Christopher McDougall wrote his book Born to Run in order to entertain his audience as well as convey his argument in a joyful and persuasive way. Parts of his writing closely refect the ones described in the book They say/I say written by Gerald Graff. Here is a great example extracted form the heart of the book. McDougall uses a quote sandwich in order to clearly present Krakauer's opinion.
"Even Jon Krakauer, the adventure uberexpert and author of Into Thin Air,was impressed. "Rick Fisher can fairly lay claim to being the world's leading authority on the Mogollon canyons and the myriad secrets they contain," Krakauer concluded early in Fisher's career, after Fisher had led him to "an utterly spellbinding slice of earth, like no place I'd even seen"- A Willy Wonka world of lime-green pools and pink crystal towers and subterranean waterfalls."
Due to the use of the quote sandwich McDougall creates a fully organized introduction as well as explanation for the quote introduced by him. McDougall begins by introducing the author of his quote and building his credibility. Following the origins he proceeds to present the quote itself. Lastly McDougall explains the relevance of the quote used to support his argument. The introduction of such famous writer and his opinion on the newcomer truly increases McDougall's argument strength due to addition of strong Ethos to his arsenal of rhetorical devices described in my previous blog.
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