Strengths and Weaknesses of “Waking up and Taking Charge”
This essay provides many examples of the movement that she is encouraging. But a lot of her examples she provides only halfway prove it, or there are confounding variables in the examples that actually work against her point and reveal some of the arguments’ weaknesses. She provides examples of how student activism has been effective in Canada and other countries but doesn’t regard how political systems are set up differently. Maybe in one country it is part of their standard to listen to young people as much as they listen to elderly and seasoned people and in another country that is not the case regardless of how much student activism there is. In her Yale example, the only people that it benefited are families who earn less than $45,000 a year which she states is roughly 10% of the school. If she is trying to prove how student activism will make a change that benefits a range of people, then this is a bad example.
Rhetorical Appeals:
Style:”Actually read those endless email alerts?”
“Next time you see the Discover Card Table, RUN the other way!”
Emotion: “Young people urgently need a strong national government movement”
“They remind students that they don’t deserve to be priced out”
Character: “If you’re like me, you’re a little impatient with the politcal sphere of action”
What I would tell to someone about the essay: I would say that the essence of the essay is the rhetorical appeal of logic with a few sprinkles of the other appeals. That being said, I pay most attention to her appeal of logic since that’s where she’s mainly trying to poke the reader. I agree with her 100% about there needing to be change in many aspects of young peoples’ lives and I also agree that we should do everything we can to make that change. Especially since no one else will, it’s our responsibility to be informed and take a stand. So the warrant is that there is a problem there and it needs to be solved by us young folks. She doesn’t provide the strongest logic about the way we should to that though, which is what the whole essay is about.
Claim: Re
aders think this essay is about the effectiveness of student activism but it’s really about
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