Précis #1 Freakonomics
Jared Diamond hopes that the people will be realize that the dominant places on the Earth were not always powerful, and that in fact the so called weak and poor regions of the world were actually the strongest and richest. He wants us to realize that every place on the Earth is unique and should be laughed or mocked at. He wants us to he informed on how Europe was able to become very powerful because of a few chancy circumstances. Basically the entire purpose of this writing was to just explain how the powerful nations or hegemonic nations came to be, when compared to the rest of world.
Jared Diamond thinks of the audience as regular people, maybe with some historical background knowledge. His uses the first person point of view, so that brings the reader in to and allows them to reach with him. He constantly uses the person person plural form such as the word "we". This allows him to involve his previous experiences with the audience, and allows for Diamond to himself interact with the audience. This allows for the audience to feel like they themselves are involved in the book and are more likely to pay attention to Jared Diamond's words.
The authors of this non-fiction book are Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. This book, Freakonomics, was first published on April 25th, 2005 (my version was however published in 2009). This book basically looks at issues that seem to have not to do with economics and brings them together, showing that the study of economics is the study of incentives. This book explains why teachers and sumo wrestlers would cheat in their own very respectable positions. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner imply throughout their book that there are many hidden sides or viewpoints for every single thing.
The authors seem to use a lot of ethos and logos to prove their points, while pathos slightly exists throughout the book it acts as a support for the other two rhetorical devices. When they are explaining how a drug dealing gang is similar to a fast food chain, it seems preposterous that a violent and dangerous gang could be a lot like a harmless restaurant. However by explaining how those two unfamiliar groups are the same, the idea seems to become clearer. But they then introduce Sudhir Venkatesh, a twenty year old graduate who later ends up following a drug gang to collect data on how they operated. After a period of five to six years, Venkatesh meet Levitt and showed him the data he had collected, including the gang's financial records. After studying the data it was found that the gang, the Black Disciples, had an organizational chart similar to one McDonald's would have. The authors later show some charts that the Black Disciples had, therefore providing credibility for their claims as well as providing solid data to support themselves. There is another claim that these two authors have which is that real estate agents do not at all have the customers well being at their interest. They first start off by saying that anyone can turn any amount of information into manipulative fear. They give some examples such as that there is a fear that a cheap casket will make someone's already dead grandmother suffer a horrible fate. Or that a $25,000 car will crumple in an accident, but a $50,000 car will easily wrap loved ones in a cocoon of steel. The real estate agents them prey up the two fears that home sellers have: that the house will either be sold for a really low price, of the house will not be sold at all. Feeding on that fear, real estate agents will actually attempt to sell a customer's house for a low price, while selling their own house for a much higher price. A study has shown that on average a real estate agent will keep their house on the market for an extra ten days and sell it for three percent more than their customer's house. When reading this, it sounds foolish that a real estate agent would actually do that, however the authors use effective reasoning to explain their point. If a real estate was to sell their house for an extra three percent of a $300,000 house the agent would sell their house for an extra $10,000. But if an agent was to attempt to sell a $300,000 house for an extra $10,000, they would only make around $150 extra, which is not a great reward for all the extra work it takes to sell a house for an extra $10,000 dollars. The usage of logos to explain and reason why this would happen is effectively explained, but logos isn't the only rhetoric device used, a example of pathos is used. One of the author's friends by the name of K wanted to buy a house that was $469,000, and was ready to offer $450,000 for the house. However before that K called the seller's real estate agent and after a while K had bought the house for $430,000. The real estate agent in fact made his client lose $20,000, while he himself didn't loss much and probably would make a lot more money back by selling his own house.
It seems as if the purpose of writing this book is to give the average person a whole new look at the world as well as to give insight of how economics work. This can be supported by the fact that it was mentioned in a question and answer past of the book. But seriously the authors take various topics that the normal or even most people won't consider such as comparing the dangerous Ku Klux Klan to supposedly harmless real estate agents. Or how a simple decision to allow for abortion in Texas virtually eliminated most of the 1990s criminals. Basically the authors want the readers or the audience to not jump on the bandwagon and assume the reason for something for happening is reason A (the most likely), not reason Z (the least likely but correct option). Also by selecting out of the norm topics, the authors are able to gain the reader's interest , while explain the economics side of the topic in a way that is easy to understand and still uses the principles of economics.
The authors seem to believe that their audience are regular average people with little to no experience in economics. Dubner and Levitt do not try to present themselves as a highly educated and knowledgeable people. They attempt to speak as they are one of the audience, this can shown by the usage of the second person highly through out the book. Usually the usage of second person point-of-view can be linked as a sign of an incompetent writer. However in this case, it actually very productive and useful. Even though all of the audience knows that Dubner and Levitt are well educated and famous writers, it felt like they have stooped down to an ordinary person's point of view to better explain their topics/ideas.
It seems as if the purpose of writing this book is to give the average person a whole new look at the world as well as to give insight of how economics work. This can be supported by the fact that it was mentioned in a question and answer past of the book. But seriously the authors take various topics that the normal or even most people won't consider such as comparing the dangerous Ku Klux Klan to supposedly harmless real estate agents. Or how a simple decision to allow for abortion in Texas virtually eliminated most of the 1990s criminals. Basically the authors want the readers or the audience to not jump on the bandwagon and assume the reason for something for happening is reason A (the most likely), not reason Z (the least likely but correct option). Also by selecting out of the norm topics, the authors are able to gain the reader's interest , while explain the economics side of the topic in a way that is easy to understand and still uses the principles of economics.
The authors seem to believe that their audience are regular average people with little to no experience in economics. Dubner and Levitt do not try to present themselves as a highly educated and knowledgeable people. They attempt to speak as they are one of the audience, this can shown by the usage of the second person highly through out the book. Usually the usage of second person point-of-view can be linked as a sign of an incompetent writer. However in this case, it actually very productive and useful. Even though all of the audience knows that Dubner and Levitt are well educated and famous writers, it felt like they have stooped down to an ordinary person's point of view to better explain their topics/ideas.
Précis #2 Guns, Germs, and Steel
The author of this book is Jared Diamond and the full name of the book is Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies. It was published in 1997 and is a trans-disciplinary, persuasive nonfiction book. This book talks about how the West (aka Western Europe and North America) was able to rise and become one of the world's most powerful and wealthiest countries, although they were at a huge disadvantage thousands of years ago. And why the big, rich, and powerful areas of the world of the past are now some of the poorest regions of the world. Mr. Diamond attributes this to three different reasons: Guns, Germs, and Steel, hence the name of the title. Each of these three reasons are later explained in how they have affected the fate of the world, and the balance of power. Although guns, gunpowder, and cannons were invented by the Chinese and spread to Europe through the Ottoman Empire's usage. It was the European nations that most efficiently used them. The European nations were at constant warfare with one another and needed guns, while the Asian and Middle Eastern nations didn't needed them as much. This allowed for the Europeans to improve upon the guns and make them better, while overpowering the originals. Eurasian had a bunch of agriculture and domestic animals. The animals caused for the spread of diseases and infections to people, and over the span of a couple of centuries the European people became immune or developed antibodies against those diseases. The European conquers had spread those diseases to the Native Americans when they discovered the Americas, and since the natives had no immunity to the European diseases, they were annihilated. Jared Diamond posits that it was these the things that allowed for the rise of Europe over the rest of the world.
Jared Diamond uses logos very effectively to prove his points. He uses tables, charts, graphs, maps multiple times throughout the book to point out what regions of the world had certain types of plants, when they had domesticated various animals, and etc. This allows for an easier way to see and understand what the author is trying to say, and makes it a lot easier to sympathize and reason with Mr. Diamond. Jared Diamond uses pathos many times as well throughout the book to improve his credibility or his ethos. In the very beginning of the book Diamond talks about how his friend Yali was the motivation of this book and how he would attempt to answer his question. Not to mention his includes his experiences in those regions of the world whether it be Africa, Eurasia, Australia, or etc. He talks about an instance in Australia when he and his wife were hiking in one of the deserts and barely made it to the rest station where they were feed and watered.
He later uses this point to talk about the Aboriginal people who live in the desert and how they were advanced enough to survive in the desert and live there for millenniums. Also included are instances when he personally interacts with the native people such as when he and his group are questioning local native women about their husbands and way of life.
He later uses this point to talk about the Aboriginal people who live in the desert and how they were advanced enough to survive in the desert and live there for millenniums. Also included are instances when he personally interacts with the native people such as when he and his group are questioning local native women about their husbands and way of life.
Jared Diamond hopes that the people will be realize that the dominant places on the Earth were not always powerful, and that in fact the so called weak and poor regions of the world were actually the strongest and richest. He wants us to realize that every place on the Earth is unique and should be laughed or mocked at. He wants us to he informed on how Europe was able to become very powerful because of a few chancy circumstances. Basically the entire purpose of this writing was to just explain how the powerful nations or hegemonic nations came to be, when compared to the rest of world.
Jared Diamond thinks of the audience as regular people, maybe with some historical background knowledge. His uses the first person point of view, so that brings the reader in to and allows them to reach with him. He constantly uses the person person plural form such as the word "we". This allows him to involve his previous experiences with the audience, and allows for Diamond to himself interact with the audience. This allows for the audience to feel like they themselves are involved in the book and are more likely to pay attention to Jared Diamond's words.
