week 3 resp

Ramirez 1

Ramirez 4

Linda M. Ramirez

Professor Brown

ENG 121-OL02

22 May 2022

Assignment 2

In “The Last Straw”, Alice Wong effectively informs the non-disabled people or families without disabled family members about the larger systemic issues for disability rights by placing some of the rhetorical elements and rhetorical appeals in this reading piece. I will briefly discuss the rhetorical elements: rhetor, audience, exigence, constraints, and text, as well as the rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos and logos.

The first rhetorical element I will discuss is rhetor and rhetorical appeal is ethos, as it goes hand and hand in this piece. Rhetor is briefly defined as the writer, author, speaker or designer who composed the text. “ In this case, Alice Wong is the rhetor and founder of Disability Visibility Project and co-partner of #Cripthevote.” Ethos is the credibility of the writer. “As a research consultant, disability activists and a disabled person, she uses her personal life to engage nondisabled/disabled people in the daily struggles that would lead to larger systemic issues.”

Second rhetorical element would be the audience. Who is the reading piece intended for is a brief definition of the rhetorical element the audience. The intended audience would be the non-disabled people or people who do not have to take care of disabled family members. As a mother of a child who was born with a rare heart defect and is regarded as medically disabled, I can relate to this, it may not be concerning plastic straw bans but the daily struggles that a parent of a disabled child has to cope with. Another rhetorical appeal would be logos and I would think the third rhetorical element: exigence would also fall in line with this. Logos definition is what types of reasoning/words are used for the main purpose. Exigence is the issue at hand that the author/writer is responding to. “In the Last Straw, Alice Wong uses her personal viewpoint and tweets from others to help bring awareness of what the straw ban entails.” An excerpt of a tweet from the essay, "Disabled people: when was the first time you felt the independence a straw gave you?" Not only would the ban take away the simple task we take for granted away from a disabled person but it could create additional difficulties for them.

The fourth rhetorical element is constraints, which limits the way the discourse is delivered to its audience. Alice Wong asked, "Is the banning of plastic straws an example of the struggle for disability rights and justice or is something else going on here?" In this case, Alice Wong uses the straw ban to to highlight the bigger issues for people with disabilities even though the Americans with Disabilities Act has been placed to help them experience something as simple as eating and drinking freely. Pathos is the emotions a writer uses to persuade an audience. Alice Wong said, "Believe disabled people. Period. I refuse to apologize or feel shame about the way my body works and how I navigate in the world." She is expressing anger and frustration due to disabled people are not being taken into consideration when bans that affect them are being placed.

Alice Wong used the straw ban to paint a bigger picture for the non-disabled people to see that there are larger systemic issues for disability rights and justice. Not only did she state her daily struggles in a wheel-chair but the independent feeling of being able to drink from a cup.

Works Cited

The Last Straw. Alice Wong.

An Introduction to Rhetoric. Brenta Blevins.

"Mini Reflection"

What do you now understand that you didn't catch the first time you read the text? The first time I read the text, I actually had asked, "what is the importance of the straw ban?" I now understand that it is not just about the straw ban but the limited accessibility of a disabled person has when we start looking for environmental alternatives to resources that are imperative for their daily functions and do not take into consideration of their concerns.