"Pick a Sex, Any Sex"

I chose to do my Ancillary assignment on the essay “Pick a Sex, Any Sex” by Jeanne Sager. I think that the strategy that most affects how the paper communicates with its audience is its appeal to authority. There are numerous times throughout the essay that the author gives the information on companies that help couples who would like to pre-determine the sex of their child. Along with the information on the companies, the author gives the accuracy rate and the cost of the method. In many cases, she describes the different processes and what the couple needs to do (according to the research) to have a baby with of the desired sex. She also gives information on what different companies do to pre-determine the sex of the child. The writer gives techniques that are used that vary in scientific reliability and cost. They span from the position a couple uses when actually conceiving the child; which is of no cost but not very scientifically reliable – all the way to in-vitro fertilization with pre-implantation genetic determination; which has a 99.9 accuracy rate but costs a staggering $14,000.

I chose to focus on this strategy because it is very prominent in the essay and I feel it speaks to how the author wanted to convey the information. She wanted to make sure that those who read her article are informed with the information and where it came from, even if the information is an “old wives’ tale”.