Rhetorical Analysis:

"Collegiate Life: An Obituary" composed by Arthur Levine and Jeanette S. Cureton, focuses on the transformation of colleges and universities from a type of brotherhood living together to achieve the goal of a higher education to a studentship less dominated by extracurricular activities, student government involvement, and on-campus living. As the author's explain, "The notion of a living-learning community is dead or dying on most campuses today", it is clear they believe they have discovered a growing change among these particular American institutions. But how do they present these findings? To begin with, they attempt to construct a message based on logic and statistics. A 5-year study of "many universities and colleges" was conducted by the authors from 1992 - 1997 in an attempt to explain this developing phenomenon. Through this inspection, they were able to accumulate accurate statistics based on student affairs officials and the actual students themselves. Upon looking at this derived data at the present date, one can conclude that it is not, by any means, recent. However, as explained in the foreword, this information was presented in a book which was published in 1998. Therefore, at the time of its release it was extremely recent and added neccesary support to the the claim.

Additional assistance appears naturally with the ethos of these authors as described in the prologue, with Artur Levine and Jeanette S. Cureton respectively being prsident of Teacher's College at Columbia University and an educational researcher at Harvard. Of course, Harvard is arguably the most prestigous institution in the nation. One can see that credibility is not quite an issue with persons in these types of acedemic positions. An individual can also conclude that their motives were most likely of the most honorable nature; they are concerned with whether or not the institutions that they have come to be so much associated with are wandering off the beaten path. Its seems they are merely trying to focus on a problem with which they would like a solution, which is made clear in the conclusion.

The emotional aspect of this claim is not of major proportions. Nostalgia may be the only application of pathos in this particular argument. It seems as though the authors are trying provoke certain alumna to taking a stance in the issue, which would make sense. Obviously, if a father (or mother) went to a certain college and developed a sort of bond with the institution he would most likely wish the same for his children and future generations. This could be an example of how pathos was incorporated by the authors. However, emotion holds negligible audacity in the claim.

The style of this presentation, appears to work magnificently. It can be understood by experts in the field as well as current college students, which is absolutely necessary if the authors are striving to bring back the past college archetype. Not only will it be necessary for the experts and highly educated citizens to get involved; the students must almost certainly get additionally engaged. An anology is used with complete success in the "What Students Want Section". It makes the comparison of a students role as a consumer to their bank being more representative of the attitude towards their specific institution. This is a terrific example for the average student to pick up on and surely drives the reader deeper into the issue. All of these aspects of the argument were presented with excellent clarity and structure.