Sunday, November 17, 2013

TOW Post #9- Article: "You're So Self-Controlling"

           Many people might think that the greater reward requires the most patience, which is logically true. On the other hand people also believe that in general people will wait longer in order to achieve this goal. According to Maria Konnikova that statement is proven false.
           Newspaper and magazine opinion writer, Konnikova writes about the false general idea that people will wait longer in order to achieve the goal with the bigger reward in her article "You're So Self-Controllig" published in the New York Times October issue. She proves the general statement wrong through the rhetorical devices of supportive examples, accurate data, and referencing to psychologists's experiments.
            The first rhetorical device that Konnikova uses in order to achieve her purpose is supportive examples. In the beginning of the article she is able to provide a general example and or situation. The situation was that "WHAT do you do if, when you get to a subway platform, you see that it is already packed with people? Do you join the throngs to wait for the train, or do you shake your head and seek an alternative way to get where you’re going?" She later goes on to explain the result of each option if chosen to show which option would be the popular one; the one that doesn't include waiting longer to achieve a goal. Using this general and supportive example helps him achieve his purpose.
             Another rhetorical device that Konnikova uses is accurate data. Throughout her article she provides many facts and general proven statements that supports her claim. For example she notes that in "psychological terms, the difference is typically seen as a dual-system trade-off: On one hand, you have the deliberative, reflective, cool system; on the other, the intuitive, reflexive, hot system," when talking about decision making. She uses general proven statements like this throughout her article. This rhetorical device does not only help her achieve her purpose but it also  establishes ethos.
            Lastly, she refers to psychologists's experiments that have been done that help her achieve her purpose. She explains one of the psychologists experiment where the psychologists were giving people money but the longer they waited the more money they could possibly get. There experiment supported Konnikova's claim about how people don't always strive to wait longer to achiever= the goal with the greater reward. Overall I don't believe that Konnikova achieved her purpose because I still believe that some people do work/ wait for the goal with the bigger reward.


Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/opinion/sunday/youre-so-self-controlling.html

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