Writing Style of Amy Tan in Mother Tongue

Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

It is important to note that the author uses the strategies of logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos to convince the reader of the arguments in the essay. At the beginning of the essay, the author uses ethos because she immediately states that she is not a researcher of the English language or literature but only a writer (Tongue, 2003). Thus, it immediately creates credibility because the author has indicated in which field she is an expert and admitted that she does not have sufficient competence in certain areas. Then, she reinforced ethos by describing her love for the language and her continuous improvement in this field.

Discussion

In this way, the reader immediately forms an opinion about the authors competence in the topic she writes about. The essay also successfully applies the strategy of pathos because Amy Tan describes that her mother reads books and listens to the news in English. When she speaks English, people around her hardly understand her. Meanwhile, the author emphasizes that she fully understands her mothers English and indicates that her language is alive and full of expressions (Tongue, 2003). That is, readers after this story will feel positive emotions and support the authors mother. Moreover, some may even feel sympathy for her because she spends a lot of effort perfecting her language skills, but some people still do not understand her. This story provides truthfulness to the essay and makes it understandable for the readers.

Conclusion

At the same time, in Amy Tans Mother Tongue, one can distinguish elements of logos when the author explains that Chinese students in the United States study at technical faculties and choose engineering specialties. As an argument, she points out that it is statistically confirmed that Aries has better grades in mathematics than in English. Moreover, the essay also uses kairos when the author mentions the first year of college when Amy Tan decided to major in Native American (Tongue, 2003). This has helped to demonstrate that a person whose native language is not English can speak it perfectly.