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Jared Thompson
ENGL 1010
Unit 2 Final Rhetorical Analysis

Both Mike Rose and Matthew B Soulcraft use the rhetorical methods of storytelling and

facts, in their stories Blue-Collar Brilliance and Shop Class as Soulcraft. Mike Rose does this by

telling a storey about his childhood and his family to help the reader understand his view on

blue-collar jobs. Whereas Matthew B. Soulcraft uses a story about when he started as an

electrician to explain who it feels to work in a blue-collar job and the importance of it. Mike rose

then uses facts to explain the level of knowledge one must have to work in a blue-collar job and

Matthew B. Soulcraft used journals and examples to point out the importance of learning a trade

to work in a blue-collar job.

Mike Rose used storytelling in his writing to help the audience understand his view on

people who work in the Blue-Collar industry. Mike Rose told us two stories one about his

mother Rosie and another about his uncle, Joe Meraglio. His mother Rosie was a waitress for a

coffee shop and family restaurant. He also told a story about his uncle working at General

Motors. The purpose of these stories was to show the knowledge Rosie and Joe used to

perform their jobs, even though they had little education. Rosie was a waitress and learned how

to weave in and out of the room in an effort to be efficient. She would abbreviate her orders, to

make things go faster and this allowed her to get back to her tables. Mike Rose referred this as

a place where competence was synonymous with physical work. This short story about his

mother proved a point he was making about how hard someone works in a Blue-Collar job

such as the one his Mother had as a waitress. Another story Mike rose told was about his uncle

Joe, who quite school in the ninth grade to work for the railroad. Joe joined the Navy then a little
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after his return, he started to work for General Motors with his older brother. Joe started on the

assembly line and worked his way up to becoming a foreman. Joe said working the floor was

like schooling. He was constantly learning efficient ways to use his body so he could work quick

and preserve his energy. When Joe became a foreman, he had to learn how to be a multi-

tasker and figure out how to accomplish demands quickly. The story Mike Rose told about his

Uncle helped the audience see another side of the Blue-Collar industry. Like Mike Roses

Mother Joe worked hard at his job and figured out how to work efficiently. On the side, Joe

educated himself with his on the job experience to help him work his up in the company. Both

stories helped paint a picture for the reader to understand how much one would have to learn to

be able to work in a blue-collar such as Rosie and Joes. This helped contribute Mike Roses

goal of informing the reader of the labor these jobs require.

Matthew B. Crawford didnt use as much storytelling in his writing, but did tell one about

when Matthew finished college, he started a small electrical contracting business and said his

pleasure came at the end of the job, when he could flip the switch and the light would turn on.

Matthew said it was an experience of agency and competence. Matthew Crawford used this

example to demonstrate to the audience about how he enjoyed learning this type of Blue-

Collar trade in school and how it helped him. The story Matthew B. Crawford used helped the

reader understand how it felt when someone accomplished a job in the blue-collar industry

and the experience it would give someone. This also helped prove Mattthew B. Crawfords

point of why it is important to teach a job such as an electrician, because it is a skill that is

needed in todays world. Without electricians, it would be hard to wire a house for our

technology needs today.

Mike Rose used facts in his writing when he started to break down different Blue-Collar

jobs and relating them to his theory on the knowledge they use and how hard they work. During
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this section of Mike Roses writing he talked about the hair stylist adroitly handling scissors and

the practice that had to take place for the hair stylist to perform the job. Mike Rose then talked

about the knowledge a person would need to use certain tools to finish a job properly. Other

facts Mike Rose used was when he talked about planning and problem solving needing to be

used. He talked about how it was studied since the earliest days of modern cognitive. Language

and communication is also another skill a person would need to learn to perform a blue-collar

job properly and Mike Rose mentioned the hair stylist needing the ability to convert a persons

request into an appropriate cut through asking the right questions. All of this help Mike Rose

prove to his readers a little more about the knowledge a person would need to perform a Blue-

Collar job.

Matthew Crawford mostly used facts in his writing to prove his point to his reader.

Matthew Crawford told us about engineering culture hiding the work. An example he gave to

prove this was asking his audience to look under the hood of a new car. The mechanics of the

engine is typically hidden and this makes it hard for a consumer to see the work that was done.

This helps prove his point of manual work not being noticed as much anymore, so people are

starting to think it is unnecessary. Matthew Crawford also used information from two journals

that were wrote around 1985. These journals talked about the future and impact technology is

going to have. Matthew Crawford used this to talk about how weeing future-ism to virtualize.

He says is taking material reality and glide about in a pure information economy. Matthew

Crawford also said the Wall Street Journal recently wondered if skilled or manual labor is

becoming one of the few sure paths to a good living. Matthew Crawford used these facts to help

his readers see the reality of what is happing with Blue-Collar jobs. This also helped set a

picture for his reader on what is around them and question how it was put together.
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Both articles are meant to open a new perspective on the way some of us think. For

Shop Class as Soulcraft it is meant for us to think about the importance of making things and

the manual labor that goes into it, so we can understand the importance of a Blue-Collar jobs.

For Blue-Collar Brilliance, it talks about the intelligence that can go into manual labor work and

just because they dont have an educational degree, it doesnt mean they are not smart and

dont work hard. These articles may be different, but they teach us a lesson about the

intelligence that goes into working in the Blue-Collar world and the importance of teaching these

jobs in our education system. If it wasnt for the two rhetorical strategies the authors used it

would have been hard for them to connect with the reader. Using storytelling help the reader

connect in a personal way and using facts helped the reader understand the truth behind what

was being said.

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Works Cited

Crawford, Matthew B. "Shop Class as Soulcraft." The New Atlantis 13 (2006): Web. 06
Oct. 2016.
Rose, Mike. "Blue-Collar Brilliance." The American Scholar (2009): n. pag. Web. 04 Oct. 2016.