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Jazmin Coronel

Professor Granillo

English 101

26 September 2018

Rhetorical Analysis Is It Helpful or Dreadful?

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 of a logical approach by talking about it as a first hand experience

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.

In Moro’s experience these clubs provide an environment where students might feel

comfortable engaging with others of similar backgrounds. 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. Gabriela 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
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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 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 explains to 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 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’’ (Delgado, 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, what if a student not of the
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same culture came to this club. So 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.

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

because they self-segregating as Moro begins to reveal. 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’’ (Museus, 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 but basically segregating themselves from them because they might

only feel comfortable with people of the same culture.

First hand experience is what most of these students faced when entering a new

environment like a college campus. So 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). So 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
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want to branch out and learn about other cultures because 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). So she

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

groups. Gabriela 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 they do or have 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. So 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.