Analysis of "Girls Just Wanna Have Phones" and "Not My Mother's 56"

¶ … Girls Just Wanna Have Phones" contains the argument that rather than our electronic devices acting as instruments to make life easier for us, we have actually become slaves to them. This is especially true for women who are expected to stay "on top" of information (especially social media) in their professions. The article attempts to show that is important to be able to balance time between using these devices and detaching oneself from them so as to avoid being a tech slave.

The audience is most likely women, judging from the title, but after reading the article the information is applicable to anyone who uses electronic devices. The writer is working from the rhetorical tradition, using a catchy title to lure the reader and then surprising the reader with the underlying analysis that while we all may love our phones, constant usage and dependence upon them is not the healthiest way to live.

The style, form and structure of this article is based on the informative and persuasive essay models, because it is ultimately doing both -- informing the reader about the ways that too much phone usage can be bad and how and why one should limit this usage. It is an effective strategy often used by essayists and it works well here as the writer provides the facts and conveys the points persuasively. Catchy turns of phrases are the most effective points here -- especially the title.

Some expressions could be altered for the sake of clarity. For instance, in the first sentence we find: "We are reaching a mid-point where our opinions about Internet ... " "Mid-point" does not seem like the right term here. Perhaps the writer is thinking of "crisis point," or "breaking point" or something like that.

Another thing that could be improved is the general direction of the essay: it could be trimmed and more focused. As it is, it ranges from personal experience to women and technology to societal demands to too much tech being bad for sleep, etc. The most important points relating to the thesis should be kept and the rest discarded.

In "Not My Mother's 56," the story of Cheryl's reinvention of herself is told so as to deliver an inspiring message about the resourcefulness of this particular individual at a time when her future was threatened by the instability of the market crash in 2008 and the savings lost in that crash. The audience is anyone who likes success stories or stories of overcoming obstacles -- and this could be both young and old, though the story focuses on an older woman. The tradition in which the writer is working is that of the happy-ending narrative, in which some obstacle is introduced at the beginning and the reader has the pleasure of seeing how the subject rises above it.

The style, form and structure of this essay is simple and direct -- essentially informative. The writer describes the main subject, tells the reader what happened and what had to be done and then describes how it was done. The article is effective in its simplicity. It is focused and straight-forward.