Throughout this semester, my writing has been developing and improving as time went on. A great thing that this course offers is peer feedback because even though I wouldn’t have that many people that gave me feedback but the people that did, really gave helpful information that led me to fix and improve my writing. Adding on with receiving feedback and looking at example essays, my strategies have been enhanced in reading, drafting, revising, editing. Discussion boards were a good way for me and my peers to interact with each other and learn from each other. Every Time I was done with making a post on the discussion board, I would look at some of my peers’ responses because they may have different views and ideas than that have helped me learn more about what the assignment was about. When it came to finding resources to support my argument, the critical analysis essay was challenging to find the resources I needed. I mentioned this in my reflection in essay 3 but I was able to overcome this by typing different words on google to find information about my topic. For example, I would type“free college tuition” first on google and get not the results I was looking for. Then I would type “Benefits of college free tuition” and get better results than before. I already know how to integrate the quotes into my essay but my analysis wasn’t the best and coming into this class, I had the goal that I wanted to make my analysis much stronger. It sometimes felt that I was summarizing the quote more than breaking it down the quotes and examining them more carefully. For example one of my analyses in my critical analysis essay draft was, “Rogan said this because he knows people that are going through college debt still and shows that he is connected to this problem because he knows people facing this issue.” Then in the final essay of my critical analysis, I said, “By Rogan saying this he is using pathos because he connects to the issue by having people he knows that go through the issue of tuition. The tone he said it in made it seem that he felt empathy for his friends that have to deal with debt.” I was able to dissect the quote even more and it doesn’t sound like I summarized the quote. As my writing is developing as the semester is going, I also had problems with having an articulate stance in my writing. For example in my visual essay in the audience strategy my thesis statement during my draft, “unemployment is a big problem that needs to be addressed and solved.” Then my final was, “there are many people that don’t have jobs and need them in order to be able to survive and help take care of others.” My thesis statement was general at first but then I switched it up to show a clear stance on the issue I was addressing. As moving forward I want to continue to improve my writing and reading skills and it was good to see improvement in my writing throughout the semester.
Elimination of College Tuition
College tuition has a big impact on whether students decide to go college or not. The cost of tuition has progressively become more expensive and it has mainly affected lower-income students and, sometimes financial aid isn’t enough. Many students go to college to learn more about their careers and follow their passions. For the people that can’t afford college, they are not able to do that which puts them at a disadvantage. The education system of colleges makes students pay big amounts of money on tuition just to attend college and there are many people that are not able to do that. In the YouTube video, “The Problem with ‘Free’” where the author Joe Rogan believes that tuition free colleges isn’t something that can possibly happen in reality. Rogan effectively addresses the issue by having a conversation with Andrew Yang about the problems of free college. Rogan uses logos to show how not everyone doesn’t need to go to college to go on the right path. He captures the audience by using pathos by mentioning people he knew that had gone to college that either had debt or went to college and doing something completely different now. College should eliminate tuition so lower-income students have a fair chance to attend college and get the education that they need.
Many students when they come out of college, they remain with debt that can possibly stay with them for most of their lives. In Joe Rogan’s You Tube video he states, “friends that are in their 30s and 40s around, yeah it just stays with them like a wet blanket that you can never get out of.” By Rogan saying this he is using pathos because he connects to the issue by having people he knows that go through the issue of tuition. The tone he said it in made it seem that he felt empathy for his friends that have to deal with debt. With tuition being so high, there are many people that can’t afford to pay it back so quickly. Rogan is trying to say that if people are not able to afford tuition then it is not worth going to college because at the end of the day, those people are going to come out of college with a lot of debt to handle that can take years to pay back but this can be avoided if tuition was gone. In an article titled “Why College Should Be Free: Pros and Cons” by Ellen Andersen mentioned, “Without the weight of student loan debt, more college graduates might buy houses rather than renting apartments.” The elimination of tuition would benefit the economy even more because most college graduates will start making purchases such as buying a house or a car instead of worrying about paying off their debt that they accumulated throughout college. Andersen is suggesting that without tuition, the younger generation would contribute much more to the economy than if they collected a bunch of debt. Money is a big issue for many students coming out of high school and trying to go to college. A lot of low-income students and families are struggling financially and most of them can’t afford to go to college. Anderson states, “Getting rid of tuition would eliminate this reason for not graduating.” This goes to show that if tuition were gone, many lower-income students would have the chance to go to college, therefore more of them would be able to graduate. According to the article Andersen wrote, The average American college student graduating with debt is $37,000. That is a lot of money to worry about, especially after graduating from college. This just forces college graduates to continue to pay back what they owe for long periods of time.
There are many people that go to college and believe that it leads them on the right path but it takes them somewhere else. Rogan mentions, “it’s so common that they thought there was going to be this path and this path just didn’t exist once they got out.” Rogan believes that college isn’t for everyone and that is true, there are many people that don’t need college to be successful and follow their dreams. There are many others that need the education to pursue what they want to do but they can’t afford it. Which forces them to not go to school and choose a different career path. Rogan’s goal is to let his intended audience know that college isn’t needed and that there are so many other paths that can be taken than wasting your time going to college. Andersen is straightforward in the article by letting the audience know that by getting rid of tuition, more college students will enjoy choosing what major they want. She argues, “ Interest and enjoyment from a field of study goes a long way in helping students stick with it and avoid burning out.” With tuition not being a thing, more people are going to want to go to college because they are going to have the freedom to choose what majors they want. The process of going to college would be more enjoyable if college students don’t have to worry about paying off their tuition than they can worry about what major they want to focus on.
Joe Rogan fails to discuss how tuition-free college would benefit the lower-income students, he was mostly talking about how many college graduates come out of college with a lot of debt for most in his YouTube conversation with Andrew Yang. A New York Times article written by David Deming titled “Tuition-Free College Could Cost Less Than You Think” mentions, “Yet at the moment, only 37 percent of Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 have a four-year college degree, and completion rates are lower for poorer students.” Deming uses logos to show readers that lower-income students are effective by the large cost of tuition, therefore preventing them from completing college. By doing this he is able to get the readers’ trust because he provided statistical information that shows that tuition does impact lower-income students. How come when Joe Rogan speaks about free college, he doesn’t mention the less fortunate? Free college is supposed to help everyone, especially the people that couldn’t afford paying tuition. There are many lower-income students that want to go to college to follow their dreams but the cost of tuition stops them. Even help with financial aid isn’t enough for them to continue to go to college. Deming also states in his article, “Dollars and cents aside, there is a strong ethical case for devoting more public spending to policies that encourage poorer students to get a college education, giving them some of the opportunities that richer students receive as a matter of birth.” By eliminating college tuition, it gives everyone the equal opportunity to attend college because it isn’t fair that someone rich that can afford it can go to college but someone poor can’t. In another article titled “Why Free College Is Necessary” by Tressie McMillian Cottom, the author is fighting for free college tuition and for change in the education system. Cotton argues that “free college would likely benefit only an outlying group of students who are currently shut out of higher education because of cost—students with the ability and/or some cultural capital but without wealth.” This goes to show that college is very privileged because most of the people that go to college can afford to pay tuition while there are others that go to college but worry about paying off their debt. If tuition is out of the picture when it comes to college then it wouldn’t be as privileged anymore because anyone that wants higher education can get it.
Rogan’s solution is that people don’t have to go to college because people don’t need higher education to make money to survive. He states in his video, “if you abandoned like the idea of higher learning and going to college and just went right into learning to be a carpenter or something like that, people look at you oh you sold yourself short.” Even though there is nothing wrong with people wanting to be a carpenter and not go to college, there are many people that don’t want to do that. The people that want to be doctors, lawyers, pilots, etc, they need to go to college and learn to become what they want to be. Some of these people are low-income students that want to have those kinds of jobs but they can’t pay for tuition which stops them from pursuing their passion.
Joe Rogan makes it look like a tuition free college is impossible and unlikely going to happen because it doesn’t sound realistic. Eliminating tuition would help every college student by not having to worry about collecting debt and worry about their career and their goals. Rogan left his audience wondering if tuition will ever not be a thing in the education system and what type of solutions are going to happen to solve this problem.
Reflection
When thinking about the thesis statement, it was hard coming up with one because I had to have my sources to be able to support it. As I found sources to use, the thesis statement slowly came together. While finding the sources to support my thesis statement, it was hard to find information about the issue I was trying to address. I was able to overcome this by typing different words on google to find information about my topic. For example, I would type“free college tuition” first on google and get not the results I was looking for. Then I would type “Benefits of college free tuition” and get better results than before. While conducting my research, I found many sources that I discarded because they seemed like they were going to go well with my topic but then I realized after analyzing the resources that it was going to help my topic or go back to supporting my thesis. I also discarded those sources because they were proving my thesis statement wrong or going against what I had to say about this topic of free college. While analyzing the texts and resources, the problem I had was how I was going to use these resources and include it in my essay while it connected to my argument. I was able to solve this problem by being picky on what evidence I want to use in my essay because I had to find the best evidence to support my argument. Also while analyzing my sources, I noticed that some had information about ideas going against my ideas about the same topic. I overcame this by using the information that I needed for my essay and I didn’t use the information that was going against my thesis statement. The sources I used to support my thesis statement helped prove my argument. All the information I used in the sources to support my thesis statement also contributed to my argument because they both related to each other and also strengthened my stances on the topic.
Works Cited
- Rogan , Joe, director. The Problem with “Free” College | Joe Rogan & Andrew Yang. YouTube, YouTube, 12 Feb. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DMCsXq_mYw.
- Cottom, Tressie McMillan. “Why Free College Is Necessary.” Dissent Magazine, 23 Sept. 2019, www.dissentmagazine.org/article/tressie-mcmillan-cottom-why-free-college-necess
- Andersen , Ellen. “Should College Be Free: Pros And Cons – College Raptor.” College Raptor Blog, 31 July 2020, www.collegeraptor.com/find-colleges/articles/affordability-college-cost/pros-cons-tu
- Deming, David. “Tuition-Free College Could Cost Less Than You Think.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 July 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/business/tuition-free-college.html
Audience Strategy
My intended audience is people who currently have no job and now are seeking one. I want my visual essay to engage with everyone that had jobs before covid and lost them because of it but it can also be for people who are struggling with getting a new job and need some help. I want them to understand that they aren’t the only one facing this problem and that this is happening everywhere. I also want them to know that there is still hope and opportunities out there. People looking at the poster will make them see how people all over the world are impacted by unemployment. My audience can also be the government, so that people who need jobs get jobs. When my audience looks at my visuals I want them to feel relieved and excited because I know that they have been stressing over not having a job, especially during the pandemic. The genre presented in my work tragedy, by using tragedy it shows that unemployment is a global issue and that many people are facing the same problem. I can see my viewers seeing my poster on the street, transportation vehicles, and even near many different types of stores. Not only unemployed people lose income but they are facing many challenges with their physical and mental health. This allows my ideas to be more attractive because many people can relate to it and there are a lot of people facing unemployment issues. There are a lot of people that are unemployed that have families that need to provide but they are not able to because they don’t have a source of income to depend on. There are many people that don’t have jobs and need them in order to be able to survive and help take care of others.
Reflection
I was at first having difficulties with how I can grab my audience’s attention, so I decided to make a poster that offers unemployed individuals voices to be heard because I visualize it like if the poster was on a wall, someone is going to see it and stop to look at it for a few seconds. I got inspiration from seeing posters on the subway and streets. I also got inspired in seeing posters in protest to inform others and make a change happen. Therefore I choose to create a poster for my visual essay because the majority of my intended audience are going to be adults and teenagers that I have had jobs and are currently unemployed. I wanted to make something that would grab their attention and engage with my visual work. Younger people are usually the type of people that are on social media a lot, there are many older people that don’t have social media. My intended audience also led me to create a poster because I see it like a real-life scenario where people are traveling around outdoors and eventually seeing my poster. If they can relate to it, then they will be very interested and gain their attention even more. The main goal of a poster is to be eye-catching and informative. I was able to incorporate pathos by the images I choose, which shows how a person would look if they lost their job, they are desperate for jobs because they have responsibilities that they need to take care of. This engages the audience because many people are tired of being without a job and stressing for survival. The main reason someone would engage with my poster is that they are unemployed and going through the problems of unemployment. I know that the people seeing the poster are most likely not going to stop for long to see it, so making my poster with not that many words it makes it easier for the viewer to engage with the poster while they continue on with their day. Composing a visual essay is different from writing a traditional essay in the way that visual essays give you many ways to present ideas and information. A visual essay may be even more powerful and effective than a traditional essay because, in my opinion, I think more people enjoy seeing visual things instead of reading a lot of words and paragraphs. You are able to find creative ways to connect and communicate with your audience. A traditional essay is usually very direct and in a visual essay it can mean multiple things, the audience can see it from different perspectives. You are limited in the way of presenting your ideas in a traditional essay. Me creating my poster came with challenges, I had to make it very noticeable so my audience can be able to engage with it. I used bright color texts and images to be able to attract my audience. This assignment gave me the option to create something to help present my argument in a very creative way than a traditional essay would.
Unemployment Makes Survival Even Harder!
Unemployment has been a big issue since the beginning of when the pandemic started. This forced everyone that had lost a job to adjust to their lifestyle and it also forced them to fight even harder just to stay alive.
In the article, “What It’s Like To Job Hunting for Months During the Pandemic” by Reina Sultan discusses 7 people that had to job hunt because they lost their previous job due to covid. Covid has definitely forced many people to look for job’s since most jobs before were required in person but now there are many jobs that moved to working from home.
The article stated,” In September, unemployment in the U.S. fell below 10 percent for the first time since March 2020.” This means that since the pandemic started, the unemployment rate has increased and fewer jobs are available. Ngozi is 25 years old from Brooklyn, one of the 7 people that were included in this article and she mentions, “From the start, navigating job opportunities has felt pretty hopeless, especially as the death toll and unemployment numbers skyrocketed.” This shows that not only she is feeling dreadful but many others that are jobless feel the same way. I believe that the mental health of the people that are unemployed has been damaged because it puts a lot of stress on them.
There is a bigger competition to find jobs now due to how the pandemic has affected this world, this pandemic has made people have to fight for survival even harder. When the competition gets harder, the harder it gets to survive. People that are unemployed need to stay hopeful because hope combats negative thoughts and it helps see light at the end of the tunnel.
I interviewed my older brother that has been affected by the pandemic which made him look for new jobs. My brother had a job at a restaurant place before covid and during covid but that shut down because the place wasn’t gaining enough money to keep it running. This led to him losing his job and going job hunting. He was able to find a new job at a hospital but it was a journey for him to get there.
I asked him, “How was the process of finding a new job?”. He told me, “the process was very difficult, I would apply to many different jobs and not hear from them ever again but I knew I couldn’t give up. It was a very stressful and long process because all I wanted to do was to provide for my family and make sure we are all good. I’m very grateful for being able to have the opportunity to get a job during an extremely difficult time we are living right now.” I understand his view because he has built a family and needs to support them, I can tell it wasn’t an easy process for him to go through because when he had no job, he had to worry about if his family was going to be okay.
It is hard to think about not being able to provide for your family while having no job. Another question I asked my brother was, “How do you feel after you have found a new job?”. He replied, “I felt really relieved because now I don’t have to worry about me being able to support my family. I also feel blessed because I know there are many people that filed for unemployment due to covid and I somehow was able to get a job during this time period.” I can tell that he was happy because I know he only wants the best for his family and he is going to try his best to support them. Him getting the job removed his worries that he had when he didn’t have a job.
I came across this Youtube video titled, “How Unemployment impacted Millennials During Coronavirus” and it discusses how different people all over the country who filed for unemployment were impacted by it.
For example, one woman in the video talks about how she lived with her friend while she was unemployed for free. I can tell she was really thankful and happy for that opportunity because there are many people that don’t have a place to live and now are currently stressing where they are going to have their next meal and where they are even going to stay for the night. There are many people that don’t have homes because they lost their job during this time and forces them to face challenges. If that woman didn’t have that friend to help her, where could she have been? She would probably struggle even more and be forced to fight for survival even harder just to make sure she’s alive.
Adding on, the video also addressed percentages of different rates of jobless workers who received unemployment benefits, 24 percent of jobless White workers, 22 percent of Hispanic workers, and 13 percent of Black workers have received unemployment benefits during the pandemic. This goes to show that there are many people that haven’t received unemployment benefits and this can lead to even worse outcomes, such as homelessness. There’s many people that need to get paid or else survival is going to get harder for them. If this occurs, this will put a demand on homeless shelters and bigger solutions will need to be made so we can avoid seeing the worst from unemployment. I believe that everyone that is qualified for those benefits should receive them as soon as possible because there are many people that need that money to be able to survive.
Reflection
My opinion editorial is formatted in essay format because I wanted to be straightforward and make sure anyone that reads my piece of writing understood what I was trying to say. This format allows me to be informative, concise and organized at the same time. My audience is anyone that has experienced any unemployment issues due to covid. It can also be for people that are currently unemployed and looking for jobs at the moment. The rhetorical situation that I addressed is the issue of employment and unemployment and how covid had a major impact on many people losing their jobs. I mainly used logos because I used statistical data to help show and support what I had to say about unemployment during the pandemic. Using logos, I know that I can gain the reader’s trustworthiness by using facts and statistics. At the same time, I was also using a little pathos to show the people that are reading my work what emotions are felt by the people who lost their job from something that they couldn’t control and to show how it feels to be jobless in this world. My goal in doing this is for my audience to relate to and give them hope because I know that the people who lost their job are going through a very difficult time as well as all of us are. I feel like there’s a lot of people that are still currently unemployed and the people that qualify for unemployment benefits and haven’t received them yet should be able to receive them soon because there are too many people that are struggling right now. During the writing process of this essay, I felt really connected to this because I have family and friends that have been affected by this issue and I’ve seen them turn darkness into light. An example that I mentioned in my essay, was my older brother, like how he lost his job because of covid and it forced him to search for a new one and he never gave up and eventually, he found one that he is currently working at. I hope my essay gives people the motivation and hope they need to keep moving forward.
Works cited
- Article: Sultan, Reina. What It’s Like to Job Hunt for Seven Months During a Pandemic, 29 Sept. 2020, 7:00am, www.vice.com/en/article/wxqmkx/job-hunting-for-seven-months-during-covid-19-pandemic-unemployment.
2. Youtube Video: CNBC, director. How Unemployment Impacted Millennials During Coronavirus. YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGWNCl0Wdy4.
