Stegemann’s article Learning Disabilities in Canada
Stegemann’s article Learning Disabilities in Canada uses various strategies to communicate to the audience. The evidence, structure, reasoning, and rhetoric strategies used by Stegemann plays a significant role in how the audience will interact and understand the argument. The essay aims at critically analyzing these devices and how they have played a part in the audience’s understanding of the argument.
Evidence and Credibility
The author uses evidence to support his thesis, and this ensures the credibility of the essay. The essay begins with a description of what Learning Disabilities means in a Canadian context and then provides a historical analysis of it. The history highlights how the concept was brought into light by psychiatrist Edward Levinson. Through his efforts, interventions were made which included the creation of Montreal Children’s Hospital Learning Center in 1960. Additionally, the author outlines the creation of other bodies like the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada and chapters created in Canada to address the issue. Through this, the article gains ground and gives the reader an assurance that the author knows what he is talking about.
Logos and Supporting Arguments
Additionally, the author uses logos to present the arguments. Stegemann uses statistics, facts, literal and historical analogies while citing different authors to support his arguments. For example, he states “Within the province of Alberta, 8.6% of children 6 to 15 years of age were reported by parents to have emotional, psychological, or nervous difficulties (as diagnosed by a health professional), vs. 1.0% in the nondisabled population (Learning Disabilities Association of Canada, 2007)”. The citations and evidence used are from reliable sources which make the argument on the topic powerful and trustworthy. Therefore, the rhetorical strategy used by the author serves as an effective tool in convincing the audience about the argument. Additionally, an argument that is supported by evidence and facts from other sources indicates that the author knows what he is talking about.
Structure and Reasoning in the Argument
The structure used in the argument has its strengths and weaknesses. The strengths include the fact that the audience can follow his arguments from one point to another. Evidently, the author uses a huge amount of research to make his arguments, and the research has been outlined and indicated through headings and subheadings. The structure makes the essays readable and leads the audience from one point to another. Additionally, the author uses clear reasoning and incorporates everything that involves learning disabilities. Almost every question that can be asked by the reader about the topic has been answered in his argument. For example, the author has greatly incorporated ideas systematically by gradually providing the steps that are being implemented towards solving the Learning Disabilities problems. The author started by giving a brief introduction of what Learning Disabilities is and when it was first discovered in Canada, then the author gave the history and the current use of the term Learning Disabilities by incorporating current theories, this positively takes the reader through the process slowly for greater understanding.
Weaknesses in Structure and Reasoning
Nonetheless, there are weaknesses involved with structure and reasoning. One of the weaknesses is the choice of words. Some of the sentences cannot be effectively followed by the audience, and they have to re-read the sentences multiple times to find its meaning. For example, “While this allows each jurisdiction to create policies that reflect the unique multicultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic conditions of its area (Wiener & Siegel, 1992), it has led to a less consolidated vision of the meaning of learning disabilities (Klassen, 2002)”. The sentence makes a lot of sense but after reading it more than once. The attention of the audience is, therefore, diverted easily, making the essay ineffective.
