Rethorical
Sydnee Kuhn
English 101, Section 143
11-14-10
Dr. Jun Zhao
Should I Go to College? That’s a Rhetorical Question. Rhetoric is the art of using language to communicate effectively and persuasively. Authors often use rhetoric to convey a message to their audience via the three rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. Serving in Florida is an essay written by Barbara Ehrenreich that is a first-hand experience by the author in the world of working minimum age jobs. The author tried to balance two low paying jobs in order to make ends meet. This paper will discuss how Ehrenreich mainly uses pathos, or the emotional appeal, in her essay to persuade young adults to go to college and strive for high paying jobs. Author Barbara Ehrenreich uses ethos, the ethical appeal as the secondary rhetorical appeal in her essay to convince her readers that she is indeed a credible author. The rhetorical situation in a rhetorical essay focuses mainly on three things: the audience, the author’s purpose, and the context of the text. Firstly, the audience of Serving in Florida will be evaluated. Teenagers and young adults are the two main age groups of Ehrenreich’s intended audience. That specific age group faces many challenges from whether or not to graduate high school to whether or not to go to college. Ehrenreich chose this audience because persons belonging to this age group are old enough to understand the consequences of their life choice. In contrast, persons of this age group are still young enough to make naïve mistakes. This directs the attention toward the author’s purpose. The second ingredient of a rhetorical situation is the author’s purpose. Ehrenreich’s purpose in her research and writing is to effectively persuade young adults to go to college and strive for more then minimum wage in their lives. Her essay is based on her personal experience while working undercover in low paying jobs in Florida. The author endured this
English 101, Section 143
11-14-10
Dr. Jun Zhao
Should I Go to College? That’s a Rhetorical Question. Rhetoric is the art of using language to communicate effectively and persuasively. Authors often use rhetoric to convey a message to their audience via the three rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. Serving in Florida is an essay written by Barbara Ehrenreich that is a first-hand experience by the author in the world of working minimum age jobs. The author tried to balance two low paying jobs in order to make ends meet. This paper will discuss how Ehrenreich mainly uses pathos, or the emotional appeal, in her essay to persuade young adults to go to college and strive for high paying jobs. Author Barbara Ehrenreich uses ethos, the ethical appeal as the secondary rhetorical appeal in her essay to convince her readers that she is indeed a credible author. The rhetorical situation in a rhetorical essay focuses mainly on three things: the audience, the author’s purpose, and the context of the text. Firstly, the audience of Serving in Florida will be evaluated. Teenagers and young adults are the two main age groups of Ehrenreich’s intended audience. That specific age group faces many challenges from whether or not to graduate high school to whether or not to go to college. Ehrenreich chose this audience because persons belonging to this age group are old enough to understand the consequences of their life choice. In contrast, persons of this age group are still young enough to make naïve mistakes. This directs the attention toward the author’s purpose. The second ingredient of a rhetorical situation is the author’s purpose. Ehrenreich’s purpose in her research and writing is to effectively persuade young adults to go to college and strive for more then minimum wage in their lives. Her essay is based on her personal experience while working undercover in low paying jobs in Florida. The author endured this