Ka Yi Carrie Poon (114201155)
Natalie Anklesaria
EAC150
October 21, 2015
Background
David Suzuki has always been one of my favourite people since I was in elementary school. We would learn about him as a scientist and someone who would take effort to change the world and making it better place with his research in sustainable ecology. Back when I was in University, I had a research project about sustainability in hospitality and tourism in Costa Rica. It made me feel that while we are here separating our compost and recycling, there are other parts of the world who are doing even more.
Annotations
Suzuki, David. "Get Your Kids Away from the Screen and into the Green." Columnists. The Western Star, 30 Sept. 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
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He begins with the interesting speculation from the book High School? That “impressions formed in high school are more vivid and indelible than those formed at any other time in life.” Suzuki stresses the importance of high school education and prepares his readers for a proposal related to making that education as valuable as possible. A rhetorical analysis reveals the varying degrees of success with which Suzuki employs logos, pathos, and ethos: while Suzuki’s ethos is strong because of the reputation he brings to his writing and his use of pathos to appeal to his target audience of parents and educators, his use of logos is weak. Suzuki is skilled in argumentation, but his strong ethos fails to make up for the lack of support for his thesis that high school science courses should begin with sex education. Suzuki’s ethos is dependent on his achievements in science, and no one would question the wisdom of choosing him to speak to high school students about science. Although he is not an expert on adolescents or education, his own education and experience garner him enough credibility to offer a reasonable opinion on the topic. Because he does not need to establish who he is or what he is talking about, he can assume that his audience will listen, if not wholeheartedly embrace his ideas. He also depends upon …show more content…
Admittedly, David Suzuki wrote his essay at a time when education budgets were in better shape than they are today, and he certainly makes an excellent point that educators should respect their students and appeal to their interests. Nevertheless, his argument for sex education in the schools clearly needs further thinking. In spite of Suzuki’s strong ethos and persuasive use of pathos, he needs a stronger use of logos to make an argument here. The best he can hope for is to get his audience’s attention – then it is up to them to see if and how his ideas should be implemented in the