Eng 107/108 Rhetorical Analysis

Professor Kacie Kiser

English 108

3rd October 2012

Rhetorical analysis of “Across cultures, English is the word”

Aided by globalization and technology English is becoming the most important language to know or learn today. The purpose of this article is to inform the audience about the progressing dominance of the English. Seth Mydans, the author, also presents some reasons why English will not become a truly global language one that is spoken by every nation of this world. Although the arguments he presents are treated superficially and lack credibility, Mydans makes good use of pathos. In his article “Across cultures, English is the word”, the author fails to convince the reader if English will or will not be a global language.

By interviewing various expert linguists and scholars the author tries to impart all the ways and avenues by which English is becoming the “king of languages”.

People that read the New York Times come from all facets of life. Paragraphs are short and easy to understand. Mydans is able to use a fairly high level of diction, metaphors and allusions to history and still make the writing easy to understand. The word linguist is used when describing the area of expertise of one of his interviewees. He also uses the word unequivocal to describe the linguists’ opinion on English as a global language. Vernacular is another word that sticks out from the text. It is used to describe all the different versions of English that are used “in such places as Singapore, Nigeria and the Caribbean” and Papua New Guinea. In his introduction Mydans uses the metaphor “king of languages” in order to preface the ideas present in the rest of the paper.

The article is divided in 40 total paragraphs. These range form two to six sentences. On one hand this pattern of arrangement makes the text easier to read. This is because in todays hi-tech world people are distracted very easily. Hence, if the paragraphs are smaller, one has an easier time to retrace where...