Summary Of The College Bubble

Samantha Nyborg
LEAP Writing 2011-05
September 15, 2014

Critique Draft Megan McArlde is a journalist and blogger who focuses most of her writing on things like finance, government policy, and economics. In her article “The College Bubble,” a magazine article published in Newsweek on September 17, 2012, McArlde writes about how the “Mythomania about college has turned getting a degree into an American neurosis” (1). She focuses a lot on the value of getting a college education, and makes an argument that all the time and money spent on earning a degree may not be worth it in the end. McArlde uses several strategies to appeal to her reader’s, and does a great job of effectively using the Logos, Pathos, and Ethos appeals throughout her article. McArdle uses good logical reasoning throughout her writing, and brought some things about college expenses to my attention that I wouldn’t have otherwise thought about. She talks about how the price of schooling has basically doubled in the past 20 years, but for no good reason. I thought that this was a great logical point that she made, because most of the education we are receiving has not doubled in value, so why are we paying so much more for it?
She compares this scenario to the rising price of a McDonald’s hamburger, which I thought was an interesting approach, because most people who were targeted in her audience would be familiar with her example, so I thought this was a great way to reach her audience in a logical appeal.