Well...

So this dude Langley wrote an essay basically defending skateboarding, the act of, the participants, and the overall myths that 'haunt' the aforementioned things. The assignment is to talk about what he did to argue his case. I have completely run out of sarcastic things to say about assignments in this class, so I guess I'll just have to actually go ahead with the homework.

The biggest thing I think he uses is personal experience. Langley argues his points and backs them up with his own personal experiences. In this way, he convinces the audience that he is credible, since, he himself is/was a skateboarder. Rather than taking on the role of an outsider looking in, (I believe those are called posers in the skate world...) Langley draws from things in his own life that are relevant and believable. By doing this he creates this sense of trust for the reader, because lets be real, most people reading the article are not skaters, and therefore do not have any idea what the issues are like and if they are true or not, etc. Langley does a great job taking on a persona that is believable, and ends up with a convincing piece.