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A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Essay 'Best Of Class' By Talbot

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In her essay Best of Class, Talbot tries to convince her audience that though the valedictorian system is flawed, it should be kept to motivate and reward student for their academic achievement. Talbot”s audience can be thought to be liberal adults of any education. This can be deduced due to both diction and various explanation of high school functions. As an article published in the widespread liberal New Yorker, the article reaches a number of people, mainly adults, though the word choice is simple and can be easily read by any level of education. Also, Talbot goes into detail describing the various academic factors that contribute to a GPA, a concept adults wouldn’t be to familiar with unless they had children. Therefore, it can be concluded …show more content…

The plight of the students who fight for their position as a valedictorian is used to invoke frustration in the reader as they sense an injustice to the stressed students. Talbot used stories of the system working against the hard working student like Stephanie Klotz who had “so many plaques I literally couldn’t carry them off stage”(228) and was originally not valedictorian. These tale frustrate the reader to the point where they actively seek out a compromise that Talbot gives. Talbot also uses pathos in the form of a counter argument to logically convince the reader that the valedictorian system should be still be implemented yet altered slightly. Talbot admits that the valedictorian system is “designed for a simpler time” (231) and maybe should be eliminated. Then, Talbot refutes this by saying “something is lost” (231) by the removal in the system and driven students should be rewarded for their efforts. By rebutting her argument for the elimination of the system, Talbot makes the argument for valedictorian more logical. Were Talbot to remove one of these appeals, pathos would be better to eliminate since her logos builds a stronger argument. Her appeal to logic is more effective because reader is drawn to the conclusion in a way they feel is backed by evidence and appears to be the only right option while the appeal to emotion could lead the

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