Rhetorical Analysis Of Frank Bruni's Article

In Frank Bruni’s article “Higher Ed’s Lower Moment (December 30, 2017),” written for the New York Times, Bruni explicates his idea that college in today’s time is becoming more and more elitist, but if people intervene and take steps to reverse the process, colleges will become what they have always been: schools to educate America’s future. Bruni starts off this piece with a heavy appeal to logic through using statistics from reputable sources, such as Gallup and the Pew Research Center, and by collecting quotes from many college heads and officials; later in the piece, Bruni shifts more towards an appeal to ethos by providing qualifications for his sources, showing credibility and by telling the audience that they need to get involved and

take action; lastly and most importantly, Bruni’s mastery of diction effectively alienates colleges to show how the marginalized people view them - as something so foreign and something that the audience can’t fit into - but by the end, his word choices create a feeling of hope. Bruni presents this typically unseen view of colleges to the audience in order to show them that they should make any change to the system that they can, whether it be maintaining hope in a failing system or to reform the admissions process. Through his use of strong vocabulary and his indignant, yet hopeful tone, it is clear that Bruni is addressing academia, including students, teachers, or the staff at the higher education institutions, to solve this problem once and for all.