Informal Writing #5 - Jeff Zander

Informal Writing #5

The two readings I chose to compare and contrast were Why does college Cost so Much? And Why I am not Sending My Son to College. Both articles were informative about the issue that they presented but, they presented each issue in very different ways. Each article had its own ways of approaching the problem they were trying to express, some effective and some ineffective.

The article Why Does College Cost so Much? By Cathy Davidson was very well presented with a heavy use of logos to present ideas about the cost of college. The heavy use of logos made up for the almost lack of pathos and ethos throughout the article. The author tried to cater to an intellectual audience because I am sure that is who she thought would be reading this article. I believe that for the issue she was presenting about college, her technique was very effective for the audience that she was trying to convince but, I think that she could have used a little bit more ethos when describing why colleges cost the amount they do and this in turn could have widened her audience. Because she centers this article around logic and higher thinking, it excludes a big part of the population from the audience.

The article Why I am not Sending My Son to College was written for a less informed audience and well, a mainly black audience. This information is presented with a mix of logos and pathos. It relies strongly on the feeling of helping the community by raising children who will learn the skills needed to stay inside the community and have a good life. I feel that she could have broadened her audience by making it a little less about the Black Community and more racially universal. I feel that because this article is centered on the Black Community, it excludes other racial groups from its audience and personally, I find this technique ineffective.

In comparison, each article is very different in presentation of ideas, audience, and techniques to convince the audience of their ideas. But, each article has one thing in common, they both have very strong arguments (regardless of ineffective techniques) that are relatable to each audience that they are

catered to. For Why College Does Costs So Much? the author presents logical information that is present in a way that one must be informed on the subject to read. The information shows how logos is a very effective tool when trying to convince an audience that your ideas are correct. For Why I am not Sending My Son to College, the author shows how pathos and logos in combination are very effective at creating an argument. The ideas she presents have a limited audience but are almost universally relatable and well presented.