Maria Avalos
Tanvi Patel
Writing 10 -30D
February 6, 2013
Amy Tan’s successful strategies
Writing a paper that has meaning and conveys the message in a persuasive way requires
technique. There are different techniques that allow writer to get the readers to understand their
point of views. If the writer can’t convey their message then their main idea will not be strong
enough to get the readers thinking. There are many strategies that writers use, take a look at
“Mother Tongue”, an essay by Amy Tan an American writer born to immigrant parents from
China, writes this essay after exploring the different forms of English she utilizes in her life. Her
mother plays a crucial role in her becoming aware of the power language gives an individual and
differences in the language she uses in aspects of her life. The language that Amy Tan talks
about is English and that her form of English’s differs from that of her mothers, her mother
speaks a less traditional English to those who have spent their lives speaking it, some may
describe it as limited. Amy Tan wants the reader to understand the importance and power of
language and people should be more aware of the different types on “Englishes” that are in
current American society not only should they be aware but accepting of it. Without the
rhetorical techniques Amy Tan would have not been able to get this point across to the readers.
Amy Tan uses a mixture of techniques to convey here point to the audience, to those who still
don’t understand the roles of the “different Englishes” others have. These strategies are
emotional appeal that she achieves by sharing personal stories that inspire feelings to the
audience. She gives evidence that supports here realization, convincing her audience by the use
of logic or reason. Amy Tan also uses a conversation technique to makes herself more relatable.
These techniques that are key components to understanding the claim that Amy Tan is making,
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these techniques can be categorized in rhetorical strategies such as pathos, logos and ethos, in
using these rhetorical strategies well; Amy Tan makes her essay “Mother Tongue” a successful
essay capable of persuasion.
Every claim needs evidence; this s the most common way the writer gets their point
across. Amy Tan’s essay has several personal stories of her and her mom integrated with in it as
evidence to her claim. With real life examples Tan is able to get her point across, this rhetorical
strategy is Logos. Amy Tan uses this rhetorical strategy to help the reader understand that the
certain language that is used in everyday situations such as talking to the doctor or a broker is
important and powerful. It determines the power an individual has, because others will measure
an individual’s intelligence by measuring the capability to speak the language. To show this she
uses logos to describe the difference between her mother’s English and others. She shows that
the power of her mother’s English was not as great as those who spoke it so fluently; therefore
she was treated with less respect and value. Amy Tan described her mother’s English as
“broken” but felt as if broken wasn’t the right way of describing her mother’s English, we see
this in her next line where she “winces” every time she calls her mom’s English broken (Tan
764). When Tan completely quotes her mother talking about herself when she was younger, she
does this to give us a sense of the English her mother uses. Her mother’s English is a water down
version than the one that she personally uses when she gives a lengthy speech or talking to her
friends. Amy Tan is describing a new English one that others may call broken, but to her it’s her
mother’s language that she understands to be vivid and full of observations. She does this to
convince the reader through Logos, or appealing to logic by stating evidence and logical
reasoning to back up her claim that there are other forms of English’s. She then formulates a
claim that is backed up by her reasoning which is she doesn’t think broken and limited describe
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her mother’s English, she is trying to convey that it’s not a wrong way of English’s it’s her
mother’s way which others can’t understand as being whole because they are not familiar with,
she does this using valuable pieces of evidence to support her claim.
Tan does not only use logos to show her mothers English is different but also that it is
still is powerful and has meaning. She states that her “mother’s expressive commands of English
belies how much she actually understands” (Tan 764). Amy Tan explains the way her mother is
able to read and understand Maclaine’s books, something that she is not capable of doing yet she
can speak conventional English that everyone so admires. Tan tries to convey the way society
renders peoples powerless due to the way they speak a language without even giving them a
chance. She states that the test they give in school could never capture her mother’s ability, due
to their one sided view of what language was. She began to write her books to capture her
mother’s “intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her
thoughts” as she described it, she wrote her books for a certain audience, which would be her
mother (Tan 768). She used all the Englishes she grew up with which many others would call
water down, limited or broken. Knowing that the author’s success is on writing books that
include limited English really gets the reader to think about the power of these different
Englishes. These Englishes helped her write a successful New York best seller book known as
the Joy Luck Club. She talks about using these Englishes in her book to state that even though
she used limited and broken English as inspiration she was able to come up with a New York
best seller that has been translated in many different languages. With her including that her
mother’s limited English inspired her to write books and the knowledge of the reader that she has
a new York best seller gives perfect evidence that these different Englishes do not measure the
capability of a person and thus society should be more accepting to them.
Tan uses logos here
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to prove that her success included her mothers different English, which others called water down,
she incorporated the English her mother used into her books. She use this reasoning to support
her claim that the English her mother spoke was able to produce successful books, giving a sense
of importance to her mothers form of English, that others failed to see.
Amy Tan does not only include personal stories to give us sense of the different
Englishes but also for the reader to understand that language is critical to the way society
perceives and treats that person. She uses emotional appeal to persuade people to try
understanding the different Englishes and the way they affect people in a negative way, because
they are treated unfairly. This technique is better known as pathos. There is an instance where
Amy Tan gives an example of the way her mother was treated because of the way she spoke
English, it was when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and the hospital told her that they
had lost her CAT scan results. Amy Tan’s mother knew that she could not do more about it,
because she knew that they saw her English as being limited she knew this by her past
experience with the stockbroker. This example shows that her mother’s limited English limited
the response of others towards her, also limited her possibilities. Her mother was ignored in a
time where she needed reassurance, which draws out compassion in the reader, also opens up a
gap of understanding for the reader to understand others that do not speak the same English as
they do. In this instant Amy Tan was using Pathos she was appealing to emotion, and it was a
way of convincing the audience of an argument by creating an emotional response. Getting the
readers emotions involved when trying to persuade them to believe a certain point is important
because when these emotions are evoked strongly people become more passionate or willing to
understand where the other person is coming from, making an argument easier to convey.
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Tan also uses the Rhetorical strategy ethos; she does this by using a conversation feel to
make the reader feel as if she was talking to them personally. A way that she does this is by
speaking in first person. When she refers to herself as “I” in the essay she gives a vivid picture of
who the story is about. She also achieves the conversation feel by addressing the reader
personally in certain occasions. An example is when she says, “So you'll have some idea of what
this family talk I heard sounds like.” (Tan 763). Amy Tan directly address the reader to capture
their attention and engage them in her claim that there are different forms of Englishes. She does
this from the beginning of her essay, specifically the second line where she addresses the reader
personally. This is important for Amy Tan because by doing this she has the reader’s attention
and makes it to where the reader is interested; the reader isn’t just reading an article about being
more accepting to those that speak different English, but having a conversation about it. This
why the conversational feel benefits Tan because she is able to have more influence and
persuade the readers into considering what she has to say.
In “Mother Tongue” Amy Tan uses different rhetorical strategies to persuade the reader
to believing that there are different Englishes and that people should be aware of them and their
power, to better understand those that do not speak the same English as they do. She uses Logos,
Pathos, and Ethos to do so; she does this very well by giving evidence, having emotional appeal
and makes herself relatable. She was able to use her personal examples to draw out emotion
within the reader, which is an important strategy when trying to persuade a certain stance on
someone else. She was able to give evidence to her claim by stating specific instances creating a
sense of reasoning and logic to her claim. This was a smart move by Amy Tan because when
persuading a reader or an audience it is always in their favor if they have concrete examples as
evidence to back of the claim. Amy Tan also makes herself relatable and captures the reader’s
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attention by addressing them personally and speaking in first person. With these tools she was
able to get her point across and capture the attention of the reader to consider her point, which in
turn make her essay a successful one.