Urbanization led to numerous consequences, and it is difficult to decide whether they are negative or positive. On the one hand, it led to the growth of the economy and people’s welfare. On the other hand, it triggered the centralization of life in one place. Sprawl is one of the major problems big cities have to tackle. Modern cities smother in vehicles, and this phenomenon is called sprawl. In the article “Sprawl and Urban Growth”, Glaeser and Kahn discuss the problem of the absence of physical space between people in big towns. There are four main reasons that make cities convenient for living, namely easiness to transport goods, the ability to get fast from one place to another, not long distances and the presence of a car in every family. The author of the article states that sprawl is ubiquitous and is still continuing to grow. It is possible to say that this situation is the result of a governmental mistake and bad urban planning. However, the writer thinks that it is just a natural result of contemporary technological civilization and urban style of life. Glaeser and Kahn appeal to logos to make the narration easy to understand, structured and serious. Among the most vivid examples of logos in this article are its structure, ways of developing ideas, and genetic fallacies.
The content of the analyzed article is easy to summarize due to its logical structure. The authors use cause and effect rhetorical strategy to show the development of the problem from the very beginning. It is possible to describe the entire narration in the following way. From an economic point of view, the problem of sprawl is the sign of serious improvement in the quality of living. However, there is a negative side to this situation as well. It is true that the number of people who drive cars is actively increasing nowadays, but the number of those who are not able to afford their own cars is still big. As a result, this economical heterogeneity leads to problems in society and aggravates the gap between different economic classes.
There are certain problems connected with a big number of cars in the streets. Glaeser and Kahn highlight several negative issues that are characteristic of sprawl. First of all, a big number of cars lead to serious traffic problems like traffic congestion. Second, sprawl causes environmental problems by polluting the atmosphere. However, the situation has its positive aspects and they are mentioned in the article. For example, car owners have the possibility to buy a bigger and cheaper house in the suburb and drive to the office every day. Moreover, there are no traffic problems out of the cities, so it is possible to drive long distances quickly. The author of the article notes that the problem of sprawl can be partly solved by implementing zoning laws. For example, making the city center closed for cars can make the problem less urgent.
The authors used several linguistic strategies to develop their ideas. First, they describe the overall situation with the sprawl and active urbanization in the United States. Second, they use narration and process analysis to show the importance of the problem and help one to understand the nature of the issue. It is possible to state that the article is based on cause and effect analysis and data processing since there is a big quantity of mathematical formulas in the article. They present the authors’ conclusions about social consequences of sprawl, productivity and agglomeration consequences of it, its impact on the environment and other issues. It is necessary to emphasiz