Rhetoric

Greg Simecek
Journal entry 2
Rhetoric: “Residence Halls”

Overall, Kelley McCormick makes a good argument about the lack of validity of the rhetorical devices that are used in the Residence Hall brochures that are given out by Miami University. She does this by not only making good points about things that were wrong, but she also explains that some of the points made in the article were correct. I also agree with most of the points that she made because I am now living in a residence hall, and am experiencing some of the things that she is talking about. However, I do not have any kind of argument against the persuasion that I received from the school trying to convince me to live on Campus. I think that her paper is making arguments that are kind of useless, because there is no reason to argue that the school is indeed trying to convince me that living on campus is better. But I am writing this journal entry about the strength of her arguments, not how meaningful they are.
To add credibility to her arguments, McCormick talks about her own personal experiences, and she also explains that some of the points made in the brochure were actually correct. Especially for me, the first hand experiences, such as the public bathrooms (all the time), and the classes being 15 to 20 minutes away, made strong points because I am also dealing with these same problems right now. Before I got to Miami, they never told me that walking to class would be such a chore, or that the bathrooms would be so crowded.
However, I do think that she lost some credibility when she made the argument about food. She argued that it was hard for her to find meals that she could eat because she was a vegetarian. But being a vegetarian is your own choice (in just about every case). I know that for me, I don’t have trouble finding good food to eat on campus. There is plenty of variety for me because I do not limit myself to vegetables. I think that by bring a personal problem into her argument against the residence hall brochure she loses a ton of strength in her argument. To me it was a mistake to bring up this issue at all.
But the rest of her argument made sense to me. Her analysis about the legitimacy of the claims that the school made about the advantages of living on campus was good. I think that after reading this essay, a person would know the real advantages and disadvantages of living on campus. And even though she argues that the pamphlets are not true in many ways, I would still decide to live on campus even after reading her essay.