Running Head: “Blue-Collar Brilliance” and “Shop Class as Soulcraft” 1

“Blue-Collar Brilliance” and “Shop Class as Soulcraft” Rhetorical Analysis

Rylee Kener

Salt Lake Community College

“Blue-Collar Brilliance” and “Shop Class as Soulcraft” Rhetorical Analysis

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Blue-collar jobs are starting to lose their value in today’s modern society and the

outlook on craftsmen has become negative by white-collar workers. Authors Mike Rose

and Matthew B. Crawford have shared personal stories that tie into this unusual trend.

In “Blue-Collar Brilliance”, Mike Rose refutes the idea that blue-collar work requires little

to no intelligence and gives examples showing the type of thinking these workers do as

a part of their job. Matthew B. Crawford’s, “Shop Class as Soulcraft” focuses on why

working a trade is still a feasible and fulfilling career, in spite of the idea towards manual

labor. Crawford writes his article to specifically draw the attention of educators who are

discouraging students from going into blue-collar work. Both Rose and Crawford preach

to an audience who is not familiar with blue-collar work. Even though the audiences are

the same, Rose’s diction is accessible to anyone, while Crawford’s is more directed

towards an educated audience. Both authors use personal stories and claims of fact to

explain the worth of manual labor.

Both authors use storytelling to bring their audience in and make their articles

more interesting and personal. Crawford uses storytelling as a secondary strategy to

give the reader personal experiences to project his thoughts. He says, “ I began working

as an electrician’s helper at age fourteen, and started a small electrical contracting

business after college, in Santa Barbara. In those years I never ceased to take pleasure

in the moment, at the end of a job, when I would flip the switch. “And there was light.” It

was an experience of agency and competence.” By using this example, Crawford gives

his readers a better understanding to his thinking. Later on in the essay, he gives an

example of him working in a motorcycle repair shop in an approximate way. He shows

how he used his own knowledge and instinct when working with the bikes. He
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elucidates his point when he says, “What is required then is the kind of judgment that

arises only from experience; hunches rather than rules. There was more thinking going

on in the bike shop than in the think tank.” Crawford may have not focused on his

personal stories, but he used them in a way that proved their purpose well.

Rose’s arrangement of ideas and organization in his paper really make it easy for

the reader to follow. “Blue-Collar Brilliance” was published in 2009, he introduces the

reader into his personal life and shows how growing up in a blue-collar family affected

him as a child. He starts off his article, “My mother Rosie, shaped her adult identity as a

waitress in coffee shops and family restaurants. When I was growing up in Los Angeles

during the 1950s, my father and I would occasionally hang out at the restaurant until her

shift ended, and then we’d ride the bus home with her.” Rose moves on to talk about

going through high school, and eventually going through Graduate school. He moves on

to being a little older, and introduces his Uncle Joe, who was a shop floor supervisor for

General Motors. “When I was a young man Joe took me on a tour of the factory.” Rose

ends with something a little more recent, “Eight years ago I began a study of the thought

processes involved in work life that of my mother and uncle.” Walking through different

times in Rose’s life really makes the reader feel like Rose is relatable, he makes his

story telling more personal, by including himself in the story.

Unlike Rose, Crawford uses claims of fact and value to draw the reader. Claims

of fact and value is where Rose lacks the most. Rose’s essay is weakened when he

writes, “Although writers and scholars have often looked at the working class, they have

generally focused on the values such workers exhibit rather on the thought their work

requires- a subtle but pervasive omission.” This is because the claim of fact suggests
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that he wants the reader to notice the mental work of blue-collar workers, but to the

audience it may appear to be useless to focus on. For an example of claims of fact in

“Shop Class as Soulcraft”, Crawford writes “And in fact, in areas of well-developed craft,

technological developments typically preceded and gave rise to advances in scientific

understanding, not vice versa.” Crawford uses this fact to show the trend, but also to

underline the significance of craft in the development of science. It acts as a

contradiction to an argument that craft is futile in the progress of science. This could

draw a certain audience that is interested in science. Crawford also explains how him

and many others like him in a blue-collar job value their work. He says, “The

satisfactions of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence

have been known to make a man quiet and easy. They seem to relieve him of the felt

need to offer chattering interpretations of himself to vindicate his worth.” Through this

claim of value, Crawford shares that a reward is granted after his work of craftsmanship

is done. This shows the audience why craftsmans do what they do, and why the reader

might want to consider trying a trade job. He uses these types of claims to show a

positive and effective message to the reader.

In conclusion, Crawford’s essay ends together in a well built manner, while

Rose’s begins to fall apart. Rose’s biggest fault was his inexperienced claims of fact that

had nothing to provide for the his essay. Rose also relied laboriously on his personal

stories, while Crawford’s short examples show similar value. In the end, comparing the

storytelling and the claims of fact that each author used, it is apparent that “Blue-Collar

Brilliance” is not as immense as “Shop Class as Soulcraft”.

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References

Crawford, M.B. (2009, Summer). Shop class as soulcraft, The New Atlantis. Retrieved

from https://theamericanscholar.org/blue-collar-brilliance/

Rose, M. (2009, June 1). Blue-collar brilliance, The American Scholar. Retrieved from

https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/shop-class-as-soulcraft
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