crawford focused more on

values and morals using factual evidence to strengthen his point. After everything has been

considered, it would seem that Rose did a better job of applying his rhetorical strategies and

convincing the readers of his points.