1. Chapter 5 By: Deanna Stone, Caroline Galliani, Elizabeth Hancuch, Elizabeth Walztoni and Maggie McNaughton

2. Thesis: It is difficult to prove a causal relationship between two seemingly correlated things correlation: “nothing more than a statistical term that indicates whether two variables move together” (Levitt 148).

3. Invention The authors of Freakonomics almost always back up their claims with facts, ideas, or overall credibility Here are some examples of how the authors back up their claims Also, the authors try to “cover their tracks” and respond to possible counter- arguments

4. Invention Pg. 135-136 The authors use cold-hard facts to justify their claim that a swimming pool is more dangerous than a gun Pg. 142-143 The authors explain their credibility for writing about parenting because they ARE parents themselves. Pg. 146 In this example, the authors use an educational essay to back up their claims about “black backlash against ‘acting white’”

5. Invention The authors adequately justify their claims because of their use of facts and credibility. Without these two things, their claims would be empty words.

6. Invention The authors also anticipate counter-arguments by introducing them as facts at the beginning of passages, then disproving them through the course of the argument. For example, Molly's parents choose to let her play at the house with the pool rather than the house with the gun, and the authors say that they "feel good about having made such a smart choice to protect their daughter." In the very next sentence, however, the authors begin dismantling this idea: "But according to the data, their choice isn't very smart at all" (135). This structure mirrors the book's overall method of presenting an idea and then revealing the truth behind it.

7. Invention More examples of counter-argument prevention are: Pg. 140 Here the authors account for the fact that a study showed how sometimes nurture and nature are not the only causes for a child’s personality. The whole section where the authors explained the different aspects in the ECLS project is consistently responding to possible reactions.

8. Arrangement When Levitt is trying to make a point, he typically begins with an assumption or counter argument, then builds off of it backwards. By taking an idea most readers would jump to first followed by facts on why it is a misconception, the argument seems more sensible. “Consider the parents of an eight-year-old girl named, say, Molly. Her two best friends, Amy and Imani, each live nearby. Molly’s parents know that Amy’s parents keep a gun in their house, so they have forbidden Molly to play there. Instead, Molly spends a lot of time at Imani’s house, which has a swimming pool in the backyard. Molly’s parents feel good about having made such a smart choice to protect their daughter”(Levitt 135).

9. Arrangement: Patterns of Development Compare & Contrast: Varying outlooks on parenting techniques allow author to compare and contrast each, concluding with facts that show which of several examples have positive and negative correlation. ie: which factor in one’s childhood impacts their test scores (p. 153 & 154) Description: Author describes the connection (or lack of connection) between personality traits of a child and their parent, concluding that parents play less of a role than they think in the personality a child develops.

10. Tone  Questioning and Matter-of-Fact Questioning  “what are the factors that do and do not affect a child’s performance in the early school years?” (Levitt 147).  “So why is a swimming pool less frightening than a gun?” (Levitt 138).  “It might first help to ask a more basic question: what, exactly, are we afraid of?” (Levitt 136).

11. Tone part 2 Matter-of-Fact  “No one is more susceptible to an expert’s fearmongering than a parent” (Levitt 135).  “But fear best thrives in the present tense” (Levitt 137).  “Clearly, bad parenting means a great deal” (Levitt 139).

12. How do diction and syntax contribute to the tone?  Levitt used denotation: the exact, literal definition of a word independent of any emotional association or secondary meaning.  Example of denotation: 1. “It is a powerful-if limited- tool that uses statistical techniques to identify otherwise elusive correlations” (Levitt 147). 2. “X can cause Y;Y can cause X; or it may be that some other factor is causing both X and Y” (Levitt 149). Levitt’s use of denotation lends to his matter-of-fact tone because he gets straight to the point.

13. How do diction and syntax contribute to the tone ? part 2 Levitt combines a mix of declarative and interrogative sentences in chapter 5. interrogative sentences:  “Why does this happen?” (Levitt 150).  “what was the point of all those Mommy and Me classes?” (Levitt 155). Levitt’s use of interrogative sentences contributes to the questioning tone.

14. How do diction and syntax contribute to the tone ? part 3 Declarative Sentences:  “A child with English-speaking parents does better in school than one whose parents don’t speak English” (Levitt 156).  “As also seen in the ECLS data, adopted children test relatively poorly in school; any influence the adoptive parents might exert is seemingly outweighed by the force of genetics” (Levitt 162). Levitt’s use of declarative sentences contribute to his matter-of-fact tone.

15. How do diction and syntax contribute to the overall theme? The diction and sentence structure do contribute and support the authors’ thesis in this chapter. Sentence Structure (Syntax) One example where sentence structure supports the author’s thesis starts on page 166. The authors use exemplification in this section by listing factors that have a strong correlation -positive or negative- with a child’s test scores and factors that do not. The authors then pair two seemingly related factors together and explain why one matters and the doesn’t even if the factors correlate with one another. “Matters: The child has highly educated parents. Doesn’t: The child’s family is intact.”. Diction The diction of the chapter contributes to the theme by using clear, factual statements that allow the authors to prove and disprove relationships between two correlated things.

16. Discussion Questions 1. Do you think that the authors' method of addressing counter-arguments is effective? Why and how? -How would you have structured this element differently? 2. Did the authors make a good choice in tone? Why/how? What rhetorical elements contribute to the tone the most? Why/how? 3. Although the subject matter of chapter 5 was based around parenting, do you think that the audience was meant to be parents only? Why?