RHETORICAL ANALYSIS SAMPLE ESSAY
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS SAMPLE ESSAY
Harriet Clark
Ms. Rebecca Winter
CWC 101
13 Feb. 2015
Not Quite a Clean Sweep: Rhetorical Strategies in
Grose’s “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier”
A woman’s work is never done: many American women grow up with this
saying and feel it to be true. One such woman, author Jessica Grose, wrote “Cleaning:
The Final Feminist Frontier,” published in 2013 in the New Republic, and she argues that
while the men in our lives recently started taking on more of the childcare and cooking,
cleaning still falls unfairly on women. Grose begins building her credibility with
personal facts and reputable sources, citing convincing facts and statistics, and
successfully employing emotional appeals; however, toward the end of the article, her
attempts to appeal to readers’ emotions weaken her credibility and ultimately, her
argument.
In her article, Grose first sets the stage by describing a specific scenario of house-
cleaning with her husband after being shut in during Hurricane Sandy, and then she
outlines the uneven distribution of cleaning work in her marriage and draws a comparison
to the larger feminist issue of who does the cleaning in a relationship. Grose continues
by discussing some of the reasons that men do not contribute to cleaning: the praise for a
clean house goes to the woman; advertising and media praise men’s cooking and
childcare, but not cleaning; and lastly, it is just not fun. Possible solutions to the problem,
Grose suggests, include making a chart of who does which chores, dividing up tasks
based on skill and ability, accepting a dirtier home, and making cleaning more fun with
gadgets.
Throughout her piece, Grose uses many strong sources that strengthen her
credibility and appeal to ethos, as well as build her argument. These sources include,
“sociologists Judith Treas and Tsui-o Tai,” “a 2008 study from the University of New
Hampshire,” and “P&G North America Fabric Care Brand Manager, Matthew Krehbiel”
(qtd. in Grose). Citing these sources boosts Grose’s credibility by showing that she has
Hook
Context
Article author’s claim or purpose
Thesis
Summary of the article’s main points in the second paragraph (could also be in the introduction)
Third paragraph begins with a transition and topic sentence that reflects the first topic in the thesis
Quotes illustrate how the author uses appeals to ethos
done her homework and has provided facts and statistics, as well as expert opinions to
support her claim. She also uses personal examples from her own home life to introduce
and support the issue, which shows that she has a personal stake in and first-hand
experience with the problem.
Adding to her ethos appeals, Grose uses strong appeals to logos, with many facts
and statistics and logical progressions of ideas. She points out facts about her marriage
and the distribution of household chores: “My husband and I both work. We split
midnight baby feedings …but … he will admit that he’s never cleaned the bathroom, that I
do the dishes nine times out of ten, and that he barely knows how the washer and dryer
work in the apartment we’ve lived in for over eight months.” These facts introduce and
support the idea that Grose does more household chores than her husband. Grose
continues with many statistics:
[A]bout 55 percent of American mothers employed full time do some housework
on an average day, while only 18 percent of employed fathers do. … [W]orking
women with children are still doing a week and a half more of “second shift”
work each year than their male partners. … Even in the famously gender-neutral
Sweden, women do 45 minutes more housework a day than their male partners.
These statistics are a few of many that logically support her claim that it is a substantial
and real problem that men do not do their fair share of the chores. The details and
numbers build an appeal to logos and impress upon the reader that this is a problem worth
discussing.
Along with strong logos appeals, Grose effectively makes appeals to pathos in
the beginning and middle sections. Her introduction is full of emotionally-charged words
and phrases that create a sympathetic image; Grose notes that she “was eight months
pregnant” and her husband found it difficult to “fight with a massively pregnant person.”
The image she evokes of the challenges and vulnerabilities of being so pregnant, as well
as the high emotions a woman feels at that time effectively introduce the argument and its
seriousness. Her goal is to make the reader feel sympathy for her. Adding to this idea
are words and phrases such as, “insisted,” “argued,” “not fun,” “sucks” “headachey,” “be
judged,” “be shunned” (Grose). All of these words evoke negative emotions about
cleaning, which makes the reader sympathize with women who feel “judged” and
shunned”—very negative feelings. Another feeling Grose reinforces with her word
choice is the concept of fairness: “fair share,” “a week and a half more of ‘second shift’
work,” “more housework,” “more gendered and less frequent.” These words help
Analysis explains how the quotes show the effective use of pathos, as noted in the thesis
Analysis explains how the quotes show the effective use of ethos, as noted in the thesis
Quote that illustrates appeals to logos
Quote that illustrates appeals to logos
Transition and topic sentence about the second point from the thesis
Quotes that illustrate appeals to pathos
Transition and topic sentence about the third point from the thesis
Analysis explains how the quotes show the effective use of logos, as noted in the thesis
This document was developed by the
College Writing Center STLCC-Meramec
Created 2/2015 by HSC
establish the unfairness that exists when women do all of the cleaning, and they are an
appeal to pathos, or the readers’ feelings of frustration and anger with injustice.
However, the end of the article lacks the same level of effectiveness in the
appeals to ethos. For example, Grose notes that when men do housework, they are
considered to be “’enacting “small instances of gender heroism,” or ‘SIGH’s’—which,
barf.” The usage of the word “barf” is jarring to the reader; unprofessional and immature,
it is a shift from the researched, intelligent voice she has established and the reader is less
likely to take the author seriously. This damages the strength of her credibility and her
argument.
Additionally, her last statement in the article refers to her husband in a way that
weakens the argument. While returning to the introduction’s hook in the conclusion is a
frequently-used strategy, Grose chooses to return to her discussion of her husband in a
humorous way: Grose discusses solutions, and says there is “a huge, untapped market …
for toilet-scrubbing iPods. I bet my husband would buy one.” Returning to her own
marriage and husband is an appeal to ethos or personal credibility, and while that works
well in the introduction, in the conclusion, it lacks the strength and seriousness that the
topic deserves and was given earlier in the article.
Though Grose begins the essay by effectively persuading her readers of the
unfair distribution of home-maintenance cleaning labor, she loses her power in the end,
where she most needs to drive home her argument. Readers can see the problem exists in
both her marriage and throughout the world; however, her shift to humor and sarcasm
makes the reader not take the problem as seriously in the end. Grose could have more
seriously driven home the point that a woman’s work could be done: by a man.
Works Cited
Grose, Jessica. “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier.” New Republic. The New
Republic, 19 Mar. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Quote illustrates how the author uses appeal to ethos
Transition and topic sentence about fourth point from thesis
Analysis explains how quote supports thesis
Transition and topic sentence about fourth point from thesis
Conclusion returns to ideas in the thesis and further develops them
Analysis explains how quote supports thesis
Quote illustrates how the author uses appeal to ethos
Last sentence returns to the hook in the introduction
