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Rhetorical Analysis Of College Pressure By William Zinsser

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Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Going to college is the first step to jump into the society, learning how to communicate with others, get more advanced information, acknowledge and share ideas with friends. However, many students are getting into trouble, which not related with education. In the essay, "College Pressure," William Zinsser focuses on four main types of pressure that college student experiences, which are economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. Zinsser writes about the pressures and gives examples on each one by writing scenarios or giving a personal experience when he witnessed college students struggling with anxiety. The essay gives a good amount of information and details to back up the …show more content…

Zinsser addresses his argument using pathos, which plays on the reader’s emotions. Zinsser states, “Mainly I try to remind them that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns than they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches”. This states that the students should calm down and explore more for their lives in the future. Zinsser draws attention of the readers by starting with the notes that the students sent to their dean, Carlos Hortas, showing the anxieties of the students trying to figure out their uncertain future; this allows the readers to show sympathy and concern towards the students as they relate to their feelings of pressure. For example, Zinsser recalls a story that the dean told him about the typical questions he would receive from students in the 1960’s. The questions were about why the world was suffering and how they would contribute to improve it. The typical questions from students nowadays are about what major they should be in or what class they should take in order to get into either law school or medical

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