Examining an editorial: Cursive handwriting

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This editorial was written by the Denver post editorial board and discusses the opposing views on keeping cursive writing in U.S schools curriculums. It emphasizes cursive as a dying art form and expounds on how technology is more important than the traditions of cursive hand writing in this new day and age. It argues that cursive should be taken out of the curriculum completely and recently it has been. Cursive has been deemed irrelevant and kicked to the curb, but for this paper I will be dissecting the editorial and not this direct issue. That being said, in every argument it is important to remember three things; ethos, pathos and logos. These things give any argument strength and appeal. In this paper I will be discussing the authors of this editorials use of these wringing principles.
There are three ways to successfully establish ethos in an argument, the first is to be knowledgeable about the topic and have a strong base to argue from. It’s important to give the reader background on your topic to properly inform the reader and I would have to say the authors accomplish this. For example they inform you of background information such as the common core standards which happen to be “Educational Guidelines that were created by School leaders, parents and other people in the community that don’t have room for cursive” (DenverPost.com). Explaining this helps inform the audience which makes it easier to form an opinion, most likely swayed in the direction you are pointing. The second thing that works well when using ethos is to respect the opposing viewpoints that people have regarding your chosen issue. This paper is mostly one sided but the Denver Post Editorial Board does briefly state “some will argue there are ...

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...n at the moment. This is a very stressful thing to put on your audience so that defiantly needs revising but overall there weren’t a whole lot of logical fallacies so that’s good.
In conclusion more things were done right then wrong in this article, it could really benefit from some additional information such as quotes and statistics. Also word choice could have been chosen more carefully, it’s extremely important to address issues like this calmly and collectively if you want to appeal to a wider audience so a few words such as the possible sarcastic could be substituted a less harsh versions. It was a quick easily digestible read that isn’t shy about what side it’s on.

Bibliography
The Denver Post Editorial Board. "Is Learning Cursive Really Necessary in the Modern Age?"The ……………Denver Post Editorials. The Denver Post, 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.

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