The Issue of College Education

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Rhetorical Analysis
The issue of college education being so expensive has been a bone of contention for a long time now. People have complained about the rising tuition fees, schools have complained about the budget cuts from state governments, and the government continues to sing at the top of its voice that the U.S. has the best education in the world. These three have never achieved common ground but all seem to want the best for the students. Different people have written and said a lot of things about college education rates. Some have said it is justified, others have said quality has increased and thus price has to go up, and others have still said that nothing justifies the current high rates of college tuition. Regardless of one’s opinion, it is an obvious fact that everyone today pays a lot of money to have their child attend a normal college than they would decades ago. Amanda Ripley decided to join the conversation and offer her contribution to the ongoing discussion. She outlines several things that she believes continue to make college as expensive as it is today. Her argument is successful because she builds it through the use of sufficient and credible evidence, makes use of several experts in her article, and also appeals to people’s emotions by breaking down some of the specifics that make college expensive today. However, even though there are a few instances of pathos in her article, she fails to use it effectively and thus her article falls short as will be shown.
Writers use different rhetorical devices to achieve a higher appeal with their target audience. For Ripley, the use of logos stands out from beginning to the end. In the first paragraph, she refers to a 19th-century document that pointed out at the rising cost of college tuition. ““Gentlemen have to pay for their sons in one year more than they spend themselves in the whole four years of their course,” The New York Times lamented in 1875.” Using such a source from such a timeline helps to give her argument perspective. Currently, college rates are indeed high but Ripley notifies people that this problem started a long time ago. This means that to change it, people have to consider history and have it inform the current so that the future will be different. The current arguments poised on the topic of college education being expensive often ignore the past. People do not consider the genesis of the problem and thus try to effect change in the current system. However, Ripley’s source shows that ignoring the history of the problem will be problematic because people will be acting from a point of ignorance.
Aside from the above, throughout her article, she makes use of data and information a Glance report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In one instance, she notes that “the U.S. spends more on college than almost any other country.” There are two things one can get from this source. The first one is the seriousness of the statement because that statement puts the discussion of college education on a global scale. Instead of using local statistics, the leads her audience to a global scale and shows t...