Jade Heaviland

English 11
Mr. Salow
January 18th, 2017
Year Round Schooling v. Traditional Schooling Analysis
It is crucial to have to the ability to identify the persuasive aspect of the articles
arguments. Its important to know how an argument is persuading you, so you understand how
they manipulated you into believing something. It is necessary to know the persuasiveness, so
you can tear the readers argument apart and decided on whether or not its a worthy argument. If
you can identify propaganda and manipulation in an argument, you will be able to form your
own opinion on the topic. If you cannot adopt this trait, then all your opinions will be influenced
by another individuals. In year round schooling, most articles are affected by logos and/or ethos.
Year round schooling is a controversial educational topic. Some educators argue that year round
schooling is more beneficial, and others argue that year round schooling has no effect compared
to normal schooling. Throughout this essay, we will be identifying the persuasive aspect of
arguments debating year-round schooling.
As I did my research, Ive noticed that half the articles I analyzed opposed year-round
schooling, while the other side denied. Both sides of the articles failed to include real evidence
proving their points they were making. This is the first sign of persuasion in an article because
they state certain things supporting their argument, but fail to include information backing up
their point. This leaves us in a situation where we dont know if these statements are actually true
and we are unable to form our own opinion because we cant trust our research. One article I
have in mind stated that, Several schools around the nation, having tried year-round schooling

(with and without additional total days), have abandoned it because the savings were negligible,
student achievement didn't differ, and it was unpopular with parents and students, (Ascher 3)
but they were unable to provide a statistic or hard evidence proving this point. The author of this
article did cite who she got this idea from, but after doing research this point has no hard facts to
back up the statement. This isnt the only case where this type of persuasion occurs; it occurs a
lot more in almost all argumentative essays, a lot more than we think.
In another article the author writes, Students forget much of what they learned in school
while on long summer vacations, (Ingel 3) and uses in text citation to give credit to his source
where he received this idea from, but why should us readers trust this statement just because its
credited? Most of us would simply believe this statement and move on because wed think since
its cited, its accurate, but without real evidence, we cant assume. Another use of this type of
persuasion is when an author uses a certain word choice to show credibility.
For example, Randall Engle, a University of South Carolina psychology professor
specializing in human memory, says children forget most of what they learn in the first three
weeks after a lesson. (Rasberry 2). Although this may be a true, the author doesnt only say
Randall Engle, they make sure to include that hes a psychology professor that specializes in
human memory, so it seems like the information is coming from a credible source. We have to
note that we cant automatically believe this because its coming from a psychology professor,
and we have to note the difference between a psychology professor and a psychologist. Although
not in all situations are the authors lying to you or feeding you false information, they still play
little tricks on us in order for us to be persuaded into believing their side of the argument.
To illustrate my point, a certain article quotes, It was found that students scored higher
on yearly state exams that were enrolled in year-round schools and their achievement levels were

better than their counterparts, (Lyttle 2) but the author fails to include any statistic along with
that to prove it or even cite the source for that matter. This is a form of credibility because the
author states this strong fact with no evidence in order to trick the audience into thinking we can
trust their word for it. Typing an essay in a confident, professional tone can trick the reader into
thinking they are credible, and in some cases the author may be able to get away without cited a
source and the readers will simply not realize it.
In a different article, the author showed bias results by telling us that 78% of the feedback
they received from a school that recently switched to year round schooling was positive, but only
included quotes from parents positive feedback on the system, leaving out the 22% that was
negative. The author writes that, Parents felt that the shorter, more frequent vacations allowed
students to remain focused and enthusiastic, in the Responses to Year-Round School section,
which implies that all parents felt this way. This shows ethos by viewing to us only the
information that supports their argument.
This type of persuasion the author is using is called ethos. Ethos in argumentative writing
is usually used when an author uses evidence to support their point from a credible source, or
may use certain words to show credibility, like experts, teachers, researchers, that agree
with their points. When an author uses ethos, it means their argument shows credibility. When
the author used this statement and cited the source, she was using ethos because since its coming
from a source were persuaded to automatically believe this is true. This is one example of many
that authors do normally in order for readers to believe their side. Us readers need to be aware on
how to pull out the ethos, so were able to form our own opinion on the topic.
When an author attempts to persuade their readers, they dont always use ethos to do so.
They may also use logos or pathos. Logos is when the author uses logic to support their

argument. Pathos is when the author uses emotions to support their argument. In this specific
debate, pathos isnt a popular method of argumentative writing techniques because there isnt
really any emotion that gets brought up in year-round schooling, all though logos will be used
into effect.
One article I analyzed provides us with charts and statistics showing year-round school
attendance percentage compared to regular schoolings attendance percentage. This may seem
like pure logos and seem completely reasonable not to trust this data, but it fails to provide us
with what schools he is specifically comparing. This makes us question ourselves as readers, can
we trust this data? Is this data true? Also, if it is accurate we must question which months was
this attendance percent taken? If these percentages were taken in the summer, summer vacations
with families may play a role in the attendance change. If these percentages were taken in the
winter, snow storms may lead to a different percentage change. Also that leads me to my next
question we must think to ourselves. What areas were these attendance records taken in? If we
are comparing one year-round school in San Francisco and one normal school in Detroit our
results may be a dramatic attendance difference. If results are taken in a richer area, the
attendance rate might be higher because the parents may view it as free daycare. If we ask
ourselves where and what times these attendance percentages were taken for data, our results
may vary. These are the types of logos we must question in order to analyze the persuasion in
arguments. Typically, when we see logos, we automatically believe its true because its logic,
but once you begin reading an argumentative essay, you have to watch out and question the
logic.
In articles that seem to be for year-round schooling all seem to mention the background
of YRS and that its been around since the early twentieth century. The audience must ask

themselves at this moment, why is that? This is because typically old ideas that have been around
for awhile seem like theyre better ideas. It shows that YRS isnt a dramatic change in the world
and that the idea was thought of a long time ago. Some examples where the author mentions this
is, Records of YRS calendars date back to the early twentieth century with many reasons given
for the creation of such calendars including helping immigrants learn English, creating more
classroom space, improving learning, and meeting the needs of laggards. (Amery, Stone 79).
You can evidently tell the author is pro YRS because they follow this statement by providing
reasons why this idea was to be used in that time period.
In conclusion, there are many ways in which the author can influence its audience
opinion by persuading them within their writing. In the YRS versus traditional school debate,
there are many ways in which the author can persuade the audience on both sides. It can be done
through the many different types of logos, ethos, and other ways as well. Year-round schooling
has many benefits, but along with its benefits are issues, but depending on the side its arguing
from, theyll leave out certain details from the other side to strengthen their argument. Having
the ability to analyze persuasion in articles is an important trait to have because it allows you to
be able to form your own opinion without any sort of persuasion or bias playing a role into it.
Analyzing persuasion allows you to see both sides clearly and come up with a good medium on
your own to create a uninfluenced opinion. Having this ability is important not only in
academics, but also in any circumstance because it allows to be a free-minded thinker and have
all your thoughts and opinions be completely uninfluenced by any other person.

Works Cited
Ascher, Carol. "Summer School, Extended School Year, and Year-Round Schooling for
Disadvantaged. ERIC/CUE Digest Number 42." Institute for Urban and Minority
Education, 1988.
Inger, Morton. "Year-Round Education: A Strategy for Overcrowded Schools. ERIC/CUE Digest
Number 103." Institute for Urban and Minority Education, 1994.
Lyttle, LeighAnne. Year-Round versus Traditional Schools Information Analyses, 2011.
Naylor, Charlie. "Revisiting the Issue of Year-Round Schools. BCTF Research Report." British
Columbia Teachers' Federation, 2012.
Rasberry, Quinn. "[Research Summary: Year Round Schools May Not Be the Answer.]."
Conference
for Private Child Care Centers and Preschools, 1994.
White, William D. "Educational Benefits in Year-Round High Schools." Annual Meeting of the
National Association for Year-Round Education, 1993.
Wu, Amery D. and Jake E. Stone. "Does Year Round Schooling Affect the Outcome and Growth
of
California's API Scores?" Journal of Educational Research & Policy Studies, vol. 10, no.
1, 2010, pp. 79-97.