Exemplification in Article “Time to Stop Hooking Up” by Donna Freitas

In the article “Time to Stop Hooking Up” by Donna Freitas, the “hooking up phase” is something Freitas describes in her writing, and feels should change for the sake of relationship as the timeline on earth moves along. Freitas uses many strategies in her writing. Her use of the rhetorical strategies “exemplification” and “flashback”, and the persuasive appeal “ethos” help to elaborate and establish her connection to reader’s emotions which helps her portray her point even more.

In this article, Freitas uses many rhetorical strategies, with the first being flashback.

Flashback is an event or a memory that reflects back on an earlier time. She starts by describing a night that she shared with friends in her freshman year of college. Freitas reflected on the memory by saying 'I remember that night fondly, even though my feminist sensibilities cringe a little now. For me, that costume was a form of sexual experimentation” (Freitas 1). She uses flashback at the beginning of the article as a way to relate to the subject, and to attract the attention of the audience, which is very effective in persuading readers.

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Flashback is a good way to keep readers interested, another good strategy to use us exemplification.

Next, Donna Freitas uses exemplification by adding in survey answer statistics. Using results of a survey helps relate to readers by quantifying a group of people’s responses. Her quote, 'Of students who reported hooking up, 41 percent used words such as “regretful,” “empty,” “miserable,” “disgusted,” “ashamed,” “duped” and even “abused” to describe the experience.

An additional 23 percent expressed ambivalence, and the remaining 36 percent said they were more or less “fine” with hookups' (Freitas 2), really exemplifies the use of this rhetorical strategy to persuade the readers by establishing a point, and then using facts to support her. Exemplification is a wonderful rhetorical strategy, however, the next persuasive appeal, which is ethos, is the most effective strategy that she used in the article.

Lastly, Freitas uses the persuasive appeal ethos to demonstrate her knowledge and credibility on the subject. The use of ethos gives the audience a sense of a physical, as well as, an emotional presentation, which then aids the readers to respect the author. Once respect is established, the readers adjust to the tone, and see the argument from the authors point of view, further persuading them. 'I’ve spent the past eight years investigating hookup culture and talking with students, faculty members and college administrators about it. I thought I would find that the vast majority of students revel in it, but instead I encountered a large percentage who feel confined by it or ambivalent about' (Freitas 1). This quote shows how Freitas is effectively persuading the audience to build trust in her by showing how educated she is on the subject.