Sam Dillon's What Corporate America Can T Build: A Sentence

Why is professional writing declining in America’s workforce? In Sam Dillon’s “What Corporate America Can’t Build: A Sentence”, Dillon blames this decline on the American education system. Dillon writes to administrators and educators in the “Higher Education” section of the New York Times to convince them to increase the teaching of professional writing in schools. Dillon displays to his audience the current business world that students going into the workforce are creating. This initiative is being created so students are prepared when they graduate and go into the workforce and millions of dollars aren’t spent trying to teach students things that they should already know. Dillon persuades educators and administrators to improve professional

Dillon uses the anecdote “Hi KATHY i am sending u the assignmnet again” (Dillon 417) as an example of a poor email that a student has sent. This is a use of logos because he is stating a fact that this type of email was sent and he wants his audience to realize that if the writer of that email had the proper education, an E-mail like that wouldn’t be sent in the first place. Another type of anecdote that Dillon uses is appeal to fear. Dillon states “Hundreds of inquiries from managers and executives seeking to improve their own or their workers’ writing pop into Dr. Hogan’s computer in-basket each month, he says, describing a number that has surged as e-mail has replaced the phone for workplace communication. Millions of employees must write more frequently on the job than previously. And many are making a hash of it” (Dillon 415) Even though this could also be considered an anecdote, the rhetorical appeal pathos is what Dillon is using when he made this statement. Dillon was trying to scare his audience into realizing just how many people are having issues with professional writing. Dillon can’t fully convince his audience though until he proves himself and his sources as