The Economic Case For Letting Teenagers Rhetorical Analysis

In order to persuade readers that school times need to be changed, Aaron Carroll uses his own personal experiences as well as hard facts to build a compelling case for the change. Carroll begins his argument by relating directly to the reader using his own personal experiences on the subject, and then relates numbers that show that the change is not only economically viable, but even preferred because of the amount of money it will introduce to the economy. Carroll uses the all encompassing economy and the common ground provided by sleep to direct his argument to the general public in a way that gives them a vested interest in the relatively arbitrary subject of high school start times.
In his article “The Economic Case for Letting Teenagers …show more content…
This anecdote makes the argument more applicable, and by placing the story in the beginning of the argument, it creates a context around his entire discussion. In short, by using an anecdote to introduce the story Carroll makes the entire subject more relatable to the general public. This relatable situation and realness are an attempt to make the reader move to action. The personal anecdote effectively qualifies Carroll’s argument and allows the reader to understand the argument in the context of students struggling to balance extracurricular activities and the demanding level of school work placed on …show more content…
I can tell you that school starts at eight forty which means I have to be awake and in the shower by eight o’clock at the latest and out the door by eight thirty. I can also tell you that once I finish work, practice, and have my paper in by the eleven fifty-nine deadline, which I usually cut very close I can get to bed at around twelve thirty and get seven and a half hours of sleep, nowhere near the recommended ten. Some of this is my fault, I could better utilize class time and maybe get my paper in a little earlier, but if everything goes right, which it never does, I still have to work until at least eight and squeeze two or three hours of laps in the pool, if I try my hardest I can sleep for nine hours, still not quite ten, but close. My school has relatively late start times , and although my schedule is busier than most I would need to be in bed by ten to reach the recommended minimum amount of sleep, and for the average teenager, the brain doesn't start releasing the hormones that cause sleep until ten thirty leaving the majority of the teenage population severely sleep