Rhetorical Analysis

Author, Alan Collinge, in his article, “Why College Prices Keep Rising,” touches on issues regarding student loan debt. Collinge’s purpose is to inform the readers of the reasons why college expenses are rising. The writer employs strategies such as logos, parallelism, idiom, and erotema, to further the idea he is trying to establish. He creates a monotone yet, concerned tone in order to encourage the readers to become more proactive within the realm of financial aid. 

    Collinge starts automatically by using logos in his first paragraph. He says that from a “recent analysis of the President’s Budget data reveals… the US Department of Education, on average, recovers $1.22 for every dollar paid out in default claims.” He describes this as “most disturbing” then reinforces why it is so by using the statement above to provide evidence on why he feels this way. Proceeding on to the thesis of this article, the writer uses either metonym or synecdoche when using the phrase “pretty penny”. The statement is normally used as a representation of money and to say, in this case, the government is making a large amount of money from defaults. 

    In the second paragraph, he uses erotema as the first sentence asking, “How could this be possible?” Here he asks the audience a rhetorical question as a way to allow the readers to think before moving on. Then, in the following sentence, he uses parallelism saying “… bankruptcy protections, statutes of limitations, and consumer protections.” He used this technique to name off the many other debts that have been removed; thus adding emphasis to student debt. Next, he uses the phrase “draconian collection powers.” According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, draconian means “of, relating to, or characteristic of Draco or the severe code of laws held to have been famed by him.” Digging further, Draco was the first lawgiver of Athens, “whose harsh legal code punished… serious crimes in Athens with death,” as stated by britannica.com. Collinge uses this term plus the words “collection powers” to give off a negative connotation and establishes pathos. This appeals to emotion, almost scaring the readers into believing that this is something that they, the reader, do not want to be involved in. 

    Moving on, he incorporated aporia. He presented as if he was not able to describe the types of financial motivations, as if the motives was too much to handle or contain. To further his argument, he goes on to use more numbers such as percentages. Collinge conveys the phrase “rubber-stamp”, which is an idiom that normally represents a person that gives a plan the approval that it needs. 

    In paragraph six, the writer capitalizes the word “not” to show the strong emphasis about how the Department of Education’s reasons to raise loan limits. In the start of paragraph seven, the first sentence to be exact has a condescending or patronizing tone. He plays some type of “blame game” or in some way exposes these entities and it is clearly seen in paragraph eight, in the first sentence. It says “[…] the advocates can claim they did not know.” Just with that alone it seems as if he is mocking the group or maybe scolding them, while still keeping that condescending or patronizing tone. 

    He again uses parallelism, “schools pushing, advocates wringing, lenders playing, and Congress debating.” He goes on to not only use parallelism, but to describe how each entity is behaving by using words that contains a negative connotation like selfish, awry, and amoral. He calls these entities “actors”, in paragraph ten, the second sentence. The assumption is that Collinge gave the politicians (Congress), the student advocates, the schools, the lenders, and the Department of Education the name “actor” due to the fact that they act like they care about student debt. 

    The writer uses elevated diction and uses financial related diction knowing that the audience would understand being that the publication is Forbes magazine, a well-known magazine among investors, business people, and many others who are knowledgeable about things that revolve in the financial world. In the article, he uses this as a signal to let the readers know that the topic he is speaking on he knows very well. 

    In closing, Alan Collinge establishes many rhetorical strategies while conveying concerned and monotone tone. He has these strategies in order to add emphasis to the growing problem. Doing all of these things he was able to accomplish his goals of informing his audience.

Work Cited 

Collinge, Alan. "Why College Prices Keep Rising." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 19 Mar. 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2012/03/19/why-college-prices-keep-rising/>. 

"Draco | Biography - Greek Lawgiver." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/170671/Draco>. 

Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/draconian>.