Why People Go to College - Article Analysis

The author of the source related to the topic of going to college is one Holy Epstein. The publication source gets traced to the New York Times with the document getting published on 2nd February 2016. The source informs of the reasons why people should go to college thus relating to a greater extent with the topic. The analysis of the source also depicts its ability to recognize certain social factors which make people go to college. A brief description regarding the topic reveals that people go to college based on numerous grounds. The first issue recognizes learning as a rigorous activity which must, therefore, get supported by the educational environment. It argues that the colleges offer the best environment considering the structures put in place to allow smooth learning activities. The second issue pertains socialization and the development of connections with friends and contacts. The mentioned puts the source into a social framework since it recognizes that going to college is not only concerned with the education but also recognizes the issue of socialization. It introduces us to Mr. Stephen who argues about colleges playing a role in laying the foundations of connections to the people as they nurture their professions. Mr. Stephen goes further to inform about other social media platforms like the LinkedIn among others also playing the same role. The next justification for going to college revolves the issue of status, many people argue it as the underlying reason for going to college to enable an individual gets associated with the institution. It may not call for one to finish his studies within the institution but by the fact that a person attended the particular college within a specific duration of time enables that person to acquire similar status to those of the institution.

Apart from the discussed reasons, the fourth issue is that of self-discovery. It is the belief of most of the leaners that colleges allow for people to know more about unknown matters and make discoveries which they may not have known. Even though the argument holds for most of the college students, Mr. Stephen is of the opinion that self-discovery may get achieved through engaging in more constructive and reasonable activities, for example, the creation of a start-up among others. Another reason which Mr. Stephen agreed with is based on the attainment of a marketable degree and the development of potentiality to earn money. According to most of the statistical analyses, college graduations gets construed to depict positive relations with numerous economic factors like the low rates of unemployment and high earnings. Meaning, most people have the necessary qualifications for the available jobs and receive better earnings. Equally notable, the personality of Mr. Stephen appears unique due to his failure of contending with most of the reasons offered for going to college while giving his personal opinion on how some of the reasons given may get achieved without necessarily going to college. For example, on the part of the establishment of a connection, he contends to some extent but also brings to light the role played by the social media platforms in connecting the people to the corporate world.

The further analysis notes the publisher of the source to use various rhetorical styles like the logos, pathos, and ethos in achieving the final objective. Holly Epstein uses the logos to persuade the target audience through the views of Mr. Stephen, a personality he introduces to take neutrality in the argument. The argument he presents through Mr. Stephen seems somewhat convincing and appear logical since he contends to a particular extent with the beliefs that make people opt for colleges while at the same time offers alternatives of other areas where the same reasons can get achieved. The style ensures that the source minimizes any aspect of bias and allowing many people to agree on the issues presented. It also gets noted that the source used little stress on the pathos considering its concern with emotions to offer persuasion. The depicted may have existed due to the nature of the source since it involved the insights given by Mr. Stephen on some of the reasons why people go to college. Therefore, most of the source revolves concerns of Mr. Stephen in which he appeared to show little contentment with the reasons given as already mentioned in the previous discussions. It thus gets arguable that the source focused on the ethos more in appealing and convincing the target audience. The ethos concerns matter ethics and analyses the character of the persuader to attain credibility. Even though Holly Epstein published the source, the primary persuader comes out as Mr. Stephen. Holly Epstein introduces us to him at the beginning of the source and makes clear his credibility, an essential aspect of the ethos. He mentions Mr. Stephen as a founder of a college, a factor which distinguishes him from other ordinary opinion givers. Throughout his argument, Mr. Stephen criticizes going to College from the positive dimension while also recognizing that there exist other better platforms where people can acquire what gets needed from the colleges.

Therefore, it may get arguable that he tactfully handled the situation through the consideration of ethical issues involved to ensure that no one gets disadvantaged with his views or even arguments. The case notes him to disagree with the notion of people going to college based on the environment it offers while agrees that colleges provide for the attainment of various degree programs needed in the job market. When giving his justifications especially for the former, he notes that people should consider going to college as the last option. Meaning, he appears not to maintain rigidity in his views and becomes tactful in favoring those who would prefer and not prefer going to college. The analysis of the source, therefore, comes out to utilize at least three rhetorical analysis features with two coming out stronger in persuading the audience. The three features are the logos, pathos and lastly the ethos. The analysis as noted depicts the logos and the ethos to be most active elements in meeting the aim of the source.

In summary, the source focused on the insights given by Mr. Stephen pertaining some of the reasons why people go to college. According to the analysis, Mr. Stephen showed aspects of contentment and discontentment with the ideas presented while employing the use of three rhetorical styles in convincing the audience. The techniques as drawn earlier are the logos, pathos and the ethos. Therefore, the strength of the argument presented gets based on its relief of bias and taking a neutral dimension. In the same light, its limitation gets based on not offering solutions to some of the discontentment presented by Mr. Stephen.

Works Cited

Holly E. Why People go to College. New York Times. 2012. Print. Retrieved from https://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/why-go-to-college-at-all/