Cover Letter

The intended audience for this piece is for those who have read Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”, as well as those with immigrant parents who haven’t been able to fully grasp English. This was reflected by employing an admiring yet frank tone. Instead of beating around the bush, I give the context and detail of the evidence I use from the text, and then explain/analyze it. That way it is tailored well to both those who read it, as they can get a literal and figurative explanation, as well as those who haven’t, as they get contextual information necessary for my analysis to connect.

I learned a lot about how rhetorical devices can add so much to a piece of writing. Even if my writing may be intended for one thing, aspects of rhetoric can be used to strengthen my writing. I’ve also learned a fair amount from the thesis workshop we had in class. Crafting theses can often be difficult, however having the purpose of why to include a thesis and what a thesis should have improves the quality and speed of writing it.

The author’s background, purpose, argument, evidence, rhetoric, and rhetorical situation most impacted my learning and writing practices. Before, I initially thought an author’s background was completely unrelated to their writing pieces. Learning the background of an author assists in finding many more important aspects of their writing, like how Amy Tan’s mother was a Chinese immigrant and how Tan is a famous writer with multiple degrees in English and Linguistics. Without this information, I wouldn’t have seen her early utilization of ethos or the drastic difference between her mother’s English to her own.

This assignment has helped me achieve many of the Course Learning Outcomes (CLO). One of the first that comes to mind is recognizing “the role of language” in “empowering, oppressing, and hierarchizing” their users. Amy Tan’s essay is the use of language to both empower those who can use it fluently, like herself, to her mother who was oppressed and basically put in a lower hierarchy for her “broken English”. Another CLO achieved through this writing assignment was “[integrating] [my] stance with appropriate sources” using techniques such as “summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis and argumentation” because I was able to write about Tan’s argument, and construct my own argument based on that. I argued that her argument was about the language discrimination of fluent and non-fluent English. In doing peer reviews, and following the process of writing this piece, I also “develop strategies of reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing”. Each piece is different, thus looking back and revising helps sharpen the necessary skills to revise and edit better. This can also help eradicate mistakes while writing, thus shortening revising and editing time. Overall this writing assignment was a challenge to only include the most important evidence, however very open as there isn’t a cap to how many pages to include, thus not limiting my analysis of the evidence Tan uses.

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Rhetorical Analysis

Amy Tan is an American born author and daughter of Chinese immigrant parents. Having  experienced the positive side of America for speaking fluent English, as well as the negative side via America’s treatment of her mother, Tan writes the essay “Mother Tongue” to shed light on America’s discrimination against non fluent English speakers. Tan supports this assertion in her essay by establishing her credibility, appealing to our sense of justice and morals, and providing strong and relevant anecdotal evidence.

As an American born author with a B.A. double majoring in English and Linguistics, an M.A. in Linguistics as well as working as a language development specialist Tan’s credibility in the field of language shouldn’t be undermined. However she chooses to humble her own achievements, considering herself “not a scholar of English or literature”, despite her degrees telling otherwise. This may come to a surprise, but the humbling of herself to an audience assists in her credibility, or ethos. By neglecting to mention that she has those degrees, the approach she takes to persuade the reader becomes more passive and open to discussion. Had she presented the facts about her B.A. and M.A. in English and Linguistics, it would’ve been more of an aggressive and relentless essay, a challenge to those who question her knowledge in the field of linguistics as well as an underlying ‘I know more about this than you, which is why you should follow my rationale’ tone.

After humbling herself to her audience, Tan flows into how she began seeing the issues of language and the power of language. As a writer, Tan has to constantly think about the use of language to convey an idea, to such an extent that she is more aware of “the power of language” than the average Joe. Since she felt that the quality of English used determined the power of the language, she used to believe that “[her] mother’s imperfect English” implied that “her thoughts were imperfect” as well. This conjecture is especially impactful in appealing to an audience’s emotions as the societal influence on young Tan’s thoughts turned her against her own mom, “[she] was ashamed of her [mother’s] English”. This instance also introduces the idea that our blind faith to societal norms allow it to grow and enables misinformation and unjust bias to occur, directly leading to Tan’s argument of America’s discrimination over accents that don’t fall under acceptable and professional English.

Tan also utilizes relevant anecdotes to convey her argument through the scope of a Chinese immigrant, her mother, as well as her own. An experience that she remembered which illustrated the duality of America was when her mother told her to translate her frustrations to a stockbroker about not receiving a check from the small portfolio that she cashed out. As her mother whispered loudly to her ear “Why he dont send me check, already to weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money.”, she chooses to respond, “Yes, I’m getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.”. A much more passive response which doesn’t carry her mother’s emotions or intentions as clearly. Tan includes this dialogue to show that even without the sophistication and grammatical correctness of the sentence, her mother’s sentence was still articulate enough to show emotions as well as reveal intention. It also reveals a complacency in American-born children to their American immigrant parents. The result was Tan and her mother not getting what they sought out to get and needing to go there as threatened. Another reason Tan included this anecdote was to play towards her strengths of storytelling. Tan is a prominent story teller, known for “The Joy Luck Club”, so including anecdotes both keep the reader engaged as well as visualize the experience as she tells them.

Tan’s second anecdote was a “similar routine” to the one before. Her mother went to the hospital for a CAT scan of a “benign brain tumor”. As her mother got there to see the CAT scan papers, they said they had lost it and “[wouldn’t] give her any more information”. This reveals the discriminatory side of society towards those who don’t speak fluent English. Just because her mother seemed to not speak perfect English, they brushed her off and didn’t take her demands seriously. At the same time, this also plays towards the audience’s emotions, pathos, since her mother is being denied a vital service for the simple fact that she might not fully understand English. On the other hand, when Tan went to her mother’s side to translate, there were “assurances the CAT scan would be found” and “apologies for any suffering” caused by “a most regrettable mistake”. Once again this is a Tan explaining how her English abilities were an integral part of getting what they needed. Again also appealing to pathos, as only with a translator could a non-fluent English speaker get what they wanted. This was especially powerful as some could relate to this story; my mother would sometimes get scammed at fast food restaurants for messing up her order and leaving whole meals out of a bag. Had there been someone there who could speak/read English, her order would’ve been fixed and the service that was paid for be fulfilled completely. The parallels that readers are able to draw to Tan’s anecdotes further strengthen her argument as discrimination can often be buried by memories, hidden from plain sight, and so having a relatable scenario of that discrimination could bring forth forgotten memories.

Tan’s meticulous approach to her story aids in enticing the readers to join her side of the argument and adds relatability to her story. In addition, Tan employs multiple anecdotes throughout the essay, each serving to convey the same message: those who don’t speak with fluent English suffer society’s language discrimination. The anecdotes range from others’ dissent and ignorant attitude towards her mother’s accent, to even her own embarrassment of her mother. Anecdotes provided by Tan serve to illustrate the point she tries to make, as well as establishes credibility and emotional appeal, or pathos. These all combine to create a powerful argument about America’s language discrimination that can’t be denied after reading “Mother Tongue”.