Introduction
The article “At Home, Work a Bit Longer and Get Lots More Done” by Nicholas Bloom focuses on his perception regarding the advantages of working at a home based on his personal experience as well as a study he conducted. Based on the various course texts on the subject of rhetorical analysis, it can be seen that Mr. Bloom utilizes the strategies of logical and ethical appeal to convince his audience regarding the advantages of working from home.
The article is favoring people who work at home over people who work in offices. The author of this article shows from the beginning of the pride he has in being a home worker. He adds experiments and studies he did himself that suggest that working from home increased the work rate of the employee (Bloom, 1).
He provides data promoting his theory that people who work at home work more hours than they do at work. Lastly, he focuses on the financial advantage of such a process on workers and companies alike due to the savings that they can attain, i.e., no commuting fees for workers while companies save on office expenses (Bloom, 1).
Overall, the author argues that working at home can be more productive than working in the office since workers are happier, spend less, and are more efficient with their time as compared to their office-based counterparts.
However, a more in-depth examination of the article reveals that the method of presentation is far too one-sided with little sufficient depth in portraying both sides of the issue. In effect, the author utilizes ethos and logos to promote the concept of working from home but fails to utilize them in depicting the disadvantages of such a process.
Tools the Author Utilizes
The author utilizes ethos, pathos, and logos to promote the idea that working from home is better than working within an office. What must be understood is that ethos can also refer to how a person portrays him/herself in an argument. In other words, it is a method in which persuaders present an “image” to people that they are attempting to persuade.
This particular “image” refers to a persuader’s “character” in the sense that a person is attempting to persuade another person of the righteousness of their statements based on their inherent character.
The use of the ethos of this particular strategy is evidenced by the very first sentence the author uses within the article. In this sentence, he states that he works at the U.S. Treasury works as a consultant at a prestigious consultancy firm, and also happens to be a professor at the Stanford University (Bloom, 1).
Such “labels” can be classified as a form of ethical appeal (ethos) wherein the writer, Mr. Bloom, in this case, utilizes his credibility and character as a successful professional form on the basis behind his argument.
From the onset of the article, it is clear that the author arranges the article in such a way that the reader would side with the concept of working from home before finishing the article. The evidence behind this can be seen in the relatively scant use of negative associations to working from home wherein only three such arguments are utilized. Besides, all of the arguments are far from lengthy.
It is at this point that the author focuses on the use of logical appeal (logos) as a means of further convincing readers regarding the validity of his argument.
The author showcases the apparent results of an ‘office worker versus a home worker’ test with a Chinese company. His experiments show various positive results, such as an increase in the number of working hours accomplished and a distinct increase in the level of productivity of home workers. He also adds that after seeing these results, the company started letting workers work from their homes.
Lastly, the author’s use of pathos is evident by his description of workers being happier working from home as well as his satisfaction from his work from home experience. The use of pathos, in this case, is an appeal to the emotions of the reader based on their own experience of working within a company. In such a way, the author is attempting to create an emotional correlation between happiness and working from home.
Analysis of Argument Presentation
When examining the article, it can be seen that the basis of the image that the author is portraying is that of an individual that has a great deal of experience and knowledge. It is this argument based on a projected image that is a cause for concern since basing it on a person’s knowledge, and experience alone does not justify the action itself.
For example, a person may argue for the righteousness of a cause based on their knowledge of the event yet this attempt at persuasion may in itself be self-serving for the person that is attempting to persuade other individuals. The author inadvertently draws attention to the basis behind his work in justifying working from home is in part due to his desire to work from home.
As such, the basis behind the article may be more self-serving than it is to examine a practice from a distinctly neutral perspective. Evidence of the author’s distinctly pro-work from home orientation can be seen clearly in the expansive arguments he utilizes to justify its use. There is little in the way of sufficient statements to showcase the problems that employees who work from home encounter. Yes, he brings up the issue of loneliness and lack of promotions.
However, these are small arguments in comparison to the vast majority of those that focus on the benefits of working from home. Not only that, the author neglects to focus on the most important aspect of working from home, which is the fact that not all jobs can be done from home. Jobs related to construction, manufacturing, the services industry, and many others cannot be performed at home. This is an important facet of the work from home debate, yet the author does not touch on this.
Conclusion
By targeting the right audience and showing reason in his argument, the author develops an excellent connection with the reader by showing personal experiences. He is also giving them the big picture of what working at home can be like and how it is a better experience than working in an office. However, he neglects to shed a lot of light on what bad effects it might have on people. He only shows things that can be overcome easily. This puts the argument in his favor and changes the attitude of the audience towards him.
Works Cited
Bloom, Nicholas. “At Home, Work a Bit Longer and Get More Done.” The New York Times 28 Feb. 2013: n. pag. The New York Times. Web.