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.

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

pint of the argument.