“Dare to Care: A minister and the politics of poverty” by Lisa Miller | Published 10/11/10 | An Editorial Analysis

                In "Dare to Care", Miller takes up a formal and informative tone in order to persuade us to take up the cause of alleviating domestic poverty. One device that Miller uses to persuade is "logos:, which is indicated by the prevalence of statistics in her writing. Examples of statistics in "Dare to Care" are, "In America, more than a million children were hungry in 2008, a 56% jump from the year before", or "nearly one in four children had experienced 'food insecurity'". The later "logos" argument also bordered on Miller's use of "pathos" to appeal to her readers. By telling us that nearly 25% of children have not had enough to eat at one point, she is appealing to our emotional response to the heart-wrenching plight of these kids.

            Moreover, Miller's use of rhetorical devices helps the reader better understand her argument and helps her argument flow easier. For example, when Miller uses repetition when she says, “hunger is related to poverty and poverty to unemployment”, the connections among hunger, poverty, and unemployment are emphasized and the passage just flows.

            In addition, Miller’s use of alliteration, as in “blue blazer”, and “more money”, and the “rule of three”, as in “disabilities: old age, infirmity, addiction” helps her passages sound smoother, and makes her readers more receptive to what she has to say.

            Although Miller does a really good job with taking advantage of most of the rhetorical devices, I think she could’ve taken more advantage of the natural rhythm of English in order to emphasize her points. In other words, I think she could’ve switched around her word order within sentences a bit so that sentences would begin with every-day knowledge and end with the new or important stuff. This way, her critical points would be more memorable, because the ends of sentences are normally what the reader would remember most.

            In “Dare to Care”, Miller crafts her voice, or narrative persona, into the editorial through her use of 2^ndperson, her recounting of her experiences with a specialist, and her use of dialogue. These elements made me like her piece more because it helped me engage more in the piece. When she said, “it’s easy for a journalist to be cynical—until David Beckmann walks into your office”, for example, her use of 2^ndperson helped draw me into her tirade against the lack of alleviation of domestic poverty more that if she had just used first or third person here.

            If this essay were an AP essay, the voice would be perfectly appropriate because even though Miller seems to be talking directly to me at times, she still manages to maintain an appropriate distance between me (the reader), and her, helping the writing carry on its formal and informative tone.

Source: Newsweek: 10/11/10 Issue