Introduction
The analysis of literary devices that different authors use in their works to add to their credibility, the credibility of the sources they use and the argument and claims they make is a rather challenging task. To carry it out successfully, one must consider how the author presents the argument of his/her and the supporting details that can be observed in this or that work. This paper focuses on the comparative analysis of the source and claim credibility of the works titled Ask Barbara: The 100 Most Asked Questions About Love, Sex, and Relationships by Barbara De Angelis and Romantic Relationships. Fighting for Your Marriage: Positive Steps for Preventing Divorce and Preserving a Lasting Love by Howard Markman.
Source Credibility
To begin with, the credibility of the sources chosen for the comparative analysis in this work is asses in different ways by scholars and the ordinary readers. Ask Barbara: The 100 Most Asked Questions About Love, Sex, and Relationships by Barbara De Angelis is mainly high-assessed by the customers and specialists. For example, the editorial and customer reviews presented at Amazon.com evidence that the book considered has helped many people in the real-life situations. The practical use of the book is more valuable for the author and her readers than the theoretical or formal frame (Moore, 2009). The essence of the book lies in combining the thoughts of Barbara De Angelis with the question-answer talk between the author and her readers. Barbara De Angelis answers the questions that concern the family life and intimate relationships in the simple way understandable for people with various educational levels (De Angelis, 2009).
As for Romantic Relationships. Fighting for Your Marriage: Positive Steps for Preventing Divorce and Preserving a Lasting Love by Howard Markman, this work has raised a number of various assessments. On the one hand, the book operates with non-supported data, like for example the statement about the 70% of women behaving in a certain way in the modern society. Such statements accompanied by the lack of bibliography to the book decrease its credibility as a source of the psychological information. On the other hand, however, the practical use of the book is stressed by numerous readers who bought, read and tried to implement the advice the book gives in their family lives. The results impressed them and led to the considerable public popularity of the book by Markman (Markman, 2001).
Claim Credibility
Further on, the credibility of the claims made by Barbara De Angelis and Howard Markman can also be treated differently. On the one hand, the works under analysis lack the theoretical base and display not enough scholarly support for their claims. On the other hand, the feedback provided by the book readers evidences the opposite – the works by Barbara De Angelis and Howard Markman contain useful information and the claims made by these authors are credible as far as they turn out to be effective. For example, the claims by Barbara De Angelis look more like the private talk with the readers than a scientific literary work (Moore, 2009). The author receives numerous questions from people experiencing hardships in their lives and tries to help them by her claims. For example, Mrs. De Angelis’s advice on intimate relations improvement, family life revival, etc. and the ways she recommends are proved to be effective by many people who used them (De Angelis, 2009).
The same is true about Howard Markman’s claims that prove to be true as the numerous readers report in their reviews and letters to the author. Although making some sweeping generalizations that might irritate people who disagree with them, the book is helpful for ordinary couples whose family lives started worsening after several years of being together. Howard Markman, although not trying to present his ideas as the only correct ones, manages to advise people on how to avoid quarrels in household, how to revive the affection between long-time spouses, etc. Thus, both books under analysis can be viewed as effective sources of information on the most common issues of family life (Markman, 2001).
Reservations and Conclusions
Nevertheless, some reservations as to the credibility of the sources and claims made in them still can be observed. For example, in the work by Barbara De Angelis the names of the readers whose questions are answered are not stated (De Angelis, 2009). Understanding that this is done for the purpose of privacy, I still feel that the provision of exact names and ages would add credibility to the book’s claims. Moreover, the sweeping statements about the offered solutions being effective for every single situation are not very credible (Moore, 2009). Different people have different circumstances in their lives and it is impossible to solve the diverse issues with a single template of actions. The same reservations are observed in respect of Markman’s work (Markman, 2001), but the overall impression both works under analysis make is positive. Their source credibility is rather high, while the credibility of claims is also considerable with the exception of the several points concerning the sweeping statements and anonymity of readers whose problems are solved.
Works Cited
De Angelis, B. Ask Barbara: The 100 Most Asked Questions About Love, Sex, and Relationships. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Web.
Markman, H. et al. Romantic Relationships. Fighting for Your Marriage: Positive Steps for Preventing Divorce and Preserving a Lasting Love. Jossey-Bass; New and Revised edition, 2001. Web.
Moore, B.N., & Parker, R. Critical thinking (9th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill, 2009.