Rhetorical Analysis

Tuition, Fees and UTEP

Bryan Geesaman

University of Texas at El Paso

RWS-1301

Dr. Vierra

October 22, 2018

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Abstract

1. How tuition and fees can affect students?

2. How does tuition and fees effect students from different incomes?

3. How are students effected by taking loans to pay tuition?

4. Can high tuition and fees harm students?

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Annotated Bibliography
Scarlett, M. (2004). The great rip-off in American education: Undergrads underserved.

Prometheus Books.

Anything written is intended for an audience. Ede and Lundsford state that “those who

envision as addressed audience emphasize the concrete reality of the writer’s audience;

they also share the assumption that knowledge of this audience’s attitudes, beliefs and

expectations is not only possible but essential”. This emphasizes the fact that as writers

we must keep our intended audiences in mind in order to create a work that brings the

attention of the audience. In The Great Rip-Off in American Education (2004) the author,

Dr. Mel Scarlett states that “significant points are presented succinctly in a journalistic

style in order to be understandable to the general public—so that a great many people

many people…will be able to enter a dialogue”. This goes with what Ede and Lundsford

state because all these authors are writing for specific audiences, although different

audiences.
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Rhetorical Analysis

The Great Rip-Off in American Education

Rose states that professors in secondary education require or expect too much of their new

students. He describes that when he would day dream but only when his professor would

bring something up that would be challenging to him. It shows that there is an important

space between challenging a student in a right way and a challenging lesson which does

not help the student. This is an example of how a professo r’s poor teaching or

preparation can hurt the student in their academics. A professor must create their lessons

so that they are interesting and productive, in order to have lessons that can help all

students. Dr. Mel Scarlett uses rhetorical appeals in order to further establish his

argument of institutions being the enemy of the American student.

Discussion

The author of “The Great Rip-off”, Dr. Mel Scarlett, uses ethos in his argument of the “system”

being the enemy. Dr. Scarlett throughout the book references A Nation at Risk, a book

that is a critical evaluation of grades k-12. He does this in order to help reestablish and

harden his point. A Nation at Risk is a credible book and helps make Dr. Scarlett a bit

more credible by referencing the it.

Dr. Mel Scarlett does not use much pathos in his argument of the institutions being the enemy of

the student. If there is any use of ethos it is sin the form of trying to get anger from the

reader. By stating things such as “colleges and universities have been among the slowest

of America’s institutions to change or innovate”, it shows that Dr. Scarlett is trying to get

a rise of anger from the reader in order to help prove his point.
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In “The Great Rip-Off in American Education” the author uses a lot of logos when trying to

prove his point. Much of his argument points use logos because he uses statistics. Dr.

Scarlett states that according to a survey by Siegfried, Getz, and Anderson, professors at

Vanderbilt University, institution’s “average time between the adaptation of an

innovation by the first institution and it’s adoption by half of them was more than twenty-

five years. Innovations in industry tend to be twice as fast as those in higher education”.

This is a clear use of logos because he shows an example of credible authors and survey

in order to help the reader see the point of the argument.

Angela Shaw in “students in English higher education” states that many students do not know or

understand the tuition and fees. It points out that many families that help carry the burden

of student tuitions and fees do not want to take out loans because they see it as a “selfish

strategy” and also fear that they will suffer from debt. These students also take jobs to

help pay for their college so they fear that graduate employment would still elude them

because they will be too stretched thin because they will have to balance work and

school.

According to Angela Shaw, many students have trouble with their tuitions and fees

because they either do not know how to pay them or take a loan. These students who do

not take out loans suffer because they do not think they can pay off their debt or can

sustain their debt in fear of losing their money. She also goes on to say that the students

who refuse to take out loans also suffer because if they get a job to pay their tuition they

can not go to school as much and fear they may not be able to graduate. I believe she

thinks this because schools do not do much to help their students pay off their tuition yet

still require excellence in the classroom.

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According to Dr. Mel Scarlet the colleges and institutions are the enemy. He says this

because he believes that they are among the slowest institutions to change or innovate.

He thinks this because colleges and institutions do not help their students when it comes

to tuition, fees and their academics. This is proven because for the amount of money they

pay, the students do not receive much help from the institutions in their academics or

refuse to change the way they teach or what they teach. The essay from Angela Shaw

helps support his essay because both show how the colleges and institutions do not help

their students either from a financial or academic stand point.

According to Donald E. Heller, author of Tuition, Financial Aid, and Access to Public

Higher Education: A Review of the Literature, the rising tuitions of universities and

colleges lower the enrollment rate especially those who are lower-income, black, and

community college students are more sensitive to these increases in tuition. Heller also

goes on to say that according to a study, every increase of about $100 the enrolment rate

drops from .5-1%. This shows just how hard it can be for many students to enroll in

school but cannot because they have no financial backing. The tuition rates are too high

as is and are only increasing by the year so if any university such as UTEP wants to be

more inclusive of students from all backgrounds tuition prices must be reduced.

In my article Sung min Han states that in Korea the more loans people were given for

school the more likely they were to drop out or effect the academic performance than

those who do not take loans. This shows that loans can negatively impact those who take

out loans in order to pay for school. This relates to UTEP because students in the US are

impacted the same as students around the world. This also shows that the prices of
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universities and colleges almost force some students into taking out a loan which ends up

hurting the students in the end.

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Conclusion