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Kunal Goyal1

Kunal GoyalAleksandra KasztalskaENGL 106i19 April 2014Rhetorical Analysis Draft 2

Gillian Goodmans article A Girl Who Codes attempts to spread awareness of importance of Computer Science among girls. The author condemns the less involvement of women in the growing field of Computer Science and advocates that women should also start coding instead of inclining towards streams that dont pay well. In the beginning of the article, she introduces Nikita Rau who started XX Hackers, a high club for girls interested in learning Computer Science. Then, gradually Goodman expresses her dissatisfaction with the performance of women in Computer Science industry. She talks about various factors about this situation and steps that are being taken to improve it. She tries to convince women to join Computer Science industry because of its immense growth potential and promote more initiatives like Girls Who Code throughout the country.The author is simply trying to convince her readers especially young girls to not see Computer Science as a hard subject and that the field had great scope for all of them. Due to her firm belief that girls should start coding, she uses convincing and adamant words like should and can more often. For Example, she writes, anyone can(160), can prove(160), should really(138), should learn to code(160) and should push(160). There is also a tone of playfulness in the article as the author uses phrases like I shouldnt be afraid(160) and sounded right to me(160) throughout the article.To begin to analyze the argument being made here, one must first understand the authors background. This is important in developing ethos, and establishing the authors credibility. Gillian Goodman is a self-employed writing and editing consultant to various magazines and journals. She has done her graduation in Psychology, which helps her in interviewing people and getting to know the facts. In her article A Girl Who Codes, she uses ethos very effectively by introducing every person she interviews in great detail like Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code,(137) and Saujani is in the middle of an (eventually unsuccessful) campaign for New York's high-level public advocate position(137). Throughout the article, Goodman uses various facts and statistics to support her arguments. She uses facts to share the factors responsible for low interest in Computer Science of girls and to convince girls that CS industry will prove to become the largest employer in future years. For Example, In 36 states, computer science counts only as an elective credit, not a math or a science, generating more than 2 million views in the 24 hours and the average computer programmer (of any race or gender) earned $1,218 a week; software engineers earned $1,549, placing them among the highest-paid professionals in the country. There were 429,000 computer programmers employed in the U.S., but only 96,000 were women. Almost 2.4 million men and 807,000 women worked in computer-related fields, a ratio of around 3 to 1.The author uses rhetorical strategies in her article to keep it interesting like similes, metaphors, etc. She compares Computer Science to a combination of science and liberal arts subjects as she explains Computer science as "like a creative mix".

BibliographyGoodman, G. (2013). A Girl Who Codes Fast Company magazine. pp. 137-138,160.