What are the consequences of a mother’s dissatisfaction with her body on her daughter?
Claim: A mother’s dissatisfaction with her body increases the chance that her daughter will have an eating disorder.
Reason: Because a mother’s constant statements of worry about food and weight gain causes her daughter to have unhealthy expectations of her own body.
Implicit Assumption: Whatever causes females to have unhealthy expectations of their bodies also results in eating disorders.
Audience: LDS, middle-aged, stay-at-home moms of teenage or young adult daughters. This target audience is also middle to upper class, has positive relationships with their children and is self-conscious of their overweight bodies (with BMIs greater than 27).
Goal: To get mothers to be a better role model for their daughters and be healthy without being extreme with dieting and exercising habits.
How: The argument is meant to be built on ethos and logos but falls short. The ethos consists of some research from psychologists that are studying eating disorders or similar subjects. Though the research is accurate, it is not sufficient. There are not enough statistics and research to prove the point effectively. The paper consists of mostly opinion, and there is not enough evidence to make the argument persuasive. The logos of the paper also falls short, there is some logic but not enough. There is also a great deal of emotion that the writer is experiencing but this only translates to feelings of guilt and anxiety for the reader. Though this may be a typical way to speak to the particular audience, it may not be the best way. Taking your audience on a guilt trip is not a sure way that they will listen to what you have to say. You need to become your audience’s friend. Let them trust you, and then as a friend, try to convince them that they need to change. The writer tries to become the audience’s friend by relating to them towards the end, talking about “our daughters.” Yet the writer does not have a teenage daughter and is lying to their audience. The writer needs to be honest about who she is: a daughter instead of the audiences’ peer. The overall argument is relevant to the audience because they are concerned about their weight and concerned about keeping a positive relationship with their children. If they can be convinced that their anxiety about their weight could possibly be straining their relationships, they may decide to stop.
Effectiveness: The paper is not very effective. I think what would make it effective is to decrease the feelings of guilt that the readers experience, increase credibility with the audience (through writer-reader trust and more credible research), and add more logic to the arguments. The writer is so emotionally involved in this discussion that logic is lacking. I believe that logic would be the lynch pin in this case. If these mothers have already read up on the research and are emotionally connected to the argument, they will need logic to convince them that they need to change.
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