Nicholas Johnson
ENGL 1020
Shapiro
Evaluation
April 27, y
Liberal City Stories
Murray Vs. Ungar
Would you encourage a student to pursue a traditional liberal arts education right after high school or do whatever is necessary – which may include a different form of education or no college at all– to pursue their desired field of interest? That’s exactly what Charles Murray and Sanford J. Ungar are arguing about. Ungar is the president of Goucher College and believes liberal arts education still holds value in today’s society. He tries to persuade the audience by clearing up numerous misconceptions. On the other hand, Murray doesn’t think a liberal arts education is for everyone. He just discusses in an in-depth general view.
In this essay, I’m going to discuss the effectiveness of the use of ethos (ethics), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic) in each of the authors’ essays. Although Ungar is great at building a common ground with the audience and their ethics, I feel Murray’s essay was more persuasive because he is better at playing on emotions and has strong support backing up his reasoning. His essay is all of what the ABC test consists of: appropriate, believable, consistent, and complete.
Now, Murray really gets a hold of the audience’s feelings by connecting true happiness to following your dreams. Towards the end of his essay, he proved the student would live a happier pursuing an electrician career than trying to be manage while having going to a liberal arts college. In the scenario, the student landed in the 70th percentile in linguistic and logical mathematical ability, but landed in the 95th percentile in small-motor skills and spatial abilities (Murray 234). Although the average salary for a manager is higher than an electricians, he’d make much more money being a top electrician than a mediocre manager. I believe Murray is saying the student will live a much happier life doing something he enjoys because he’s skilled enough to reach the...