Rhetorical Analysis Draft

Ryan Hammer
Lindsay Ferrara
Intro to Rhetoric and Composition
1 April 2024
Rhetorical Analysis of A practical way to help the homeless find work and safety
“This is not working, there has to be a better way. Can we find a better way to solve this
problem?”
When the proposed solution is not working as intended, the idea of “the better way” is
always used and starts the conversation of how to fix the problem. On July 17, 2015, Richard J.
Berry found his solution after seeing a homeless man with a sign saying, “Want a job. Anything
helps.” He decided he would take that man up on his offer, and hundreds and thousands more
like him. Richard J. Berry was the mayor of Albuquerque from 2009-2017, where he
implemented the program There’s a Better Way. In his A practical way to help the homeless find
work and safety Ted Talk, he details the creation, effectiveness, and implementation of his
programs to help the homeless. Berry successfully conveys his message through the use of
rhetorical appeals like ethos, pathos, and logos, as well as an appropriate style and tone to
convince the audience of his “Better way.”
Berry’s Ted Talk focuses on the program, explaining its origin, how it works, and its
effectiveness. The There’s a Better Way program was started from Berry seeing a homeless man
with a sign asking for a job. Berry decided to do just that. He realized the current methods of
combating poverty were not working and he created the program. Essentially, the program finds
homeless people, picks them up in a van, takes them to a job site where they clean up trash,
weeds, and litter, and feeds them for lunch. After the work day is over, they receive their $9 per
hour wages and are dropped off at places with counseling and food services. After describing the
program Berry goes on to detail the effectiveness of There’s a Better Way and uses statistics and
data to back up his claims he made.
One of the reasons Berry’s speech is so successful is his ability to be personable to the
audience using pathos. When listening to the talk, the audience feels that they are being spoken
to directly. At the very beginning of the talk, Berry asks the audience to raise their hands if they
had ever seen someone holding a sign asking for a job on a street corner, showing the prevalence
of the homelessness problem but also making the audience feel valued. Berry also speaks
extremely empathetically of and uses the word “we.” When describing giving to charity, he uses
the word “we,” rather than saying “I am wired to be kind and compassionate,” he says “We're all
wired to be kind and compassionate.” The simple action of using “we” over “I” creates a sense of
community in the audience as Americans.
Berry again uses pathos when he speaks extremely highly of his van driver Will and the
St. Martin's Hospitality Center who help him accomplish his goal of helping find homeless and
get them working quickly. He says Will is a “super-fantastic human being” and that he could not
make this program work without the people who put their all into their jobs. Additionally, Berry
uses humor to lighten the mood and increase his likeability with the audience several times.
When addressing the magnitude of the problem he poses two questions, “If you're going to have
an initiative like this in your city, you have to ask yourself two questions. First one is: Is there
anything left to do in your city? And if the answer is no, would you please give me your mayor's
phone number, because I need some advice.” Berry slips in this unforeseen joke and receives
laughs from the audience gaining their trust.

When discussing the effectiveness of the program, Berry is able to use facts and statistics
to prove his claims as a form of logos. The first statistic he uses is the impact of the program and
how it helps the community. Berry states, “So far, with the pilot program and a couple days a
week, and a fantastic human being and a Dodge van, we've cleaned up 400 city blocks in the city
of Albuquerque. We've picked up over 117,000 pounds of trash, weeds and litter.” The program
was only in its pilot stages and was helping clean up the city and benefit the community. Berry
also describes how the program itself has been able to reduce the amount of homeless people
dramatically and make Albuquerque one leader in the US for their small homeless population.
The program in combination with others helped reduce homelessness in Albuquerque by 80%
from 2016-2017. After getting the audience to trust him and creating a good atmosphere, Berry
provides them with direct facts to back up his claims and thesis.
Throughout the entire talk, Berry shows his credibility, knowledge, and care of the crisis
as a form of ethos. Anyone listening to the talk can understand Berry has been deeply involved
with There’s a Better Way. In the presentation, he presents a picture of him interviewing a
homeless man, trying to improve the program and learn what can be done to improve it. Berry
also shows his credibility by mentioning the other larger cities reaching out to him and asking for
help and implementing the program in their cities. Larger cities like Chicago, Seattle, Denver,
Dallas reaching out to seek Berry’s advice shows his credibility and success as mayor of
Albuquerque. Berry also uses the fact that homelessness has been on the decline since he stepped
office. He states, “Since I took over as mayor, we've been able to reduce the chronic homeless
population in our city by 40 percent.” In this short 12 minute talk, Berry used ethos several times
to increase his credibility and create a sense of trust with the audience.
Through the uses of ethos, pathos, and logos, Richard Berry is able to convince the
audience and show the effectiveness of his programs. His uses of rhetoric and humor make the
viewer feel he is trustworthy and knowledgeable in his talk. Berry’s style and some-what
informal tone throughout the talk make it clear he is speaking to not only policy makers and
politicians but also the people living in big cities. His successful use of rhetoric is a model for
public speaking, so that others can relay their ideas in a similar manner to win over an audience.
Works Cited
Berry, Richard J. “A Practical Way to Help the Homeless Find Work and Safety.” Richard J.
Berry: A Practical Way to Help the Homeless Find Work and Safety | TED Talk,
www.ted.com/talks/richard_j_berry_a_practical_way_to_help_the_homeless_find_work_
and_safety/transcript. Accessed 1 Apr. 2024.

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Ryan Hammer

Intro to Rhetoric and Composition

convince the audience of his “Better way.”

data to back up his claims he made.

community in the audience as Americans.

laughs from the audience gaining their trust.

and_safety/transcript. Accessed 1 Apr. 2024.

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