Ayleana Crabtree

Mr. Salow
English 11
9th January, 2016
Annotated Bibliography
Hadderman, Margaret. "School Choice. Trends and Issues.", 2002.
This document discusses the issues surrounding school choice and shows how families go
about deciding their childrens educational path. This descriptive report was very logos heavy,
providing quotes and statistics from previous school-choice studies. The authors thoughts on
homeschooling are made more credible by this constant reference to past studies, and her
argument really strikes home with every added statistic. The author uses very little pathos in her
writing, relying mostly on solid facts and persuasion through her word choice. Her thoughts on
homeschooling are made credible by her constant reference to these past studies, one of which
stated that parents reasons [behind school-choice] fell into five broad categories: educational
philosophy, a childs special needs, school climate, family lifestyle/parenting philosophy, and
religion and ethics (Hadderman 63). Most of the assertions in this report were given using logic,
which proved to be an effective method of persuasion in this instance. Using strong reasoning
and credible sources strengthened this authors argument and made it all the more believable.
Lips, Dan, and Evan Feinberg. "Homeschooling: A Growing Option in American Education.
Backgrounder. No. 2122." Heritage Foundation, 2008.
This article briefly summarized the pros and cons of both homeschooling and traditional
schooling by analyzing studies that had been performed in both environments in the past. While
mainly guided by statistics, this article also utilized small amounts of pathos when explaining the

view of parents on their childrens education. It tried to play off of the readers emotions so that
they may feel more persuaded to sympathize with one side of the argument more than the other.
Logos was an important aspect of this article because it constantly referred to previous studies,
which increased its credibility in the readers eyes. Appealing to the reader through fact was the
main method this author used, and in one instance they wrote that many of Americas founders
were educated at home, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (Lips 2). The
article then went on to discuss how traditional schooling eroded the foundation of home
education, and the authors purpose in placing these two ideas by each other was likely to
convince readers of homeschoolings superiority.
Noel, Amber, Patrick Stark, and Jeremy Redford. "Parent and Family Involvement in Education,
from
the National Household Education Surveys Program of 2012. First Look. NCES 2013028."
National Center for Education Statistics, 2013.
By analyzing parental involvement in education, this report identified the main concerns
that many adults have with traditional schooling. The paper included countless studies that had
been organized into tables, and each statistic was backed by an incessant use of pathos. The
author was obviously trying to appeal through emotion, writing that ninety-one percent of
homeschooled students had parents with major concerns about the environment of alternative
schooling (Noel 14). She later described public schooling as under demanding (Noel 53), but
this statement only further hurt her argument as it lacked any sort of basis. This paper mostly
lacked credibility; an allegation would be made against traditional schooling, but no evidence
would be presented to back it up.

Ray, Brian D. "Research Facts on Homeschooling." National Home Education Research

Institute,
2015.
This report was a short summary of the general facts and ideas about homeschooling. The
authors tone was very serious and upfront when disclosing his statistics, and his confidence
when delivering information was very pronounced. This confidence affected his credibility
greatly, making readers more likely to believe and feel passionate about his work. After outlining
each of his statistics, he characterized homeschooled students as being typically above average,
on measures of social, emotional, and psychological development (Ray 2). Although a bold
statement, these words matched his blunt and rather direct opinion on the effects of home
education, giving the reader another reason to want to agree with his argument. Due to the
confidence the author maintained throughout this report, his thoughts on homeschooling were
hard to ignore. He proved that ethos is an effective tool when arguing a single side of such a
controversial topic.
Ray, Brian D. "Homeschool Progress Report 2009: Academic Achievement and Demographics."
HSLDA, 2009.
This article was based entirely around the findings of a study that the author himself
performed about the effects of homeschooling on students and their families. The authors study
was described in great detail, which made his argument more reliable than some others presented
on the same topic. When presenting his findings, he wrote that homeschoolers scored 34-39
percentile points higher than the norm on standardized achievement tests (Ray 4), and he then
went on to explain how those statistics were gathered, which proved the confidence he had in his

findings. Heavy ethos and steady doses of logos are what defined this article, and they helped to
show the authenticity of the authors argument.
Sorey, Kellie, and Molly H. Duggan. "Homeschoolers Entering Community Colleges:
Perceptions of
Admission Officers." Journal of College Admission, vol. 200, 2008, pp. 22-28.
This research report analyzed the success rates of homeschooled children who were
entering community college and other forms of higher education. The author began by discussing
how the prevalence of homeschoolers attempting to enter higher education is escalating (Sorey
2), but she then began to outline the struggles that many homeschooled children face. By
including actual statistics and describing the concerns that many colleges have when accepting
homeschooled students, this report did an excellent job of convincing readers to side with its
argument. Some pathos was used when explaining the stress that applying to college has on
home schooled individuals, and this was also a good tactic for this author to use.