1. Hayes 1
Riley Hayes
Professor Sara Doan
ENGL 250
6 February 2015
Assignment 3: Rhetorical Analysis of a Written Text
“You, You, You - you are really special, you are! You’ve got everything going for you.
You’re attractive, witty, brilliant. “Gifted” is the word that comes to mind.” (pg. 220) Jeffery
Zaslow, the author of “The Most Praised Generation Goes to Work” opens his article with a
bunch of compliments and praised words. He does this so that his audience sees how ridiculous
it sounds to recognize someone over and over again. Throughout this article he argues that the
current generation has received praise for every accomplishment they have made, no matter how
big or small. Jeffrey continues to argue that the same generation, now entering the workplace,
expect the same praise out of their managers and co-workers.
Jeffery organized his article in a very strategic way to be eye catching and organized. He
created bold headings, such as “Praise Inflation” (pg. 221) or “Modern Pressures” (pg. 223) so
they stand out. By making clear, identifiable headlines it helps get the point across to his
audience and make a more precise argument. He really helps establish his ethos by his
uniformed, well written articles. His audience may also know him from previous columns as
Jeffery has written for the Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Sun-Times.
Jeffery also provided a lot of logos and pathos throughout his style of writing. He tries to
persuade parents that if you praise your kids too much they will become insecure if they aren’t

2. Hayes 2
regularly receiving the same compliments. (pg. 221) He provides you with a lot of statistics,
such as “The average college student in 2006 was 30% more narcissistic than the average student
in 1982.” (pg. 221) His writing is formal with no pictures or images, as his audience consists
mostly of adults, and even more specifically parents and future employers.
The delivery of this article was very much like a slap in the face to many parents and
employers. He uses pathos to deliver a strong message to the adults that too much praise can be
a bad thing. He provides us examples of how some employers throw confetti and others hand
out balloons. He claims that “in the end, ego stroking may feel good, but it doesn’t always lead
to happiness.” (pg.225) He also claims that “narcissists aren’t good at basking in other people’s
glory” (pg. 225) which suggests that because this generation was praised so much, they have a
hard time accepting the positive attention on someone else.
Jeffery finishes his article with a closing quote from a business person he interviewed
about how they praise or reward their employees for a job well done. The business person then
says “I’ll just text her a quick note - ‘you were phenomenal today.’ She thrives on that. We
wanted to find what works for her because she’s completely averse to confetti.”(pg. 225) This is
a closing statement that solidifies his point that parents and employers will do anything to praise
and reward this generation, even for miniscule things. It pulls together his ethos, as it proves the
point he was trying to make.