TOW # 15 "I'll have what she's having" (essay)

“I’ll have what she’s having,” was published in Self Magazine and written by Erin Bried. Bried is the author of previous popular essays such as: How to Sew a Button: And Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew, How to Build a Fire: And Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew, and more. In this piece Bried writes a “how to” essay on eating with others. In her article Bried investigates eating patterns people have when dining with friends or co-workers. Through the use of personal diction and expert testimony, Bried is able to help her audience learn new techniques to maintain their healthy eating without devolving into peer pressure.  

In the beginning of this article, Bried uses personal diction to help connect with her Self Magazine readers. Instead of using words like “you” and “theirs” she uses words like “we” and “our.” This is very important for the essay in many relations. First, it gives Bried less of an accusatory tone; meaning she is not insulting her audience, because she is including herself as someone who falls to peer pressure when eating sometimes. This helps Bried appeal to ethos, allowing her to have creditability not only to write this essay but also for her readers to accept her ideas. Also, since this essay is a “how to” Bried offers up situations where her solutions will be helpful, and in these parts of the article she cannot write with words like “we” and “our.” Without, the use of personal diction in the beginning of the essay the audience would have less of an opportunity to accept her solutions.

Expert testimony is used in every “how to handle it” portion of the essay. In the section, “Your friend says, ‘Fries for everyone,’” Bried examines how a person reacts when a friend orders a basket of fries for the whole table, but they do not want to eat them. In order to make her audience accept her solution of recognizing the peer pressure and listening to “your body’s cues,” Bried turns to expert Dr. Dana Udall-Weiner, who is a psychologist and founder of ED Educate. By quoting Dr. Udall-Weiner, Bried is putting both logic and creditability to her solution, appealing to both ethos and logos.

I believe Bried effectively educates on techniques that can allow her readers to eat well and free of peer pressure. Through her use of personal diction and expert testimony, Bried was able to connect and inform to the readers of Self Magazine.