Mallari Miller

Composition 2

Professor Stephanie Williams

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Rhetorical Analysis Essay

No More Homework!!

Does homework have an impact on a childs life? Homework is wrecking our children.

Homework should be banned for elementary school children. Homework is not good for children

because it leads to problems such as personal relationships, limits physical activity and relies on

parents doing the homework. Elementary children do not need homework because they are

learning other important responsibilities. Shumakers article is effective because of ethos such as

facts and sources, pathos such as tone and diction, logos such as statistics.

The author is well qualified in this subject because she has a major in sociology and she

has two children in school. She uses well qualified sources to back up her argument. She uses

sufficient facts by giving examples of how homework should be banned in the elementary

schools.

The author expresses pathos by using a serious and concerned tone. Shumakers use of

diction expresses how she conveys the audience. She uses words like overtired, academic

performance, and patrol cop to express to affect the readers attitude. Shumakers intended

audience are teachers and school officials. Parents are her secondary audience because she is

persuading by giving them important information on no homework.

The author uses a minimum amount of logos which makes her argument weak. The

authors argument does make sense, but should include more facts. She does not show statistics

to support her claim. The facts that she uses are from personal experience and credited experts.
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Shumakers use of rhetorical devices helps communicate her argument better. She uses

epizeuxis to show emphasis by repeating words such as ban, responsibility and benefit. She

repeats these words to convince the audience. She uses syntax to show various sentence

structures and to help influence the readers understanding of her writing.

Shumakers argument is effective because she uses the appeals of ethos, pathos and

logos. Although the author needs more logos it is made up by ethos and pathos. The author can

include more facts and statistics to strengthen her argument.

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Works Cited

Shumaker, Heather. "Homework Is Wrecking Our Kids: The Research Is Clear, Lets Ban

Elementary Homework." Salon. N.p., 2016. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/05/homework_is_wrecking_our_kids_the_research_is_cle

ar_lets_ban_elementary_homework/