Summary: In "Yes, a college education is worth the
costs"(2011) by Rodney K. Smith, he begins by stating the real reasons on
why teenagers choose to not go to college. He then proceeds to acknowledge the
statistics of the Bureau of Labor in which they argue that acquiring an
education will lead to more financial benefits. Smith then concludes with a
personal anecdote of when his family got the roots of education and how
following these footsteps have led him to become a well-educated person.
Analysis: Rodney K.
Smith’s main assertion of his editorial is that kids with a higher level of education
have a higher possibility of acquiring jobs rather than a person with lower
education. His claim is supported by the statistics of the Bureau of Labor
which presents the higher wages of person with high education and the higher
percentage of people with no job that have low education levels. This gives his
argument more liability because the Bureau of Labor’s main focus is on the
statistics of people working in the United States. Also the Bureau of Labor is
a popular name known around the American public which gives it more
credibility. Smith’s personal anecdote appeals to the emotions of the audience
in which it ignites them with feelings of possibility. The story of his grandpa
giving his dad the family’s life savings causes for the audience to think that
anything is possible and that college is worth going to be cause of how far
smith has gotten in life.
Work Cited
Smith, Rodney
K. "Column: Yes, a College Education Is worth the Costs."
USAToday.com. USA TODAY News, 06 Dec. 2011. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2011-12-06/college-education-debt-jobs/51680176/1>.
