Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetorical Analysis of Two Articles
How a middle-class lifestyle should be achieved in the United States has always been a contentious discussion, whether or not the government should intervene to subsidize the means to achieve such a lifestyle even more so. Below are two articles that address the issue of free college. One firmly places the blame for Student Debt and unaffordable college on Ronald Reagan's policies to cut public spending on education, and another believes that free college would exacerbate inequality. Each employ appeals to ethos, logos and pathos to achieve their purpose of persuading the reader to believe that free college is either a good or a terrible idea.
Con
Free College in America Is a Bad Idea. Just Look at Europe. - Bloomberg.pdf.pdfThe Con article heavily employs the use of diction with negative connotation, such as "rationing" or "segregation" to persuasively argue against efforts to pursue free education for Americans. Uses of data and reference to studies appeal to the reader's ethos and logos, constructing a strong argument against such persuits.
Pro
The Origin of Student Debt_ The Danger of Educated Proles.pdf.pdfRather than pursuing a solely pro side of the argument for free college, the article employs the extensive use of quotes from Ronald Reagan and Roger Freeman (Economic advisor to Nixon), to persuasively argue that by no means free college is a radical idea, but rather one that existed for some time before Reagan implemented cuts to public spending. The use of outrageous quotes by Freeman such as "We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat. ... That’s dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow [to go to college]." appeal to a reader's pathos, and constructs the argument that American's have in essence been robbed of this opportunity and persuaded to believe it is for the common good.