Question

Read the excerpt from the conclusion of the letter to the editor.

We need to urge our city planners to say goodbye to the urban sprawl that has engulfed our nation like a tidal wave in the last few decades, and instead build more traditional mixed-use neighborhoods that were once the building blocks of city infrastructure in our nation. As the authors of Suburban Nation wrote: "We shape our cities and then our cities shape us. The choice is ours whether we build subdivisions that debase the human spirit or neighborhoods that nurture sociability and bring out the best in our nature.”

Which rhetorical device does the letter writer use in this paragraph?

allusion
referencing a counterargument

Answer 1

Allusion.

The writer explicitly cites and quotes the book Suburban Nation—invoking another text/authority to support their point—rather than presenting or rebutting an opposing view, so it isn’t a counterargument.