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Argumentative Essays
Argumentative Essays
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Right from the start, the title of the article “Is College For Everyone?” sparks immediate curiosity. Pharinet, author of the article and current teacher, explains her numerous reasons as to why attending college is not for everyone. Although Pharinet is not as credible as we would like her to be, she makes an exceptional argument. Beware, an argument like this may alter our opinions as Pharient sits back pulling on our heart strings, playing with our minds, and hitting us with back to back facts.
Throughout the article Pharinet hits us with intense emotion filled sentences that make us question some decisions we may have made. Pharinet claims “Now, College is the place you go when you want to get a good job, or appease your parents, or because you are ‘finding yourself’”(681). This one line is so controversial. As a student looking at this they may think “I am not going
Pharinet says one of her students said “C’s get degrees”(681) but she leaves us to wonder whether she is a college professor, high school teacher, or maybe even a grade school teacher. Pharinet never indicates where she attended college, but her career requires a college degree. So that makes us ask ourselves, How can someone who attended college try to persuade us into believing college is not for everyone? Well, if we dig a little deeper we will see that Pharinet is not plain out saying college is not for us, but rather “there are too many students enrolled in school who simply don’t belong there”(Pharinet 680). I personally have caught myself looking at some of my peers and asking myself “why are they even here?” We all have at some point. It is pretty simple; we need to stop pressuring people who are not ready to get a higher education to go to college. As pharinet says “Embrace the reality that college is not for
“We want to emphasize that the personal characteristics and skills of each individual are equally important”. (Page #221, para #3) Owen and Sawhill are inquiring that to be successful in any major requires dedication and personal motivation, which is another example of the authors bringing pathos into their argument. Owen and Sawhill state that “if they don’t just enroll but graduate, they can improve their lifetime prospects”. (page #220, para #1) Owens and Sawhill statement is taken as, applying with great intensions is not good enough to be successful in college. Owen and Sawhill are completely open about the fact that college isn’t for everyone and that’s perfectly acceptable. “It may be that for a student with poor grades who is on the fence about enrolling in a four-year program, the most bang-for-the-buck will come from vocationally-oriented associate’s degree or career-specific technical training”. (Page #222, para #1) this statement opens the argument to be about both, is college worth it financially, and also academically. Owens and Sawhill want their reader to understand that, being pushed to achieve something that you have no passion for attaining, only robs someone of their true
How many people actually go to college and make it through with a degree? This question is asked a lot and the article, “Is College for Everyone?”, discusses the options one has other than college and why some people should not attend college. Pharinet presents her argument of how the reality is college is not for everyone and she makes this clear in different ways. She discusses how different factors are the key reason one chooses to attend college, instead of the desire for learning. She does this by using several different techniques to reach her audience and make her argument known such as: nods to the opposition, logos, diction, and syntax.
The argument about if college is worth it or not has been one of the biggest arguments throughout the media for decades. Students suffer a lot from the debts that they get from college and also the amount of studying that they do in college and when they graduate they ask themselves “is graduation from college really worth all the money that we paid and all the work that we have done?”
In this society, almost every high schooler is told they need to go to college in order to be successful, but that is not necessarily true. Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill questioned if everyone needs college to be successful in their article, “Should Everyone Go to College?”. In the article, Owen and Sawhill discuss that even though college is very helpful for many people, but for some the benefits of a college education do not outweigh the costs. Owen and Sawhill discuss this and show the statistics on the pricing of college and general student success throughout the article. Overall, this article does a very well job showing ethical appeals with statistics, does an average job with emotional appeal, and does a very well job showing logic
In today’s society there is a lot of pressure on students to make this huge payment to go to college, and due to an ungodly amount of money being thrown into universities students feel as though they will be handed a degree in return but that’s not the case at all. In the article “Let’s clarify the ‘College Worth It’ Conversation” by Andrew Kelly he gives the statistics that 45% percent of college students do not finish their degree. High schools need to better inform students interested in furthering their education with these statistics. This can be extremely eye opening to students who think college will be an easy journey with low expectations. I have learned that the more effort and participation I put into my education the more enjoyable and worth the money it seems to
In the article “Are too many People Going to College” by Charles Murray a W. H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, argues that our educational system needs improvement and that too many people are attending college. Some of Charles arguments on why too many people are attending college are obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree gives you a high paying job, college requires classes that are unnecessary, skill/talent may not need a degree and because they do not want to be labeled as dumb or lazy. Charles Murray makes a lot of good arguments on why too many people are going to college and I concur with his arguments.
Rhetorical Précis: In Michelle Adams’s article, “Is College Worth It (2013),” explores the two side of college worthiness. She provided evidence to
Many kids beginning the college - decision process may be feeling lost at first, and ”By telling all young people that they should go to college no matter what, we are actually doing some of them a disservice.”(Owen and Sawhill 209) For a seventeen/eighteen year old, going to college is arguably the biggest decision that they have had to make in their life thus far, and having the facts that Owen and Sawhill produce can be invaluable to the decision-making process. It is clear that the purpose of their essay is to better inform these young adults and guide them on their journey that is life after high school. The primary claim that Owen and Sawhill attempt to drive in using rhetorical appeals is that on average, having a college degree will lead to a higher income than not having one; however, it is not universally
The author Charles Murray says there are too many people going to college without really saying it. The essay is written in a way that his audience will understand by the time they finish reading that he has many valid points. He Persuades his readers with facts and counters arguments to false stereotypes involving college and success. By questioning whether college is for everyone makes "you" the reader want to rethink if your time spent in college was really worth it in the end.
College corrupts people, changes people and segregates families. Many people know the risk of pursuing a college education and still decide to move forward with their decision. We must ask ourselves if the cost is worth it.
Owen and Sawhill maintain that college can positively affect one’s life by “affecting things like job satisfaction, health, marriage, parenting, trust, and social interaction. Additionally, there are social benefits to education, such as reduced crime rates and higher political participation” (Owen and Sawhill 640). By expressing this, Owen and Sawhill are trying to bring to mind the idea that by going to college, you will be an all around better citizen, which definitely plays with emotions because who doesn’t want to be a good citizen. Furthermore, Owen and Sawhill remark on the college decision process. Here, thier general claim is that when choosing a college, it is better to choose a college that will benefit you financially, not just the one you
Linda Lee, the author of “The Case against college”, uses rhetorical devices to sway the readers opinions. Most people can agree college is very important, while others have different opinions. Lee believes not everyone needs a higher education. She is forgetting the reason college is so important and why so many people receive a college education. Everyone should attend college, college graduates make more money, have more job opportunities, become more independent, and have more stability.
American’s education system has been entering crisis mode for a long time. Throughout the past few years, the overwhelming question “Is college needed or worth it?” While it is an opinion, there are facts that back up each answer. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” mentions that the enlightened must help the unenlightened and further their knowledge. The problem with America today is that high school students are given the option of college and that makes for less enlightened people. While it is possible to learn in the work force or Army, college is a better option. Mary Daly wrote the article “Is It Still Worth Going to College?” which talks about the statistical value of attending. Michelle Adam wrote the article “Is College Worth It?” which mentions the struggle young people are going through to even get into college. Caroline Bird wrote the chapter “Where College Fails Us” in her book The Case Against College where she
Pharinet. “Is College for Everyone?” Practical Argument. Ed. Lauren G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 635-636. Print.
In Caroline Bird’s “College is A Waste of Time and Money”, it’s argued that there are many college students who would be better off if they were to begin working after high school graduation. Colleges and universities can no longer ensure that one will go on to get a better job, getting paid more than they would have without a higher education. However, high school seniors still stress about where they will be attending college, how they’re going to pay for it and what they’re going to study for the next four years. Bird points out how college has changed over the past few decades and how, in turn, it has set many young adults up for disappointment, if nothing else.