Education Essay: Identifying Fallacious Arguments and Rhetorical Ploys

Assignment Model
Week X: Do Teachers Union Stymie School Reform?
Assignment: Identifying Fallacious Arguments and Rhetorical Ploys
Educational Issue: Do Teachers Union Stymie School Reform?
Educational Expert Position
Yes: Andrew Coulson
No: Louis Malfaro
Summary of Author’s Position:
Louis Malfaro is an ATF vice president with an outstanding education and teachers’ union history to provide his perspective on the issue. He considers the teachers union a uniquely established authority with no negative impact on education reforms. Instead, he sees it as a step toward productive relationships. Besides, this union can immensely enhance the teaching and learning system.
Rhetorical Fallacies and Ploys Used by the Author:
Quotations and Rhetorical Ploys
Part 1: Quotations
“There certainly was quality teaching going on in those 16 schools, but there were many, many greenhorns like me with precious little support.”(Noll, 2013, p.248)
“Can you imagine employers discouraging their employees from voting? People would be outraged.” (Noll, 2013,p. 251)
“This is the heart of effective organizing. There is power in knowing other people’s stories. It opens up an understanding of what people’s needs are, what their interests are, and what is motivating them.”(Noll, 2013, p.257)
Part 2: Rhetorical Ploy
Louis Malfaro appeals to spite by using ‘quality’ to describe education’s nature as it is a more profound word than others for this purpose. Using ‘greenhorns’ instead of ‘a beginner,’ he appeals to pity and deepens its effect by further emotionally rich words like ‘precious’ for his support in his career as a ...