In Modest Proposal Rhetorical Analysis

Restrictions of Essay Writing in a Curriculum: An Evaluative Essay on Fred Stenson’s “In Search of a Modest Proposal Fred Stenson’s essay “In Search of a Modest Proposal” (Essay Writing for Canadian Students with Readings, 340) expresses his disapproval of essay writing in the grade nine curriculum. Stenson feels that essay writing should be a creative process towards student’s personal opinions, but the curriculum sets guidelines that the students must follow which prevents this. His reference to what his daughter has been taught in her English class is the basic premise of the essay as it is used to not only develop the essay but also the thesis which is not clearly stated. Stenson’s use of emotional appeal is for readers to sympathize how Stenson feels while assisting his daughter with her essay writing. Stenson’s essay exemplifies an important argument about the restrictions of essay writing within the grade nine English curriculum. Stenson’s argument at the start is perceived to be weak because he only supports his arguments through story-telling and emotional appeal. He doesn’t provide any sort of evidence towards the ideas he gives to his daughter with essay writing. Stenson said to her daughter “Don’t have to use transitional words to start every paragraph” (341). Here, Stenson fails to explain why she shouldn’t do this and doesn’t provide any evidence to support it. This conveys the fact that Stenson doesn’t have a good sense of credibility and trustworthy ethos which makes his argument weak. But his argument becomes stronger as his essay progresses. Stenson refers to a meeting with his daughter’s teacher, as the teacher “deflates” (341) in agreement. The teacher agrees with the fact that “theirs is not a creative approach to the essay” (341). But shrugs this off because students are tested based the curriculum which determines their future in high school. In this case, Stenson establishes a better sense of credibility and a trustworthy ethos by receiving an opinion from an educated person. Despite Stenson’s use of his personal experience with his daughter and the use …show more content…
In the beginning of the essay, satire is used to convey how students are misguided by their teachers. Stenson claims “whenever teachers were attacked, he rose to defend them” (340). This portrays his respect for teachers. However, once he begins assisting his daughter with her essay writing, he starts to question her teacher. For instance, his daughter chose her essay topic from “a list that the teacher had given them choose from” (340). Stenson is surprised at this method of teaching as he questions it with what he believes an essay should be. He feels that a “personal essay is to be personal” (340) which his daughter finds irrelevant because she has to follow a “formula” (341) or else she’s going to fail. The use of satire here develops the contrast between the grade nine curriculum versus what Stenson believes how an essay should be written. Near the end of the essay Stenson compares John Swifts “A Modest Proposal” (Essay Writing for Canadian Students with Readings, 348) to the grade nine curriculum. At the end of the evaluation, Stenson gives Swift a C, and said “it would be a shame to keep him out of grade 10” (342). This use of satire exemplifies the limitations English curriculum posses. Despite being a properly written essay, it is deemed satisfactory just because Jonathan Swift’s essay did not follow the formula provided by the