Running head; STUDENTS AND THE DECISION OF THEIR LIFE `1

Students and the decision of their life

Jorge- Luis Damian

University of Texas at El Paso

Dr. Walston

English 1312 Research and Critical Writing

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College Debt

As students are encouraging to pursuit higher education many students are not educated

and prepare for a brand-new life experience as it is attending college. Many students see college

as the last step to reach their life goal of graduating with a degree and to look for better life

opportunities. As the cost and tuition increase every year around the entire nation, students dont

only have to worry about doing well academically but, also must take in consideration how are

they going to pay to attend college. At this point in without a college degree people can expect

nothing but, working for minimum wage, and extended hours of demanding labor. Student of

low income tend to ask for loans to be able to pay for higher education leaving them in debt right

after graduating from college with no security that they will find a job when they are done with

school. Being a college student has become very challenging and stressful for students who do

not have financial stability.

Audience and Purpose

The first genre been analyzed will a typography by Kate Trombitas, Financial Stress: An

Everyday Reality for College Students published on July 2012. The purpose of this website is to

inform how not having financial stability can affect the life of a college students and the

consequences that can bring to their life having to worry more about how to pay for school then

how to do well academically. The second genre is cartoon named College Debt by John Cole. In

the carton, we can find two students one from high school holding a normal size backpack and

the college student holding a gigantic backpack and on the backpack, they caption the word debt

in capital letters. Representing how going to college can make students must worry about been in

extreme amounts of debt to be available to pay for college.

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The intended audience of the Financial Stress: An Everyday Reality for College Students,

is intended for any person who is related to a colleges student in which it can include family

members, academic institutions, and students. The main goal is to have every person understand

how difficult can be for college students maintain focus on school, have a full-time job, and

make time for family and friends. Many students will be reflected on the fact of having so much

things to do; that sometimes will make them feel overwhelm. When a student feels overwhelm

that when stress start to take control of their life. The top four reason that cause the most stress

levels in college students are the cost of education been the first one, second one the need to find

a job after school, consequently will be academic challenge of courses and the last one been

borrowing money for college.

Overall, two out of three students said financial stressors have had a negative impact on

their academic performance or progress, and they have had to reduce their course load due to

these same stressors. (Trombitas,2012). The necessities of every student are different and life

situation many vary. students receive financial support either by scholarships, or financial aid

from the government but, most of the time the founds are not enough to cover every single

student necessity. Students prefer to do full time jobs and be a full-time student than put them

selfs in debt. We found that 74 percent of respondents are working during the academic year,

and 15 percent of students are working full-time. The average student is putting in 21.1 hours of

work per week, which is significantly more time than they are spending on academic endeavors

outside the classroom (National Survey of Student Engagement, 2011). Working for college

students has moved from been an option to being a necessity to be able to continue with their

education.
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The second genre been analyzed is a cartoon named College Debt by John Cole in

this iconography the intended audience is mainly adults and young adults that are attending or

have gone to college. This cartoon mainly shows how students that are attending high school

must understand that the main purpose of high school is to prepare them for college. As they

continue to advance to college not only things will get complicated on the academically side but,

it will also get complicated in the financial side. Most high school student has been benefited

with free education for most part of their life.

First year college students tend to have a very difficult time when they must become

more responsible for paying for their education. Students tend to have a hard time understating

that college education wont be free any more. In high school, most student focused in getting

the grades to be in good academic standing but, they dont understand that as they continue into

college they will be have more than one priority. As they continue they would have to worry

about academics but also to be able to generate financial stability.

In the cartoon student debt the college student tells the high school student just think

of yourself as in training (Cole,2010) as it is presented in the cartoon high school students are

training for the last step which is attending college they are getting themselves trained to not only

be successful in the classroom but, also can succeed in the financial aspect. Most of the students

must understand that the amount of effort necessary to get that degree will be incredible and that

no matter how many jobs they can get, its going to come to a point in which getting loans will

be necessary to pay for school. Those loans would leave them in great amounts of debt just to be

able finish college and after they graduate they dont guarantee that they would find the job they

are looking for or that they might not even make enough money to be able to pay their debt back.
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Thats a decision that every single college student must take if the decide to pursuit higher

education.

Rhetorical issues

Both genders exhibit rhetorical appeals in the form they are exhibit both genders present

the topic and is presented in a way that both are simple to understand and everything presented is

supported with facts.

Ethos

In the first gender, which is a typography the presenter shows the way financial stress

affects college students, how debt can cause them to not enroll in to college. Or how having to

pay large amounts of money can make students work large number of hours and how working to

many hours affects them in the form where they perform poorly on the classroom and sometimes

makes students drop out of school because they can handle the pressure having to work long

periods of time and be a full-time student. The websites stablish credibility due to how the author

presents his information every paragraph that he talks about is supported with research or data.

Readers can prove that the information is real because everything that is presented as a proof to a

point is cited.

In the iconography, the artist of the cartoon makes the image very simple, and in that way

every person looking at it has no trouble interpreting. The credibility of the image is very well

presented because the image is so simple and does not present any drawings that can be
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misinterpret. The topic in which the cartoon is made is a topic that most people that have

attended college can have related to and to those who are planning to attend college can picture

them selfs.

Pathos

The author of the website does not present any emotion in his work, the main purpose of

his work is to present information on how financial stress affects students in different manners.

The author focuses on informing situation that many people are not informed about such as the

stress of a college student can thru. The gender has no problem been credible because everything

is supported with data. The cartoon can generate different emotions base on how its been

interpreted even do the cartoon is very simple it can have a strong meaning to the audience

specially if they can find themselves reflected on the cartoon and some other audience can see no

importance at all in the cartoon.

Logos

Terminology is used in the typography because is intended to maintain a very

professional aspect. The way the author presents its information with pie charts, percentages, and

simplicity. Makes the information been presented very simple to understand for the audience. In

the iconography, the way the author drew the cartoon very simple shapes, colors and words

makes the audience get a better understanding in less time compare to any cartoon that has no

color o has very difficult drawing to visualize.

Structure and Delivery

Having both genders been evaluated on the same topic both genders structure is very

simple and easy for the audience to understand since everything is short and simple when the
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structure is presented it can make sense to any type of audience since everything is well

structured. The delivery of information in both sides is direct to the point both genders go into

the point on what they want the audience to understand. They focused on talking only about the

topic in both genders and they dont bring anything that it is outside of the topic. That helps the

audience focuses on the main topic and gives more simplicity to be understood.

Conclusion

Both genders present the topic well the first one being more professional and credible

than the second one. The second one gives more options of interpretation depending on the way

wants to interpret the information. Each gender presents the same information in different way

but, both always present the topic always. Neither topic takes sides both just present the

information to let the audience interpret according to their point of view. Both genders always

present their point of view and they back it up with simple facts.
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References

Financial Stress: An Everyday Reality for College Students By: Authored by Kate Trombitas

July 2012

College Debt By: John Cole