What's The Matter With Creationism By Pollitt

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Rhetorical Angliss Katha Pollitt (Original) “What’s the Matter with Creationism?” by Katha Pollitt, was written in response to a recent Gallup poll that showed 46 percent of respondents are creationists. Pollitt then proceeds to compare this poll to another poll conducted with college graduates that shows 46 percent of graduate students are also creationist as well. She then proceeds to blame the educational system for not teaching evolution to students correctly, she says: “Needless to say, this remarkable demonstration of educational failure attracts little attention from those who call for improving our schools”. Throughout her essay, she bashes the educational system and multiple religious groups for not convincing their students and children the undeniable truth of evolution. In this essay Pollitt uses insults as a way of supporting her arguments. There are also a few instances in her argument where she doesn’t seem to understand what a creationist stance is. You can’t argue against a group that you’re not educated on because there are no true facts to support …show more content…

The essay had an interesting topic and potential, however Pollitt obviously didn’t express her thoughts in a way where she could reach her target audience. If Pollitt had learned more about the position of a creationist and had built arguments against the evidence creationist base their beliefs off it would have stood a better chance at being a correctly effective essay. Pollitt also could have chosen another form of Pathos to engage her writers. She could have coaxed a feeling of sadness to make the audience feel they’ve been deprived from certain facts about evolution through education and should fight to have those extensive lectures in schools. This would have been a more effective form of Pathos rather than making people feel stupid for their