Good / Bad Article: The Problem is That Free College Isn't Free

HAORAN ZHAO
Professor: Connor
ENGL1100
Oct 25, 2017
Source Analysis
Bad article
Kelly, A. (2016). The Problem is That Free College Isn’t Free. New York Times. Retrieved October 26, 2017 from /roomfordebate/2016/01/20/should-college-be-free/the-problem-is-that-free-college-isnt-free
The Problem is That Free College Isn’t Free is the title of an article written by Kelly Andrew. Kelly is a scholar and “the director of the Center on Higher Education Reform at the American Enterprise Institute.” For him, college education should not be free, and the talk of making it free should not be entertained. His arguments are well thought and seem to drive the point home that indeed college education should not be free. His article appeared in the New York Times on 20th January 2016 when a panel in which he was a member was debating the issue of having college education made free.
In his article, Kelly aptly uses illustration to help his readers understand his viewpoint. First of all, he says that free college “simply shifts costs from students to taxpayers and caps tuition at zero.” He continues to illustrate how the money colleges spend yearly will not change but remain the same despite any changes. This cost, he says will continue to grow and eventually it will overwhelm the government. From his illustration, one understands that Kelly is a person who not only understands the workings of a college but also the cost of running a college institution. His illustration helps one to understand how making college free can even crash the government by increasing expenditure which as expected is always delegated to the taxpayers. Additionally, he also illustrates how California failed in its attempt at making community college cheap. While he can be mean with the details, he explicitly demonstrates how California’s state budget for higher education was strained as a result of the move to make education cheap. Eventually, he shows how many students missed their chance of getting a college education because schools “turned away 600,000 students.” Kelly’s illustrations are quite vivid and goes a long way in helping a reader understand his viewpoint.
Kelly also utilizes description in his article as he tries to drive his argument home. In his push to make readers understand why free college education is not free, Kelly describes how people could be misguided to believe that tuition prices often hinder student success. In his description, he uses the example of community colleges which despite being established specifically for the low-income student never really seem to churn as many graduates as the private institutions. His description is quite vivid, and he also helps his readers to understand his position.
His language is also one that endears him to his readers. Kelly uses simple vocabularies and seems to take his readers slowly while explaining every bit or piece of information. Choice of language can either make one’s article to stand out and attract readers or fit in the common category and be boring to readers. However, Kelly is wise and seems to want to attract as many readers as possible and hence his choice of language.
Finally, his article while presenti...