The article which I am analyzing for my first close reading is "The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won’t Get Better Any Time Soon," a blog post by Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Mark Cuban. Predictably, this article discusses parallels between the economy and higher education, focusing on similarities between ballooning college debt and the housing bubble which led to the economic crisis in 2008.
Cuban seems to have a working knowledge of the rhetorical situation, if he isn't consciously considering it. The piece uses very clear, direct vocabulary that nearly anyone can understand, delving into more complex language only when necessary to convey meaning. As his target audience probably includes a wide range of people, most notably fans of the Mavericks, his writing would be easy to read for anyone interested in his thoughts. His subject is also very obvious, as he is focused only upon college and the economics of getting a degree. He seems to want to convince people that college debt is a problem in the US, and his purpose may be just that. The way he wants readers to see him requires a bit more analysis on the reader's part; I would say he is trying to appear to be an intelligent, well-informed and experienced person from the business world delivering the 'truth' about the value of a college education, having had many varied experiences in different jobs himself.
As far as more specific aspects of rhetoric go, his diction carries strong negative connotations when referring to college loans. The title itself refers to a coming "meltdown" when other less alarming words could have been chosen; simply coming forward and directly referring to "outstanding college loans" would convey more information about the topic and carry a more neutral tone. Much of the diction gains significance in the context of the economy, and carry a different connotation than elsewhere. He refers to the housing "bubble," a dreaded economic collapse that reminds people of specific economic problems in recent decades. "Easy money" is also mentioned a few times, and it would seem to be a positive thing. However, when used in the context of ballooning debt figures for American college students, it becomes negative.
The way his sentences are arranged also work towards his purpose of getting people concerned about the college debt situation. He mentions "innovators" immediately after "traditional universities" to emphasize that the universities are outdated and a system of the past. Juxtaposition is also used by referring to a degree as "a piece of paper" after writing that an employer searches for "people who can do the job" and "the best and brightest," again emphasizing his point that a college education does not guarantee to an employer that someone is a good candidate for a job. Cuban also uses short sentences set off from paragraphs in order to place more emphasis on key points of the article. In these places, he states that "a de-stabilization of the university system as we know it... can't happen fast enough," putting his view of the event as a positive occurrence in its own paragraph in order to make the reader focus on that sole idea. He does this a number of times, making his writing very clear to follow and very forceful in its statements.
The details which he chooses to include also clearly intentionally create a feeling of the facts being on his side. Nobody thinks positively about the housing crisis, so comparing the similarities between the two creates a very negative image. If Cuban were to simply give statistics as to the price of college over time and the amount of college debt, it might be a more powerful argument in terms of standing up to any opposing claims. However, it wouldn't carry the same weight to people who have just experienced the housing crisis and are likely to be scared if another such crisis is mentioned. There are very few statistics included, but it is stated that the student loan debt is "[past] 1 TRILLION DOLLARS." In an article with very few statistics, it makes this number seem even bigger, and the power of this one detail is emphasized by the lack of other details.
In his article about student loan debt, Mark Cuban uses rhetoric to convey his powerful and clear viewpoint on the issue.
In his article about student loan debt, Mark Cuban uses rhetoric to convey his powerful and clear viewpoint on the issue.
This is a high quality analysis of Cuban's blog post. In your paragraph about diction you do a good job of identifying the pejorative elements of his writing, including, as you say, "meltdown" and (financial) "bubble". One thing I might add in this section would be the use of honorific diction, as Cuban glorifies new learning institutions as "flexible" and "innovative", and mentioning this would help to make your paragraph stronger. I like how you point out the juxtaposition of traditional vs. new style learning institutions that Cuban uses, as he tries to point out the flaws of out modern, debt-ridden college education system.
ReplyDeleteIn your paragraph about details you talk about how he uses quite a bit of rhetoric about "bubbles" instead of actual numbers, which I think seems very correct. However, I think this might represent a gap in Cuban's knowledge about the statistics of our college education system, as even though he speaks from experience, he seems to make slightly wild claims that students just cannot get jobs right out of traditional colleges. He leaves out the stories of all the kids that have gotten jobs straight out of college, and for whom college has been a good investment. This might show how he is twisting the facts in order to meet his own personal beliefs.
Chris, this is very good analysis of Mark Cubans post. You have thoroughly hacked it apart and given good support for your claims. In the first paragraph you talk about Cuban not consciously considering the rhetorical situation. Given he is an intelligent man, a billionaire, and an entrepreneur his audience will be to the college audience as this is where you can kick start your career. Cuban from a young age had to build his empire up from small meager jobs, such as being the newspaper delivery boy. The second paragraph, I agree with your assessment of Cuban having a negative connotation toward the subject of college loans. Your example of meltdown is a good one. The term, heavily used in the financial sector, indicates his forecast for college tuition is dismal. I agree with the claim in the paragraph on sentence structure. Your juxtaposition example hits at Cubans main point and is a good example of how Cuban may not be consciously considering the rhetorical situation. One question though, why do you think Cuban has such a harsh criticism of the college situation? People still get jobs straight out of college. Cuban in the article seems to think college is a bad investment, which in my opinion college is a good investment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both John and Herschel that this is a very good and thorough analysis of this article. I felt you covered the aspects of his writing completely and you included a lot of direct evidence to help support your claims. I really like how you organized this post. Each paragraph covered a different element of the article.
ReplyDeleteI also like how you included information on what the article was about, but you didn't summarize it. I read your post first before reading the article and then reread your post. The first time I read your post, I got a sense of what the article was about, but I didn't feel like I just read a summary of the article. I think this also helped to make your post very complete.