Ethos Pathos Logos

Should teens and college students work during school? There have been countless arguments based on this topic and there is not a clear answer. However, Jeffrey J. Selingo confidently supports and claims that teens and college students should work during school. He uses several strong examples of ethos, pathos, and logos throughout his essay “Why more Teenagers and College students need to work while in school.”

Selingo uses ethos several times and effectively persuades the audience with a powerful sense of trust. Most people would believe or trust someone who is trained or highly experienced in a certain subject rather than someone random’s opinion. Hence, Selingo inputs several quotes from professionals who are experienced and well-informed

Logos is the most effective rhetorical appeal which uses logical thinking and facts to persuade the audience. The most effective way to persuade someone is with pure facts or data such as statistics. Hence, Selingo also provides several strong logo examples throughout his essay and easily convinces his audience. For example, Selingo claims that jobs can give young people a rhythm to their day, “ it’s where [students] learn the importance of showing up on time, keeping to a schedule, completing a list of tasks, and being accountable to a manager who might give them their first dose of negative feedback so they finally realize they’re not as great as their teachers, parents, and college acceptance letters have led them to believe”(para. 11). Selingo lists several factors that one job can provide or help students during and after school. All the benefits and the explaination he provided makes the reader believe that his claim is the most logical statement to trust. He also was able to conclude that “[passing] up a job while in school means that teenagers and undergraduates lose more than just a paycheck”(para. 10). He was able to prove his claim with evidence to show that it is worth it to work during school which is another strong example of logos. Therefore, Selingo can use logos to its full extent and convince the audience

Pathos uses emotions which is also an effective way to persuade your audience. Giving a personal experience or evoking emotions is an effective way to make the reader relate to or understand what the author has been through. Selingo gives multiple examples from his personal experience such as,“a college student who attended a job- training program in Boston told [him that] he was surprised when the sessions were not canceled after an overnight snowstorm. He said professors in college regularly canceled classes for all sorts of reasons, including the weather”(para. 13 ). This shows that a majority of college students including himself is not used to the expectations in a typical workspace. There are also probably many students all over the country in the same position as him. So, his claim is correct: it’s very difficult for students to demonstrate a strong work ethic without experience. Another example he provided was when he interviewed employers and they said that “college graduates are willing to work hard to get the job done. But all of them had stories about the behaviors they found unacceptable: young employees checking Facebook incessantly on their computers, leaving the middle of a team project meeting to go for a workout at the gym, or asking for a do-over when an assignment went awry”(para. 12). This is a strong example because it’s from his own experience by interacting without employers from various companies. If they are