What It Takes To Be Great Rhetorical Analysis

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In Geoffrey Colvin’s article, “What It Takes to Be Great,” he utilizes several rhetorical strategies to make his argument persuasive for his intended audience. The first technique he employs is clear structure in organizing his piece. In the beginning, he started his argumentative article by questioning his readers and mentioning famous people’s names in the process. Specifically, he asks, “What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Warren Buffett the world’s premier investor?” (Colvin 1). These questions would pull in his Fortune magazine readers during the time of publication in 2006 since he included well-known and respected people, like Tiger Woods and Warren Buffett, at the beginning of his article. Furthermore, the order of his points is …show more content…
Given that his audience consists of business people, this pattern is particularly useful because it will make it easier to have an idea about what is coming next. Also, it will organize their ideas, and it will make his article’s main points visible for them. Furthermore, the kind of evidence Colvin provides would be particularly convincing to his readers. For instance, when discussing the idea of “deliberate practice,” he explains, “In a study of 20-year-old violinists by Ericsson and colleagues, the best group (judged by conservatory teachers) averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next 5,000. It’s the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport. More deliberate practice equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance” (Colvin 2). Here, this particular detail would resonate well since Colvin used a study that included numbers and data of the hours that will help individuals to master a skill, which made it more convincing for the readers to believe