Communication Problems
Taylor Tomlinson English 110 3/19/12 Classical Model
Communication Complications Within a Marriage
“She’s the talker in our family!” This statement said by a man about his wife was very ironic to most of the people at the party that night, being that the man was doing most of the talking and offering ideas while his wife sat silently in the corner. This arousing anecdote in Deborah Tannen’s essay, “Sex, Lies and Conversation: Why Is It So Hard For Men and Women to Talk to Each Other” portrays the truth of the relationships of married couples by revealing that American men tend to talk more than women in public; however, they barely communicate at home with their spouses. Through the use of ethos, logos, and pathos Tannen provides a strong argument directed specifically at married couples in discussing the communication problems between a husband and wife and how to resolve them without the marriage leading to divorce. All three elements of the rhetorical triangle are conveyed throughout Tannen’s essay effectively, but ethos, the credibility, seems to be the most powerful and frequently used. In the third paragraph of the essay, she writes about how most women gave lack of communication as the reason for their divorces, but only a few men said that was a reason in Catherine Kohler Riessman’s new book “Divorce Talk.” This shows that men don’t think that communication is a very big factor in a relationship, but women do which causes many unwanted problems. Men and women have very different views on things, but they need to find common ground in order for the marriage to succeed. In the preceding paragraph, Deborah Tannen converses about her own research. She talks about how she has received many complaints from women about having to do all the chores around the house and trying to go above and beyond for their men with little in return. Men and women partners should share duties in every aspect; not one or the other should be putting forth more effort
Communication Complications Within a Marriage
“She’s the talker in our family!” This statement said by a man about his wife was very ironic to most of the people at the party that night, being that the man was doing most of the talking and offering ideas while his wife sat silently in the corner. This arousing anecdote in Deborah Tannen’s essay, “Sex, Lies and Conversation: Why Is It So Hard For Men and Women to Talk to Each Other” portrays the truth of the relationships of married couples by revealing that American men tend to talk more than women in public; however, they barely communicate at home with their spouses. Through the use of ethos, logos, and pathos Tannen provides a strong argument directed specifically at married couples in discussing the communication problems between a husband and wife and how to resolve them without the marriage leading to divorce. All three elements of the rhetorical triangle are conveyed throughout Tannen’s essay effectively, but ethos, the credibility, seems to be the most powerful and frequently used. In the third paragraph of the essay, she writes about how most women gave lack of communication as the reason for their divorces, but only a few men said that was a reason in Catherine Kohler Riessman’s new book “Divorce Talk.” This shows that men don’t think that communication is a very big factor in a relationship, but women do which causes many unwanted problems. Men and women have very different views on things, but they need to find common ground in order for the marriage to succeed. In the preceding paragraph, Deborah Tannen converses about her own research. She talks about how she has received many complaints from women about having to do all the chores around the house and trying to go above and beyond for their men with little in return. Men and women partners should share duties in every aspect; not one or the other should be putting forth more effort
Cited: Tannen, Deborah. “Sex, Lies and Conversation: Why Is It So Hard for Men and Women to Talk to Each Other.” The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. Tenth Edition. Ed. Gilbert Mueller. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. 86-90. Print