Columnist Essay

Linda Chavez is a prominent Hispanic-American conservative Political Columnist. She has written many political columns over the years, using her personal experiences and political expertise to develop a rapport with her readers. Ms. Chavez utilizes several sound writing techniques to engage the reader. She employs factual evidence, appeals to logic and appeals to emotion.

In many of Ms. Chavez’s columns, she exploits useful evidence to help us understand the point she is trying to get across. In the article entitled Higher Education is Lowering Itself to Discrimination, she uses statistics to provide the reader with tangible evidence. For example she states, “The odds favoring black undergraduate admittees over whites with the same SAT scores in 2005 were 70 to 1, and 46 to 1 for Hispanics.” Sharing this statistic with the reader allows her to capture their attention and prove her point. In her article, Hypocrisy Has No Party Label, she uses historical data to assert past indiscretions when she writes, “In 1983, when Democrats controlled Congress, two congressmen, a republican and a democrat, admitted to having sexual relations with pages.” Because of this historical fact, the email scandal involving Foley is put into better perspective. Ms. Chavez’s use of evidence gives her articles substance and believability.

Ms. Chavez appeals to the emotion of her readers by targeting specific sentiments to elicit a particular response to her articles. In her column named Flying Naked, she states, “Being deprived of the ability to touch up my lipstick and blush feels like being forced to go out in public half-naked.” This exaggerated visual is a good example of an appeal to the emotion, because she forces the reader to use their imagination and experience her worst fear.

Logic