A Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter To School By Dave Kessler

The tone of an essay or letter lets the reader know how the author feels about what he or she is writing about. Having the proper tone is key to writing a good essay, letter, or even an article if you're trying to inform or persuade someone about something. It helps the reader realize you're serious about whatever you're talking about or that it's an important issue. Dave Kessler, the sixth grade student who wrote a letter to the school newspaper editor about banning advertisement in school had a serious tone and was concerned about the issue. "It is not fair to influence young minds to buy products or watch television programs when they should be focused on schoolwork," Kessler states in his letter. This strengthens the overall argument he's making because he's talking about the ads distracting students from their school work, which is wrong because that's what they're at school for. To learn, not to be persuading by an ad to buy something. Aside from the ads taking away from schoolwork, Dave makes a few other points as well. In paragraph to two he says, "The constant push to "buy, buy, buy" is not good for anyone- children or adults. But it seems especially wrong to force this commercial culture on kids at school." (Kessler 1). He …show more content…
Janet Chen wrote a letter to the school newspaper as well, but she was complaining about Dave's letter because he was bashing school ads that she thought were necessary to keep the school going. "Commercial advertising generate much needed money. Our school district agreed to put wraparound ads on its lockers and now it gets more than $200,000 a year from the advertising company." Instead of only including her opinion like Kessler, she has provided facts about how their school needs the ads. Throughout her paper, she continues to put in facts about clubs they lost and money they get from the advertising companies. This makes her argument so much stronger than Kessler's and it makes her tone