Mahanian 1

Ariela Mahanian

Professor Jon Beadle

English 115

25 September 2020

Project Space Final Essay

Many people have different opinions on which article in WAVES has the most

effective argument. The three articles being compared here are, “Online Lessons:

Literal and Figurative” by Mercedes Guevara, “Bridge the Gap from High School to

College” by Hailey Jones, and “Safe Space or Wasted Space?” by Ranzen Pangilinan.

These articles all talk about totally different situations and experiences and do not share

any interests with each other. In my personal opinion, “Online Lessons: Literal and

Figurative” by Mercedes shows a lot of pathos, ethos and logos being used to express

her online experiences with her reader. I believe she does this to attract young readers,

making them not feel alone. Attracting a certain age group to read your essay about

your own experiences gets to be the most effective essay out of the three other essays.

She states her emotions, logic, and credibility by making these online students feel less

stressed and more excited about online learning and the advantages it gives to all.

These students include groups of people who are doing online learning and groups of

students who are looking into getting involved with online schooling. The essay “Online

lessons: Literal and Figurative” is the most effective argument because Mercedes

writing is relatable towards my experiences with school. Being involved in a global

pandemic while still being in school is what really drew me towards choosing the essay

as being presented as the most effective.

Mercedes Guevara, in the essay, “Online Lessons: Literal and Figurative” uses

all three of the rhetorical strategies the most effectively to make her claim compared

with how “Bridge the Gap from High School to College” and “Safe Space or Wasted

Space?” stated their claims. Guevara explains how online school offers students many

educational opportunities for students to improve on themselves and their learning

concepts because of the advantage of being able to work at your own pace to complete

each of the deadlines for your technology-based classes. She uses her own evidence to

state the claim. She supports her explanation by sharing her experiences with online

school and how it challenged and provided her with valuable lessons that are still

implemented in her daily life today. Guevara continues to talk about how it was her own

choice to pursue online learning because it was a more laid back and different

experience. She went into online schooling not expecting the amount of positive life

learning experiences that were gained from this. She’s making a logical argument by

explaining how “online school has taught time management, academic writing, and

thorough reading” (Guevara 89). The education learning concepts with online school

compared with in-person school were very much different as well. With in-person class,

students have to complete their class assignments in class, the same time and day,

which tends to stress some students out at times. Compared with online classes, it is

asserted with credibility that "The time I could begin and finish class was up to me.

Would I procrastinate and start school at 10 p.m.? Or would I start at 8 a.m. so that I

could have the day off after noon? The choice was mine” (89). This argues in a credible

way how you can make your own schedule when dealing with online classes. Mercedes

also shows how you are given less exams and quizzes online, compared to when you
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are physically at school. Mercedes shares her experience to her readers that one of the

main important factors of what online schools teach people is how to properly use

important software’s that will be used throughout college and students' work lives: “I

have learned how to use Excel, PowerPoint, and Word” (Guevara 90). She’s giving

credit to these online software’s in which everyone should know how to operate for

being successful. She uses her positive advice to convince teenagers and young adults

that such an experience could emotionally make you more comfortable with being in

school and to show how online is a more convenient, more comfortable work space to

learn from. It can emotionally make an individual feel better because they will be

studying and learning in a more relaxed and comfortable environment by having the

advantage to stay at home in your bedroom. On the other hand, some students may be

reading her essay to get a good look on what online school is like. It may help them to

decide whether or not to go on with the process.

The essay, “Bridge the Gap from High School to College,” by Hailey Jones is not

as effective as “Online Lessons: Literal and Figurative” by Mercedes Guevara. The

reason why I did not see this essay as being more effective is because it misses a few

factors to the argument. It lacks the appealing sensibilities to logical evidence, and it

lacks having credible evidence and proof to why college is different from high school.

She does however use pathos to win her argument over with strong emotions of her

past years in high school. I saw this essay as less effective because less informative

information was given. What the author does do is prove her thesis by claiming that the

transition process from high school to college must begin with the assessment of certain

information, which starts off with being “financially, socially, and culturally stable” (Jones
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25). She succeeds in explaining how the two levels of schooling are different but she did

not go so in depth to why they are. For example, when you’re in high school your

complete assignments and tests to work towards a grade for graduation, but in college

you study hard to work towards a degree for a career that fits you best and which will

make you successful in the work force and in the future of yourself. Jones addresses

how you have to be prepared for the difference in grading from high school versus

college. In high school, “you could fail a test or an assignment and be okay because you

have plenty of other assignments to recover your grade” (Jones 25). College does not

give you the advantage of fixing your low grade as fast as it could be in high school

because of the less assignments given and the higher percentage of test grades that

get added to your total score. As you could see, Hailey’s essay has proven evidence

that attaches to her thesis but her audience does not get as much motivation as

Mercedes Guevara’s article because Guevara’s thesis statement attracts more young

students who are in school rather than just only rising freshmen in college. Mercedes

thesis statement was also stronger, in my looking of things.

Finally, the last comparison is the article “Safe Space or Wasted Space?” by

Ranzen Pangilinan. The author makes a claim about how the USU Pride Center at

CSUN is an extremely important part on campus because it provides a safe space for

LGBTQ+ students. Pangilinan supports his claim by stating that it’s a place on campus

that provides LGBTQ+ students a place to socialize without judgement. “Safe Space or

wasted space?” is not as effective as my main observation of having “Online Lessons:

Literal and Figurative” being the most effective because it misses points that lead to my

thesis statement. This article only focuses on the emotions of teenagers and groups of
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people in the LQBTQ+ community and how having a support system leads to a happier

life of living with being in the community. It does not really state a logical or credibility

argument because the topic really does not have much evidence of having the

credibility or logical reasoning because this is a subject that involves a lot of pathos.

This LGBTQ community was proven to be an environment where anyone could open up

and be themselves. The safe space at CSUN is an important environment for LGBTQ+

students to feel like they have people to talk to about their sexuality and to know others

who share the same sexuality as them. Pathos is used in this because it deals with the

emotions of these students or staff members and it makes them all feel comfortable to

be themselves. Having the feeling of not being alone in something as personal as your

own sexuality was really the main focus about this essay. This community is here for

support and comfort of others: “It helps with their mental health as well because it is

stated that, “many queer college students have suicidal thoughts or actions as a direct

result of the discrimination they face throughout college life” (Pangilinan 60). It is proved

that the safe space at CSUN is an important environment for LGBTQ+ students to feel

like they have people to talk to about their sexuality and to know others who share the

same sexuality as them. The students' experience was shown by the statement saying:

"No matter who you are, you won’t be shunned for being yourself” (Pangilinan 60). The

CSUN pride center is not just for students who attend the school or live on campus but it

is also for staff members who need the support as well because there is only positivity

spread at this center of pride. The Pride Center is a non-discrimination safe space for

everyone and anyone. These safe spaces on campus have been proved to improve the

students' academics by improvising better grades because of the support handed out to
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everyone who comes. It helps with their mental health as well because “many queer

college students have suicidal thoughts or actions as a direct result of the discrimination

they face throughout college life” (Pangilinan 61). There is no credibility given in this

article that leads to the rhetorical strategy of ethos.

In conclusion, “Online Lessons: Literal and Figurative” by Mercedes Guevara is

the most effective essay. She makes her audience feel trustworthy and convinces her

audience about how life-altering online learning can be. She explains to her readers on

how much of an improvement she has gained from switching to online school. The

author’s purpose was to point out the advantages and life lessons that online learning

provided, so that she can compare the different experiences and advantages she had

with face-to-face public school. Guevara writes in a joyful tone for students, who ranged

from high school through college students and for those who are interested in online

learning. This article used ethos, pathos, and logos the most effectively, compared to

the two other articles assigned to be analyzed from WAVES.

Work Cited:

Hailey Jones. “Bridge the Gap from High School to College.” WAVES: A Collection of Student

Essays edited by Amy Reynolds and Amber Norwood, 2nd edition, Macmillian learning,

2020, pp. 25-27

Ranzen Pangilinan. “Safe Space or Wasted Space?” WAVES: A Collection of Student Essays

edited by Amy Reynolds and Amber Norwood, 2nd edition, Macmillian learning, 2020,

pp. 60-62
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Mercedes Guevara. “Online Lessons: Literal and Figurative.” WAVES: A Collection of Student

Essays by Amy Reynolds and Amber Norwood, 2nd edition, Macmillian learning, 2020, pp.

89-91