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Jazmin Coronel

Professor Granillo

English 101

26 September 2018

Rhetorical Analysis Is It Helpful or Dreadful in Minority Clubs?

Rhetorical devices are a technique that an author uses to convey to the reader a meaning

with the goal of persuading them towards considering the topic they discuss. In Gabriela Moro’s

essay “ Minority Student Clubs: Segregation of Integration?” she asses the pros and cons of

ethnic specific minority clubs in a college environment through the use of rhetorical modes.

Rhetorical modes are the study of the effective use of language with ethos, pathos, and logos to

present an argument. Ethos deals with the use or ethics or morals to explain the author's point of

view, while logos is more facts and research to back up the topic being discussed leaving pathos

to be the emotion the author projects towards the topic. Moro’s Motivation for writing “Minority

Student Clubs: Segregation of Integration?” was a result of her personal background and other

college students experience with clubs; Despite Moro’s lack of pathos she effectively utilizes

ethos and logos to successfully argue her point that minority clubs are self-segregating.

Moros student background of actually being a first year college student at the time she’s

writing this piece allows her to experience these ethnic specific groups and share her own

experiences. Moro a student of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend Indiana, wrote this

essay in her first-year composition class so as a student who’s experiencing these minority

groups gives her a real life insight to the issue she is discussing. Moro states, “one who believes

minority clubs are essential for helping minority students stay connected with their cultures, and

another who believes these clubs isolate minorities and work against diverse interaction among
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students’’ (Moro 270). She not only addresses both of the topics, but she does it a way where she

doesn’t reveal the side she is for, allowing one or the other influence the reader before her she

presents her argument. Motivating her reader to understand both sides before agreeing if they are

beneficial or not for college students. Moro allowing the other side present their argument tells

the reader that allowing these students to have specific ethnic groups demonstrates these

programs are particularly helpful to incoming students from culturally diverse backgrounds. She

allows her own self to discuss her experience but also acknowledges when taken too far these

minority groups can lead to self-segregation.

Minority clubs from a student's perspective provide an environment where students not

only feel like their back home speaking their home language, but they are introduced to manys

others just like them. Moro is showing a sense of empathy towards students who miss home.

Moro explains that these groups help preserve their cultural background and allow them to foster

connects with others of similar cultures. Gabriela gives an example from a Harvard college

student Andrea Delgado “ I thought [cultural clubs were] something I maybe didn’t need, but

come November, I missed speaking Spanish and I missed having tacos, and other things like

that’’(qtd.in Moro 272). Moro gives the reader a sense of what it’s like to leave home and be on

your own in college, not seeing your family you would see everyday. She exempts sympathy

towards the student and shows how these cultural clubs gave her a sense of being back home due

to the fact that there were others just like her on her campus. So in a way these culturally specific

groups allowed her to feel like she might have been back home with her own family. Although

these clubs gave Andrea a reminder of home, a student not of the same culture would feel out of

place. Assuming they didn’t understand the language they spoke: it would label that student as an

outsider feeling as they don’t belong segregating them.

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Minority groups fall in two groups, those who support and those who oppose them

because they self-segregating as Moro reveals ethos when explain her side of the arguement.

Moros argument started off by explaining both sides but makes the decision that these clubs are

segregating. She tells how these clubs might help incoming students express their ethics and

values with other just like them but exclude other ethnicities. A study by Samuel D. Museus in

Moros essay states “ [minority groups help] students stay connected with their culture in college

and help ease first-year minority students’ transition into college environment’’ (qtd. in Moro

271). Her research on the topic tells the reader that these clubs help students adjust and find their

place in a primarily white student campus. She doesn’t sugar coat it she expresses ethos

explaining that being the odd ball out is difficult. So these cultural specific groups give students

that aren’t white a safe space where they feel comfortable. Yet basically segregating themselves

from them because they might only feel comfortable with people of the same culture.

Moro’s first hand experience of providing her own research exhibits logos. Most students

face similar experience when entering a new environment like a college campus. In a way a

student that might not be used to coming out of their comfort zone might segregate or lack

interaction in college due to the fact they’ve never been in a diverse environment. Moro states

“Self-segregating tendencies are not exclusive to minority students: college students in general

tend to self-segregate as they enter unfamiliar environment” ( Moro 273). She states that in

general most incoming freshman tend to segregate themselves because it a fresh new start and

don’t really know what the college setting is; reinforcing her argument that these clubs are self-

segregating. For example in Moros essay she talks about how students who become comfortable

with their minority members might not want to branch out and learn about other cultures because
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it's unfamiliar to their own. So in her use of logos she reinforces her argument explaining that

although the benefits these ethnic specific groups create the still segregate students.

Moro expresses concern towards these segregated students. Although she expresses some

type of emotion she does not let it consume her argument leaving it up to ethos and logos to

reinforce her point. She displays concern in “ Having a ton of clubs that are for specific races is

counter-productive… [creativing] segregation and lack of communication” ( Moro 274). She

successfully reinforces the issue that these separate categories of clubs are all just a separation of

groups. Moro assess the issue by having a call to action of how these groups should be more

inclusive to students that don’t have the same ethnic background. By having some type of event

where students can participate and learn about other cultures. Despite the fact that she express

some type of concern for the students who might be outsiders she uses students personal

experiences to her advantage with the help of ethos and logos to express how these ethnic

specific groups self-segregate.

Moros motivation for writing this piece was based on her own personal experience and

other college students experiences. Even though she lacked the use of pathos she effectively used

ethos and logos to persuade her reader that minority clubs are self-segregating. She presents

evidence how minority clubs do ease stress for incoming students but also addresses that when

taken too far these clubs tend to segregate different cultures. She gives her readers a call to action

that these minority clubs should have an event dedicated specifically to learning about different

ethnicities they aren’t familiar with. Gabriela Moro successfully presents her argument with the

use of ethos and logos and even relating it to her own college experience.
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Works Cited

Moro Gabriela. “ Minority Student Clubs: Segregation or Integration?.” They Say I Say, Graff

Gerald, Birkenstein Cathy, Durst Russel, 4th Edition,W.W Norton & Company, 2018,

New York.