Analyzing Arguments

• I analyzed the article "Should the Obama Generation Drop out". In the essay, the writer used a different approach at appealing to his audience and connecting with them. The writer called his audience "stupid" and "dumb" and he called himself "stupid" and "dumb" as well. By doing this, the writer thought that he would connect with his audience because he is saying that all of us are too dumb for college. This in the end weakens his argument because his target audience are college students, employers and politicians, people who have already completed college or are going to, so calling them stupid wouldn't help you with your cause. This taught me how I try to connect to my audience and appeal to them can affect how they can look at me and how I can push them away if I don't use the right approach. Because of this, I will be conscious of choosing how I will appeal to and connect with my target audience.
• Another thing I saw from analyzing the article was how the writer used evidence to support his ideas. The writer used few facts to support his ideas and made most of his evidence base on the conclusions he had made about his audience. However, the way the writer used his evidence crushed his argument by making him seem like he didn't really knew what he was talking about and he seemed like he didn't really care about what he was writing about. This taught me how I need a balance of both emotional and plausible evidence to support my ideas and make skeptical readers to agree with me or to change their views on my topic. I will make sure to have personal experience appeal, emotional appeal and plausible evidence to backup my ideas and to let my audience know that I know what I am talking about as well.
• Lastly, the writer of the article that I analyzed used a formal/serious tone in an attempt to build a connection with his readers and to let them know that he is knowledge about the topic he is writing about. The tone he used also gives off that he is serious about what he is writing about and that he wants to change people's minds on how liberal art education show be views as. This tone does help the writer to make his ideas get across his audience, but at the end, it goes against how he appeal to his audience and the few facts he uses in his article. So his tone, appeal and lack of facts goes against each other, which as a result, makes his ideas and argument weak and the writer doesn't seem credible. This taught me that my tone needs to be match the way I want to connect with my audience and my appeal as well. I will make sure that everything I do in my paper connects with each other and that my readers view me as a credible writer and as a person who is knowledge about what he is writing about.