College Chinwag 1

College Chinwag
Stephanie Nevarez
University of Texas at El Paso
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In this essay, it will discuss whether college is worth all the financial and

emotional/physical stress that it causes most college students. While trying to find the key to this

question, this essay will also analyze the two different genres used to come to a conclusion. The

genres used for this essay are oral and typography. In addition, the essay will show both sides of

the argument while also going into depth on the genres used to persuade the reader that college is

worth both financial and emotional/physical stress.

As children are growing up they are taught one major thing to aspire to, that is to go to

college. Pursing an education is probably the official ticket to success and obtaining the

American Dream. However, in recent years and information they have found that maybe

college is not the one-way ticket to success and the American Dream children are taught to

aspire to, might not exist anymore. Some good examples of how college isnt necessary to

become successful are some well-known college dropouts like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Tom

Hanks.

At this point in the 21st century everyone has heard about Steve Jobs creating the well-

known Apple iPhone, also known as the smart phone. Jobs along with his friend Steve Wozniak

founded the very successful Apple company (Bio, 2015). Bill Gates was an Entrepreneur that

developed the software now known as Microsoft (Bio, 2016). Tom Hanks is famous actor known

for his comedic persona in many movies (Bio, 2016). These names are names of very famous

people that have made their life a successful one without the help of a college diploma or degree.

This is a very good example of how college is not all that necessary to have in order to make

ones dreams come true.

The first thing that people think about when it comes to college is dollar signs. At least a

good portion of the United States can agree that simply going to college is expensive and the
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prices go even higher when a student decides to live there or must pay for a parking space like at

Utep. Places like Arizona, Georgia and Washington have seen at least a 70% increase on college

prices (Sanchez, 2014). This can become one of the biggest stressors for people wanting to attend

and for the families trying to send their child off to get an education.

Another possible reason not to attend college is about all the stress, studying, and

dedication needed for it. The previous statement comes to be a reason for students to drop out of

college because sometimes priorities change and unexpected events constrain a person from

really giving school 100% effort. When you sign up to attend college the whole environment of

learning shifts drastically, this may also be another factor that constrains people from being able

to learn and pass classes which results in a person stressing out. The stress might also result in

students dropping out or failing out of financial aid programs which help students pay for college

in some severe cases.

Although there are reasons why college does not seem like a walk in the park and is a lot

more expensive than buying an ice cream at a park, there is definitely some benefits to attending

and graduating from college. In this next section of the essay we are going to discuss an article

by Paul Taylor, Kim Parker, Richard Fry, DVera Cohn, Wendy Wang, Gabriel Velasco and

Daniel Dockterman giving information as far as why people should attend college. The article

these authors wrote is very formal and informative. All the information the article carries always

refers to the research or survey that was used to come up with the conclusions that the article

used. The article does a very good job at using logos to captivate the reader. The amazing part

about an article that consistently shows where it got its information from is that it gives the

reader a sense of reassurance that the information is not made up but that it does in fact have

proof.
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The way the article is set up is by sections of the general public surveys and by presidents

of universities that took the surveys. It lists all the information in both categories very neatly and

straightforward which helps the reader can understand the information given. It also has different

types of graphs within the article to articulate how the information looks visually. The article

seems to be articulated for the public rather than having a set audience because it is so

informative rather than persuasive. The discussion of this article will first be about what the

general public had to say about college.

At least 75% of the general public said that college was indeed getting expensive but a

vast 86% in total said that however expensive, college was a good investment to have (Taylor et

al., 2011). This emphasizes that although it is hard to pay for school, the sacrifices and hard work

to continuing ones education is worth it at the. Most adults that graduated from college earn

around $20,000 more than high school graduates make per year, which is most likely why such a

big amount of people said that college was a good investment. The article also goes over how

much of the higher education system is going the right way to being the best in the world.

The next genre to explore in this argument is going to be done by a video which falls into

the category of oral genre. In this video hosted by CNN, the interviewer and interviewees are

talking about whether college is worth the cost. Although the setup of the interview is formal it

also has a sense of actual conversation rather than just talking facts. It can be said that this video

is for all types of audiences due to the more obvious fact that the interview was hosted by a tv

news corporation. The people in the video have all been to college and graduated which is pro in

this essay because it limits the argument in the video to be bias but also gives the opinion of the

opposite side.
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What captivates people to continue to watch the video is not only the credibility that

CNN has on its own stance but the interviewees are also professors at universities which adds

more credibility and a sense relation to the interviewees. The sense of relation comes by seeing

that the people being interviewed are not some royal geniuses but rather average professors

teaching just like many others do and it also builds that relation between the audience and the

video because the audience can visually see the people talking rather than just a bunch of

numbers and statistics like the typography genre that was used previously.

The video is setup like an interview where they ask questions to each of the interviewees

and go back in forth with each other. The questions asked on the video are very precise and the

way that the interviewer breaks down the information that is given once a question is asked

makes it easier for any person watching can comprehend the video. There is a part where the

interviewer ask about some topics that have been previously stated in this essay like the barrier

of why people dont want to or cant attend college, which had to do with the financial debt and

stress a person undergoes while being at a university.

Both the interviewers agree that college is important no matter the cost or stress it causes.

One of the interviewees even goes on to say that college is essential to enroll in because of all

the innovations of today. The video also talks about the fact that college doesnt just target a

narrow sense of expertise but it helps build peoples skills regardless of where they might end up

or go. However, in the video they believed that the only con against college and attending was

not the price but rather the education being given was not meeting the expectation of the cost.

In conclusion, college is worth any financial and physical/emotional cost because it all

pays back. Both genres showed that college is helpful in one way or another. Both genres also

showed very significant information that was credible and persuasive. So at the end of the day
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whether a person is struggling in one form or another people should continue to push forward

until the very end because hard work does pay off.
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References

Sanchez, C. (2014, March 18). How The Cost Of College Went From Affordable To Sky-High.
Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://www.npr.org/2014/03/18/290868013/how-the-cost-of-
college-went-from-affordable-to-sky-high

Bio, Editors. (2015, September 24). Steve Jobs. Retrieved February 24, 2017, from
http://www.biography.com/people/steve-jobs-9354805

Bio, Editors. (2016, November 21). Bill Gates. Retrieved February 24, 2017, from
http://www.biography.com/people/bill-gates-9307520

Bio, Editors. (2016, November 21). Tom Hanks. Retrieved February 24, 2017, from
http://www.biography.com/people/tom-hanks-9327661#synopsis

Taylor, P., Parker, K., Fry, R., Cohn, D., Wang, W., Velasco, G., & Dockterman, D. (2016).
Http://ljournal.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/d-2016-154.pdf. Is college worth it?
doi:10.18411/d-2016-154

Is college worth the cost? [Interview by CNN]. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2017, from
http://www.cnn.com/videos/bestoftv/2014/12/15/ath-arum-davidson-ivory-tower.cnn