Choosing a valedictorian is a tradition in American high schools as it creates a sense of pride in the students who earn the title, but is it always a good thing? In “Best in Class” by Margaret Talbot, she creates a message that the issue of valedictorian isn’t necessarily a bad one, but it can be modified to become a more pleasurable tradition as it creates an unhappiness in a certain group of people rather than giving satisfaction to everyone as a whole. Talbot applies an appeal to logos as well as anecdotes of the experiences of other students in order to portray her message to the audience.
Although Talbot doesn’t explicitly state her claim, it can be inferred through her use of logos that she does not support the traditional way of choosing …show more content…
Her most valuable example comes from Sarasota High School when Denny Davies won valedictorian when there were 2 other people just as qualified. The situation caused an uproar throughout the entire school during which “[s]ome teachers considered boycotting graduation” (224). The issue went so out of hand that it was creating a mutual dread for graduation, a normally joyous celebration, among students and teachers. Talbot’s audience can connect with this writing as it leads them to think about the consequences of choosing a single valedictorian. In addition, Talbot makes a choice to not include her own personal emotions in her writing. By doing so, she doesn’t make her audience sympathize for her but rather to the people who went through these situation who don’t have as big of a voice as herself. In another instance, Sarah Bird, a girl who had every qualification to be valedictorian but was not chosen, stood up for her rights to be valedictorian because “[she] wanted to makes sure the school knew how traumatic something like this can be…” (227.) If Talbot had solely including a historical background on the american high school and reasons why choosing a single valedictorian is bad, her audience wouldn’t be able to understand the true connection her writing has to the real world and thus would disregard the argument. However, the anecdotes from the various students show Talbot’s audience that real people have truly been affected by the process. They can conclude that there really does need to be a change in the way schools choose
Although Talbot doesn’t explicitly state her claim, it can be inferred through her use of logos that she does not support the traditional way of choosing …show more content…
Her most valuable example comes from Sarasota High School when Denny Davies won valedictorian when there were 2 other people just as qualified. The situation caused an uproar throughout the entire school during which “[s]ome teachers considered boycotting graduation” (224). The issue went so out of hand that it was creating a mutual dread for graduation, a normally joyous celebration, among students and teachers. Talbot’s audience can connect with this writing as it leads them to think about the consequences of choosing a single valedictorian. In addition, Talbot makes a choice to not include her own personal emotions in her writing. By doing so, she doesn’t make her audience sympathize for her but rather to the people who went through these situation who don’t have as big of a voice as herself. In another instance, Sarah Bird, a girl who had every qualification to be valedictorian but was not chosen, stood up for her rights to be valedictorian because “[she] wanted to makes sure the school knew how traumatic something like this can be…” (227.) If Talbot had solely including a historical background on the american high school and reasons why choosing a single valedictorian is bad, her audience wouldn’t be able to understand the true connection her writing has to the real world and thus would disregard the argument. However, the anecdotes from the various students show Talbot’s audience that real people have truly been affected by the process. They can conclude that there really does need to be a change in the way schools choose