Melissa Phanor
Kevin Jordan
English
19 February 2012
Schools: How they can help prevent Obesity
“Selling Obesity at School” first appeared in the New York Times newspaper in 2009. In this editorial the writer aims to convince the readers that obesity is a major conflict in our schools. Logic, Credibility, and Emotions are techniques the writer skillfully uses to create a strong convincing article.
The writer begins by talking about the federal school lunch program. He/she uses background information about the School lunch program to build our credibility. The writer states why the lunch program was constituted and the revision that was made to it in the 1960’s. This brings attention to our hostile audience with its ethical appeal. This technique immediately establishes the editorial as conceivable and informative. Another way the writer uses credibility is when he/she mentions congress being aware of the issue. This appeal to our hostile audience. It demonstrates the writer’s knowledge about the topic. Both the writer’s extrinsic and intrinsic ethos are strong. Base on the article you can tell the writer not only educated himself about the issue but he also wrote the article well.
Federal school lunch program were not only use to build credibility but it also uses a logical appeal. Stating the background of the school lunch program brings logic to the argument. The statement attempts to persuade the audience by making a reasonable claim and offering proof about school lunches. In addition, the writer uses logic when he presented the fact that the Federal rules that govern the sale of the harmful foods have not been updated for nearly 30 years. This shows the writer has done his research and educated himself about the topic. Furthermore the writer talks about how the Obesity rates have tripled over the last four decades. He/she elaborates on how this could influence us by stating it could affect a larger proportion of our workforce and even surpass smoking as the leading cause of premature death.
Alternatively, the writer also uses emotion. The numerous examples of pathos throughout the article convince the readers that Obesity is a dilemma. He writer persuades by appealing through the readers emotions. The writer specifies what could be done to stop or decrease Obesity before it gets out of hand. He/she proceeded to list the affects it has among young people. This appeal to parents, teachers and/or caregivers. They are the ones that are compassionate about the student’s well-being. Here the writer attempts to appeal to an audience sense of identity, their self-interest and emotions.
Towards the end of the article the writer continues using pathos. He/she does so by stating many school districts have taken positive steps toward Obesity. The writer also list the negative impact unhealthy food has. More importantly the writer states “Even if the switch costs money so be it. The schools should not be trading their student’s health to buy office supplies.” This has a tremendous effect on our emotional audience because it uses pathetic appeal. It shows our children health should be more important than paper and pencil. With the negative affects the writer has listed many parents would agree with the writer. Because of all the negative effects Obesity has on not only children but adults the writer uses an emotional point of view to connect with his audience.
Considerably the writer uses all rhetorical appeals to connect with his readers. The use of Credibility was use to connect to our hostile audiences, the use of logic was use to persuade our audience and the use of pathetic appeal was use for our emotional audience. All in all, the writer used the rhetorical appeal to convince all of the readers. I think the writer’s way of portraying pathos in this article was brilliant. Because many people are parents and teachers this article affected many people.