Blog #5- The rhetorical triangle in use
Governor Doug Ducey made some very good points on why AZ needs more college graduates. It would increase job wages, create more jobs, lower poverty numbers, and raise taxes. The last one doesn’t sound like a benefit to me, but it is more money for the government to use towards the education system. Ducey also used good strategies to make this plan sound amazing.
Starting off, Ducey wrote an article introducing Achieve60AZ, which is a statewide effort to improve educational attainment. He wants to raise the college-level education from 42% to 60% by 2023. One reason is that people with college degrees make more money than people without. Also, more jobs will require some education past high school, so people will need to go to school to have a good job. Another reason is to have better employment rates and more loyal employees. I think these improvements would be great for the economy. More people will have jobs and therefore live a better and more stable life.
Although I support this effort, the article doesn’t give much information on how Arizona's going to get there. Ducey said the government put more money in the education budget to help attain this goal. This article was written in 2016 and it has been long enough to see changes. According to Statistical Atlas currently, 25.5% of Arizona has some college and 17.5% has a bachelor's degree. These rates have lowered from when the article was written. Seven years later, Arizona is farther away from the goal. This has to do with how expensive college is and wages not meeting the inflation rate. About 12.5% of people in Arizona live below the poverty line. This problem needs to be fixed before there will be more college graduates.
Moving on to the rhetoric of the article, Ducey used the rhetorical triangle to convince the citizens to join in on Achieve60AZ. He used pathos, emotional appeal, by talking about being a father and wanting a better life for his children. He connects to all the parents in Arizona who want the same for their children. Next, he uses logos, the logistics, by using statistics to show where Arizona is right now and where it should be. The fact that more college degrees will lead to more employment and better wages is great evidence. Lastly, he uses ethos, authority, which the governor has. He is in a position of power to make a change and is the leader of change. The governor did a good job of using the rhetorical triangle to make his argument.
“Ducey: Why Arizona needs more college grads” was a great example of using the rhetorical triangle. The Achieve60AZ goal also sounds good on paper, but there needs to be a lot more plans to make it happen. I don’t see Arizona reaching this goal, because of the current economy. I hope one day Arizona will get there, but not enough people can afford college right now.
Thanks for reading!
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