Rhetorical Analysis: Applying Logos, Ethos and Pathos

You are trying to persuade your skeptical parents that a “gap year”--- taking a year off between high school graduation and college—will be beneficial.

Applying LOGOS :

In my high school year as a senior, I have the standardized tests such as the SAT, ACT, TOEFL, SAT subject test and so on. I also have college applications, recommendation letters, acceptance letters, and graduation. Maybe I don’t feel ready to decide my life path, or I don’t feel like staying up late studying for an exam, I would like to take a break from this entire headache. Maybe I have not found a great program of my interest and would like to try it out before going to college.

Traveling and meeting new people from different cultures open up some eyes and make them aware. It can also help me choose a school, a major, the clubs and organizations I would like to join. By traveling and seeing different things around the world may change what you I to do, and it also builds a lot of confidence. It builds confidence because I am on my own visiting and doing something other than working hard at school. By presenting these logical arguments and facts, this might persuade my parents to accepting to take a “gap year” after high school.

Applying PATHOS :

My parents should think on the bright side, I will be much closer to home, and they will not have to spend as much money on a school year when I am not sure what I want to do. I would also mention that I would be miserable alone at school with someone I don’t know and would prefer staying closer to them, working and experiencing before heading to college. I would take a break from school, work, and experience before choosing my major. I would persuade my parents using a tone when speaking, and using strong word choice to appeal to their emotions. By proving them that I am capable also may persuade them. I would explain how exhausting the years were, and how I worked hard to deserve a break from classrooms, lectures and essays.

 

Applying ETHOS :

Using appeal to authority, I would mention a celebrity that had taking a gap year. Prince William of England took a gap year after high school at the age of eighteen. He trained with the Welsh Guards in Belize, worked in English farms, visited charities in African, and took part in volunteering programs in southern Chile where he helped build a school and taught English there. He learned plenty of interesting things during his gap year. This can persuade my parents that if I took a gap year and volunteered and visited different places in the world, then I would learn a lot and come back with more knowledge. Not only would I come back with more understanding, and I would therefore know what I want to major in and focus on at school.