A Defective and Detrimental Dress Code
Make an argument about the persuasiveness of a written argument and offer evidence from the text to support your evaluation of its persuasiveness. To analyze an argument, you have to be a rhetorical reader—that is, an active and critical reader who can explain not just what an author says but how persuasive the author is or isn’t and why. You should focus not on the issue but on what choices an author has made and how those choices affect the audience’s response to the argument.
Use this articles for Writing Arguments for your rhetorical analysis:
Hadley Reeder, “A Defective and Detrimental Dress Code” (pp. 299-301)
Sample Solution
Hadley Reeder's piece, "A Defective and Detrimental Dress Code," is a persuasive argument against uniforms in schools. She argues that by requiring students to wear uniforms, schools are forcing them to conform to the same dress rather than allowing them to express themselves through their clothing. Reeder makes her case effectively by starting with an anecdote of how a student was punished for wearing too much black clothing, which she uses as evidence of how the dress code stifles creativity and self-expression. She then outlines several other practical problems with enforcing a uniform policy such as difficulty finding time and money for parents who have to buy clothes or deal with lost or damaged items. By emphasizing the personal experience of one student as well as providing detailed facts about financial costs associated with uniforms, she effectively demonstrates why school dress codes are problematic policies that should be reassessed. Her argument is not only logical but emotionally charged which adds further persuasiveness; overall it is an effective rhetorical essay.