The rhetoric of the Text (The Author)
The article is written by Robert A. Miller, a Professor of Law and Management and a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching award. A footnote states that the author’s main research area is business ethics, entrepreneurship, and law. Miller has also written at least one article on lifesizing entrepreneurship before. The text shows that the author supports the idea of lifesizing in business because it is more ethical and can be more profitable in the long run. He clearly states his position and supports it with careful examination of Pope, Drucker, and Lonergan’s works. Overall, the author seems reliable based on his credentials and the fact that he has researched the topic previously and continues to explore it in the article in question.
The rhetoric of the Text (The Text)
The article’s main aim is to show why lifesizing in business is essential and how it can be used to counteract the decline in ethics and lead to more people benefiting from the industry. The arguments made by the author are reasonable and are based on the previous body of research and examples from the business world. The evidence provided in the text is sound and supports the offered arguments. However, it would benefit from more detailed illustrations, specifically, of businesses successfully countering the decline in ethics without losing profit. Overall, the article’s tone is quite serious, although some emotional language can be seen, for example, in the section on the role of business in society. However, metaphors and emotive language used by the author do not seem inappropriate.
The rhetoric of the Text (The Audience)
The author aims his article at business students, people interested in starting a business, and entrepreneurs. The audience is presented with possible biases business can develop over time and is shown why it is crucial to avoid individual, group, general, and dramatic biases. The author is quite persuasive as he provides a clear explanation of how biases and decline in ethics in business can lead to internal problems. However, the article would be more convincing if Miller explained the concept of lifesizing and its benefits for different business ventures and people involved in them in more detail. Although the text’s structure is very logical, it would persuade more readers if more was written on lifesizing.
Work Cited
Miller, Robert A. “Lifesizing Entrepreneurship: Lonergan, Bias and The Role of Business in Society.” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 58, no. 1–3, 2005, pp. 219–25. Crossref, Web.