Persuasive Essay: Colleges Should Stop Making Students Buy Textbooks

Topic: Colleges should stop making students buy textbooks.

Opening/Attention:

When you think of school, you think of a classroom, a teacher, students, and costly textbooks. Over the years, the internet has created an ease of access to information, eliminating the need for textbook use, therefore eliminating cost. In a city like Toronto, where expenses exceed minimum wages, education is key for a financially stable career. As students, expenses before, and after school have created obstacles to avoiding debt once graduated. Anything helps, with all the money received through OSAP, a good amount is spent on textbooks, which are increasing in prices and can be freely accessed online through torrents and search engines. Due to increased textbook

Experts say that the prices of textbooks are increasing yearly because the purchaser is not the selector. It’s understandable, a professor wanting the best material for his students in hope of a better result. But, with a cost two to three times the amount of a textbook that would deliver the same information, is it worth it? Not a chance, like a doctor prescribing drugs before searching for an equivalent in lesser value – you’re only thinking about your practice, the care has stopped with the patient and has now become about self-reputation. Offering help to a better future with the stress of affording it, creates unnecessary financial hardships that can be counter-productive with the help the patient/student came for in the first place. Textbooks are priced on features, the more features, the more expensive the textbook, and if those features are barely being used, why the expense? If the selectors were the purchasers, I believe a drop in textbook prices would be apparent. A professor knows his lesson plan and what materials to be used for assignments; an opportunity to find an affordable, relatable textbook that would be a branch of the lesson than a feeling of being cheated. It’s difficult enough being a student on a budget, and as Toronto’s market value increases, it won’t be getting