The Pursuit Of Just Getting By Amy Widner Summary

It is a well-known fact in today’s world that a large percentage of students in college are failing their classes due to the fact that many of them are not worried about making good grades. In Amy Widner’s essay “The Pursuit of Just Getting by,” she shared her opinion about students that think it is cool to not try. “We are not fooling anybody but ourselves.” –Amy Widner. She addresses this issue as well as the ramifications for “practicing” bad habits in college. She goes on explaining the importance of a hard work ethic, skills, and most importantly knowledge. She believes that every student should make the most out of their education by doing all of the work they are assigned, and doing everything to the best of their abilities. Amy later explains since students are paying so much for a college education they should be pursuing
In paragraph eight and nine the writer uses the appeal to pathos and it really makes the reader imagine what employers might think like. On the opposite argument in paragraph clearly point out the weak points in the previous paragraph. Winder says if everyone behaved like they didn’t care it would make all students look bad. When all of the students are not interested in class and act disrespectful it causes a bad mood, where obtaining knowledge should be the goal instead of the pursuit of just getting by. She also says that lowers the meaning of having a degree. Adding to the appeal to pathos, The writer uses appeal to logos by talking about how college students, their parents, and even people who don’t go to college, the tax payers are spending a large amount of money for students to be able to go to college. Not only does Widner use tone and word choice to appeal to her student audience, but she also uses all of the rhetorical strategies to influence the college student audience in a positive