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Fortunately, most of us will never know what it is like to be handicapped or a "cripple". At the same time, car accidents, cancerous tumors, and many other misfortunes cause thousands of people each year to lose use in their arms, legs, or other parts of their body. Nancy Mairs was one of those people. She became handicapped (though she prefers the term cripple) as a result of multiple sclerosis. Being a professor of writing and composition at The University of Arizona, she decided to write about her atypical lifestyle in an essay entitled, On Being a Cripple. This piece comes from a collection of poetry and essays called Plain Text that was written in 1986. Mairs uses many tactics and techniques to show the reader what it?s like to be disabled. She applies an emotional appeal to persuade a change in the readers? stereotypical thoughts about living with a disabling, terminal disease. In this essay, Mairs shows that an individual has choices in life, no matter what the situation. Her methods include description, tone, and the first person perspective. Throughout the whole piece, she never seems angry or bitter at her situation at all. The writer actually comes off as grateful and content. She demo