Rough Draft for Analysis

The following literary work is an analysis of the quality and effectiveness rhetoric which is used in a particular literary work used as a post on a blog. The title of the post is "You failed-- but then what did you do," written by someone who calls himself Maj. Pain. His writing is meant to inspire the audience to take advantage of the mistakes they make and use those mistakes as opportunities to learn and become better people. While the tone in which Maj. Pain writes is enthusiastic and emotionally compelling, it also reflects a sense of hard nose, lack of compassion which may not attract some of the readers to heed his advice. As well the many mistakes in grammar and punctuation leave it wanting in a sophistication that would usually entail professional advice.

From the post, it is feasible to determine that Maj. Pain (for lack of a name his blog ID will suffice) feels quite passionately about the topic of overcoming mistakes and turning them into advantages. The tone in which he leaves his post is one that would inspire many readers to heed his advice and push through the lows of our lives. In his words he uses the analogy of getting back on the horse after falling off. This analogy, in itself, is a very effective tool that Maj. Pain uses because the analogy is referred to on a wide spread bases and is easy to associate with. While not everyone will have experienced the exact sensation of being thrown off a horse and then getting back up to ride the animal again, the commonality of the expression and the simplicity of visualizing such an event make it an effective tool to explain his point.

Along with the analogy of falling down, he uses metaphors associated with different occupations. Each creates an understandable association with his argument that many people of the audience will understand. One of those deals with sports, where in a player makes a mistake [the example used is punting the ball into the stands, referring to football] but he forgets about that one time and works to rectify the mistake. At the same time he alludes to those who make mistakes and then overcome them as being professionals. What I like in this classification is that he is shadowing toward the idea that while everyone makes mistakes, include professionals of one occupation or another, a true “professional” is one who has learned to recognize and overcome individual flaws. This type of word play invokes a desire to not just simply accomplish jobs, but become so good at a job to be classified as a professional.

Maj. Pain brings greater emphasis to his writing by adding to his post a powerful quote from Abraham Lincoln. “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” Having this quote inserted in the text brings a lot of validity to Maj. Pain’s rhetoric. It gives a lot of stability to the topic at hand having a quote from a historical figure like Abraham Lincoln confirm to the same idea about not giving up. One of the major reasons Maj. Pain keeps pushing for the audience to overcome mistakes is that many of us are leaders in the world. Whether it be leaders of industry or of soldiers like he seems to be, he makes it apparent that a good leader is to be able to effectively push through personal mistakes and learn from them so that he can more appropriately lead. Who could be a better example of this idea then Abraham Lincoln.

So while I applaud Maj. Pain’s use of different tools as effective and relative, I do believe that because of mistakes in the way of grammar and sentence structure do take away from some of the strength of the post. For one thing, incoherent sentence can break up the mood of what is being written and distract a reader from the message which is trying to be relayed. Though a minor thing, repetitive mistakes eventually lead to a disinterest in the writing. The post itself is captivating throughout, but a bit more finery in the writing would bring an extra level of sophistication to the argument while not distracting the reader with simple grammatical discrepancies. That being said, Maj. Pain does put a bit of his own personality into the post which offers the audience a glimpse at the man writing, so as to make a more personal connection and trust that the one writing is in fact genuine with his argument.

So to summarize, I do believe this post is effective in influencing its readers to overcome mistakes and use those opportunities to improve. I feel that a number of excellent tools were used and that they effectively portray what the writer is intending to proclaim. And while the mistakes in grammar and sentence structure do make a hindrance to portions of the text, the overall tone is maintained throughout the post. After reading this post for myself, I do feel inspired to work past my own failures and become a better person by learning from those mistakes.