The “On Laziness” essay written by Christopher Morley argues that philosophical laziness is a beneficial trait to have. He illustrates this by using techniques such as diction, humor, and irony to convince his audience that is made up of lazy and hardworking people. The author, Christopher Morley, begins this essay by stating “To-day we rather intended to write an essay on laziness but were too indolent to do so.” By opening with this sentence, the writer is applying humor and diction to his work. Educational diction is used by demonstrating the word indolent in the sentence. This word choice strengthens the author's argument and emphasizes its importance. The opening sentence also introduces humor to the audience. By incorporating a joke into the first sentence, the writer is able to easily persuade the reader to agree with his claim and continue reading. In the first paragraph of this essay, Morley starts by that he was planning to write something persuasive but was overtaken by laziness. This sentence is ironic because the author got lazy as he continued to write about the topic of laziness. By expressing irony, the writer created a more powerful argument that will cause the audience to agree with the claim. The author begins the next paragraph by generalizing the benefits of being lazy. To improve the…show more content… For example, in the fifth paragraph, the author includes the words, perplexities, quibble, dignified, repose, and keem. Because these words are used, is causes the writer to sound more educated and improves the claim and its ability to persuade an audience. On the second page of the essay, the author tells the story of a man who was hardworking and decided to become lazy. This anecdote is Included to back up the authors claim as evidence. By giving an example of the positive side to being lazy opposed to hard working, the argument is efficacious and more
