Mikiko Senga

English 107

Dr. Ransdell

October 23, 1998

Changing Views on Home Schooling

            Home schooling is becoming more and more popular in today's world. It has been a controversial matter for a long time because people are concerned of giving and/or receiving the best quality education. Although there are many reasons behind a child's home schooling, home schooling can be questionable as was reported in a recent "Newsweek" magazine. Although home schooling was criticized in the past, such negative viewpoints  are beginning to change drastically. An article found in "Newsweek" entitled "Learning at Home: Does It Pass the Test?" by Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert discusses how the views on home schooling are changing and why home schooling can have advantages over normal schooling. The authors use three appeals (ethos, pathos and logos) effectively to illustrate some positive views on home schooling. The article is impressive as the writers draw the audience's curiosity to gain support to their discussion.

            The authors begin their essay in an interesting way to attract the audience. They start the essay by stating that there were some parents who said, "NO," to their children's attending school. They probably used this style to begin their essay in order to catch the reader's attention to why some parents would want to do that. After the surprising first sentence, they immediately introduce one's positive experiences in home schooling to support their introductory sentence. Here, the authors gather the audience's interest because the readers are curious to find out more about what factors are unique and favorable in home schooling. Thus, this attention gathering is one example of the authors' good use of logos.

            The authors demonstrate another effective logos appeal by clarifying their purpose, supported by numerous evidences, and by addressing the article to an appropriate audience. They address their article toward parents and students, especially those who are or will be thinking about home schooling and/or those who are already home schooled. Their article may be attractive to those who completed home schooling as well. The authors' purpose is to let their target audience know that home schooling can be respected as much as normal, typical schooling. They do this by providing sufficient examples of positive home schooling experiences of many people. It is evident that they did a lot of interviewing with home schoolers and their parents and many hours of researching on the topic. This is proved from the actual passage as they present their essay with statistics and current facts on home schooling. Because the authors discuss their purpose and support it with evidence to their main audience, they are successful at using the logos appeal.

            The authors add more strength to their analysis by being very logical, yet reasonable, throughout the essay. They talk in detail about what home schooling can offer to a student in good ways. For example, they state the fact that home schoolers, on average, have scored higher on standardized tests than those who do normal schooling. (Page 66 and 68). The authors also stress an important fact, (which everyone wants to know when it comes to home schooling): Home schoolers can get into some of the most prestigious colleges in the nation. The majority of this article cover the authors' positive logical aspects on home schooling, mostly supported by facts and information they got from other sources. Despite all the positive sides of home schooling, the writers mention some negative sides to home schooling, such as large expenses spent on home schooling education. Because they do not constantly discuss too many good things about home schooling, their analysis is presented in a fair, balanced, reasonable form. This is one of the keys to their excellent logos.

            Pathos is another huge factor that plays an important role in the writers' strategies. They create feeling of confidence in their audience due to their positiveness of home schooling. Because the article discusses good characteristics of home schooling education, the authors use pathos effectively as they encourage the readers that home schooling is not bad after all. Their main points are supported by true life experiences; therefore, the article itself is believable. Also, the audience can feel more positively about current home schooling although it did not have a good reputation a decade ago. Overall, the writers are able to create encouraging, satisfying, pleasant feelings in readers because they mention  so many advantages of this type of education that the readers feel that they are not mistaken regarding their decision of home schooling.

            Although the audience, other than the writers' target audience, may feel offended and disagree with home schooling, the authors make their pathos effective by trying to change people's minds. Some non-home schoolers might have too much pride in their normal schooling system. To put it this way, these people may not be able to accept some positive characteristics in home schooling because they strongly believe that their system is superior. However, the writers of this article probably try to give these people another perspective. The writers do this by presenting actual facts and true experiences of individuals as discussed earlier. With such evidence to support their essay, they can probably change how non- or anti-home schoolers feel. The authors may be able to get these people think differently about home schooling from now on. For these reasons, emotional appeals in this essay are effective.

            Ethos is the third effective appeal that is used in "Learning at Home: Does It Pass the Test?" by Kantrowitz and Wingert. The authors gain credit for ethical appeals in a variety of ways. Since they are very knowledgeable in this subject, they are able to show familiarity. These factors allow the writers to gain trust and credibility from the audience as they discuss different qualities in home schooling. For example, the audience can believe and trust the writers when they discuss how to be successful at home schooling. This is because they provide sufficient, logical criteria of  becoming a good home schooling candidate. (page 67).

            The writers' effective ethos also comes from their showing confidence. Their confidence in this topic is very obvious throughout the essay. They show self-understanding which assures the audience that they know what they are talking about. Also, because the authors feel comfortable discussing the topic, the audience could , in return, understand the context of the essay and easily see the authors' main points. This is important because the authors are once again gaining reliance and trust  from the audience by  making them understand their analysis.

            The writers' style and voice as they discuss their analysis create better ethos as well. As a reader, it was very interesting to read their essay because the authors themselves sound interested in discussing the topic. They show eagerness when they talk about positive aspects on home schooling. Their intensive interview allows them to write the essay in the most appropriate tone because the voices of many people are involved. They combine the facts and statistics with personal experiences of different individuals very well. This is an excellent writing style because they make their essay most interesting. While at the same time, they strengthen their ethical strategy due to using the right tone and style.

            As discussed in this essay, the authors were successful in using three appeals. The logos was effective due to the writers' fair, logical, reasonable analysis. They presented the essay with sufficient facts and examples to give the audience better ideas in home schooling. These also helped in clarifying their purpose of their analysis to their readers. Emotional appeal or pathos was also effective because the writers gave their target audience more confidence in home schooling despite the fact that home schooling had a negative reputation in the past. To other audiences, the writers were able to make clear that those negative views on home schooling are changing in today's world. Ethical strategy was also effective in the article as the authors have confidence in their analysis with their being knowledgeable and familiar in this topic. The appropriate voice and tone were used to create better style. All of these factors made their essay attractive and interesting to the audience, therefore, the authors should receive full credit for their outstanding work.

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