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Andy De Luna

Professor Briones

ENGL 1301-123

13 November 2022

How Rhetoric Can Affect an Article

Depression, Anxiety, and Stress are the triangle that haunts many people, but especially,

college students. Many would argue that it is a regular thing that students must get used to

throughout their lives; however, there is a direct relation, which might not seem as obvious, be-

tween the levels of depression, anxiety, and stress present in a college student and their coping

style (Adaptive or Maladaptive). The relation between those factors is detailed in J.S.R. Mah-

moud's article “The Relationship among Young Adult College Student’s Depression, Anxiety,

Stress, Demographics, Life Satisfaction, and Coping Styles” in which rhetorical devices are used

to persuade the audience. In this essay, there will be an analysis of the use of ethos, pathos, and

logos in the article to help support the main ideas. Due to the nature of the article, it would be ex-

pected a lesser use of pathos and more ethos and logos as it is centered around surveys conducted

by the authors to a group of college students. Although the authors make good use of many

rhetorical choices, some exceptions hurt their persuasion. Across the essay, the term DAS will

refer to depression, anxiety, and stress, as it is widely used.

To begin with, during the starting paragraph of the article, there is an example of the use

of logos to support the argument that college students suffer from higher levels of DAS (Mah-

moud et al. 149.) Not only do logos help deliver evidence for the argument the authors are pro-

viding, but they also give a more academic feeling to the document. Later, the authors use ethos

as they establish authority by stating the instruments on which they based their surveys and the
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use of each one, creating reliability. The introduction opens with the use of logos, “Approxi-

mately 40 million American adults suffer from anxiety,” and, surprisingly, it is followed by the

use of pathos as they discuss the effects of depression, which “may lead to suicide, the second-

leading cause of death among college students” (Mahmoud et al. 149). Even though it is factual

information, referring to suicide in specific plays with the audience's emotions and gives more

weight to the author's argument. As the introduction goes on, the use of pathos is still present as

marked by an argument in which the authors declare that college students face numerous stres-

sors that could alter their mental health (Mahmoud et al. 150). By providing scenarios where

people can identify themselves, the authors’ further points will resonate more with the reader.

Also, the authors do an interesting job to establish credibility before making an argument; they

relate the use of certain coping strategies to specific demographics and provide evidence to sup-

port their claims by using logos. Then, the authors used that credibility to argue how college stu-

dents are “faced with numerous developmental challenges and tasks related to their college

lives” (Mahmoud et al. 150). The introduction contained a substantial number of rhetorical de-

vices to help the authors make their points across a wide audience, ranging from college stu-

dents, faculty staff at universities, and even people outside of the academic environment.

Secondly, the article talks about the method the authors used to collect their information.

Although there is not a wide use of any of the rhetorical devices, the transparency of the methods

being used in the surveys generates more credibility in the article which can be considered as

ethos in the document. On the methods they used, the authors listed the procedure, the instru-

ments, and the statistical analysis. Something to notice in this section is that, even though this

should be the part where the methodology is explained in detail, the wording is more profes-

sional and technical which can alienate the regular audience and prevent them from reading for-
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ward. In this section, there should be a way in which the audience that is not an expert can con-

tinue with the document and be persuaded to read more.

Lastly, the results of the surveys are given with the use of logos as tables with the infor-

mation collected are presented. A point where the article seems to be contradicting itself is when

the authors mention that ethnicity and place of residence were not as significant for the levels of

DAS in the student population; however, when the limitations of the study are presented, it is

mentioned that most of the students that responded the survey were Caucasian, possibly affecting

other ethnic or racial groups differently (Mahmoud et al. 151/153). The authors also remarked on

the demographics of the students and related the DAS levels with the coping styles chosen by the

students. They also did a great job of showing the link between demographics and coping styles

and used logos to back up their argument. The article finished with a discussion of the impor-

tance of the results collected by the survey and the impact it can have on college students and

university faculty. The discussion helps to further convey how demographics affect the student

population and how maladaptive coping styles cause higher levels of DAS in college students.

To conclude, the study made by the authors does a great job of using rhetorical devices to

aid their arguments to get across to their intended audience. However, the inexperienced public

will have a harder time understanding the concepts presented in the article as the wording on the

methodology becomes more technical. By using all three of the persuasive techniques (logos,

ethos, pathos), the authors’ points become credible and relatable. On the other hand, the article

does contradict itself as it says that the surveys conducted reflected that the levels of DAS did

not relate to the student’s ethnicity or place of residence. It is warned that the results generated

by the surveys were to be used with caution concerning other ethnic or racial groups as most of
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the students in the study were Caucasian. Overall, the article by J.S.R. Mahmoud and his peers

reflects a good use of rhetorical devices.

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Work Cited

Mahmoud, J.S.R. et al., “The Relationship among Young Adult College Students’ Depression,

Anxiety, Stress, Demographics, Life Satisfaction, and Coping Styles,” Issues in Mental

Health Nursing, pp. 149-156, doi: 10.3109/01612840.2011.632708