TOW #4- IRB POST "Freakonomics"

After reading about one half of this book, I am thrilled that I chose it.  The intriguing studies that are collected by this author have made me think about things like the similarities between teachers and sumo wrestlers or the KKK and real-estate agents.  Steven D. Levitt, one of the authors of "Freakonomics" is an economist, and Stephen J. Dubner, the other author, is a writer.  Together they have created this unique book that has blown my mind several times already.  The authors use a variety of rhetorical devices in order to intrigue readers and provoke thought about trends in the world.  Their audience is the general public because it isn't geared towards economists specifically.  In one of their chapters, the authors discuss the similarities that can be drawn between sumo wrestlers and teachers through the analysis of each person's use of incentives and cheating.  In the introduction of this chapter, the authors use repetition to relate to their audience.  They write, "If you toddle over to the hot stove and touch it, you burn a finger.  But if you bring home straight A's from school you get a new bike.  If you are spotted picking your nose in class, you get ridiculed..." (Dubner, Levitt 16).  This section continues on for a half of a page repeating the same phrase over and over.  The authors use an "if, then" pattern to show the audience that incentives are all around them.  Through this rhetorical device, they prove to the reader that incentives and the way people react to them are happening everyday all around them.  Another rhetorical device used in this chapter is rhetorical questions.  The authors use these questions to make the reader come to a realization of their own.  For example, when talking about the incentives behind not doing something, the authors bring up prostitution.  They write, "Which is a more horrifying deterrent: a $500 fine for soliciting a prostitute or the thought of your friends and family ogling you on www.HookersAndJohns.com?" (Dubner, Levitt 18)  Through this rhetorical question, readers understand why the use of shaming convicted johns or prostitutes publicly is such a successful incentive.  By utilizing these two rhetorical devices successfully, the authors can accomplish their purpose of intriguing the reader as well as getting their reader to think about the crazy connections made in the book.