Rhetorical Analysis of Richard Selzer’s “The Pen and the Scalpel”

Pen and the Scalpel Rhetorical Analysis

Richard Selzer wrote “Pen and the Scalpel”, an essay arguing for the acceptance of multiple careers by using one another for inspiration. Selzer begins the story by telling about his career as a surgeon and gives a bit of background information. After presenting his history, he reveals what the purpose of the essay is; Selzer wants everyone to understand that it's possible to be a talented surgeon and a successful writer. In order to do this he begins by giving us history and then comparing the two jobs and showing the connections. He tells of the people who don't believe in him and tells of his hardships on the way to his success. He would not have made it with his success if it were not for his experience in college and his many years as a surgeon. Selzer just wants to make everyone aware that sometimes we find multiple reasons to love our careers. Although Selzer appears to endeavor into the life of a surgeon with a hobby, he is actually trying to prove that with experience people will trust you and you will be able to prove a point, such as in this essay the point being that sometimes multiple careers are able to be done.

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Experience in a field can extremely benefit someone when they're trying to prove themselves as credible. When an audience sees that someone has experience in something like their career it’s easier to believe them when they’re talking about it. In the beginning, Selzer reveals that he "had been a general surgeon for 15 years" (Selzer 203). He also mentions, "For the next 16 years, until my recent retirement, I would practice both surgery and writing" (Selzer 203). This statement shows his commitment to his careers and tells the audience that it can be done. Using these time periods of experience, the audience can assume that he is an expert in his field and that he has good credibility when attempting to prove his point. After hearing the length of time that Selzer was a surgeon, we trust him to be a talented one. This also leads us to believe that he would be able to vividly capture these moments as a doctor in his writings. After reading about how long he has been working in these careers, we are much more likely to trust that he has become very talented in both.

Although the audience is very trusting in Selzer being a good surgeon, they are left on the edge wondering how well he writes. Selzer constantly writes about how he doesn't get enough time to be a writer. He writes that he has "from 8:30 pm to I in the morning" (Selzer 203) to sleep and then he writes until 3 am when he goes back to bed. Although it is good that he makes time to write, we cannot trust that he gives himself enough time to be successful. He also mentions that sleep is not the only obstacle he faces with his writing. The other doctors would say that it is looked down upon to mix writing with medicine. He says, "...to patronize the arts was respectable; to practice them was not" (Selzer 203). This alludes directly to how others saw him in his workplace. They did not respect that he liked to write during and/or about his career as a doctor. Since being a doctor is such a respected and time demanding career, people just didn’t believe that he could do both. He was constantly looked down upon by everyone in his field. However, although his colleagues did not see the careers as interchangeable, others did.

Although he faced many issues throughout his career there were reasons he had success; his success can be directly correlated to his credentials. If he did not prove himself as an expert of medicine, we wouldn’t fully be able to trust him doing both careers at the same time.

Selzer gives the audience a variety of reasons why surgeons should and can be great writers. One quote that sticks out to help this idea is, "A doctor walks in and out of a dozen short stories a day. It is irresistible to write them down" (Selzer 204). Selzer helps connect the two jobs and shows how simple it would be for all doctors to write. If they could bring real life experiences into writing for all to read, we would more easily accept and understand medicine. Towards the end he also makes a point to add that, "A surgical operation is rather like a short story" (Selzer 205).

Selzer shows that no matter what, he will continue writing about medicine because there is so much to be written. Everyday he witnesses a new experience in the operating rooms and for him, there is no question of whether to write it down or not because it’s always a new experience. He continually works to express the connection he sees between surgery and writing. This connection can be confirmed when people see his credentials and the experience he has had as a writer and surgeon. If people see the time and effort he has put into his writing they would be much more likely to believe him. Although he states that writing and surgery go hand in hand, people would be less likely to think he is a good writer if they do not know his background.

If Selzer had not spent a large portion of his life working as a surgeon to get the experience, his message would not have as much strength. The extensive knowledge in medicine led Selzer to have a new profound love for writing and the depth it contains. Giving the audience trust, allowed Selzer to persuade them to think that it is possible to connect the two jobs no matter the differences. The audience would not be persuaded if they weren't able to trust him as a surgeon. The credibility of Selzer was taken into account throughout the entire essay. Selzer has proven to the audience that in order to be successful you have to put in time and effort. If you don't put in the time and gain the experience then people will not trust you. This essay has proven that credentials and experience ultimately lead to trust.

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