An Analysis of The Education of Dasmine Cathey

1 An Analysis of “The Education of Dasmine Cathey” The article “The Education of Dasmine Cathey” written by Brad Wolverton for The Chronical of Higher Education is a narrative about how Cathey, a collegiate football player, struggles with the balance of life, academics, and a pro-sport. Throughout the article, Wolverton uses rhetorical appeals to convince readers that Dasmine Cathey has a true struggle with balancing the necessities of life (education/work) with the highlights of life (family/friends/football). The article begins with a description of Cathey opening up first grade readers as he tried to improve his reading skills. After this Pathos-evoking (evoking emotions) moment, Dasmine Cathey’s story about his difficulties in academia builds upon itself with the use of Logos (the appeal to logic) and more Pathos. Later in the article, Wolverton once again develops a sense of Pathos in the readers by explaining in an in-depth manner how, despite his efforts, Cathey was still struggling to get a hold of his life. The article ends with an explanation of how Cathey goes to an elementary school to tutor a student, who is very much like his elementary-self, in reading. Brad Wolverton uses effective rhetorical techniques such as Logos, Pathos, and the appeal to authority to support the claim that Cathey’s academic struggles at the University of Memphis were a result of having a busy life along with not having the educational fundamentals necessary to be successful. 2 Written in the third-person point of view, “The Education of Dasmine Cathey” is particularly persuasive because it seems as if the reader is floating through the story of Dasmine Cathey’s life. Timothy Wilson, Jay Meyers (The University of Virginia), and Daniel Gilbert (Harvard University) state in their research article, “Lessons from the Past: Do People Learn from Experience That Emotional Reactions Are Short-Lived?”, that “…it seems to be easy to learn from past experiences.” (Timothy D. Wilson) Wolverton uses this fact to his advantage with the goal of having the readers identify with Dasmine Cathey. Statistically, a large proportion of the readers should have struggled balancing their academic lives with their personal lives at some point. In fact, according to PhD Kalman Heller’s article, “Schools Fail to Educate at least 30 Percent of Our Students” posted on the PsychCentral website, “…the U.S. has a 30 percent rate of students failing to graduate high school”. (Kalman Heller) Wolverton takes advantage of this fact in his article by writing in a way in which all readers can actively emphasize personally with Cathey. At the beginning of the article, Wolverton writes about Cathey opening up his first-grade readers “Quietly, so none of his teammates would hear…”. (Wolverton) This is an effective appeal to Pathos! Also, the descriptive language choices that Wolverton used to portray this moment puts a vivid image of Cathey trying to teach himself how to read better. By appealing to familiar emotions, Wolverton successfully integrates a personal story into something much more meaningful for readers. By the use of Pathos to pull at the heartstrings of the readers, Wolverton successfully uses rhetorical techniques to portray his main point – that Cathey had good academic intentions, but was unable to implement them because of his inadequate educational background. Wolverton heavily uses Logos (the appeal to logic) in addition to his use of Pathos to persuade readers that Cathey was struggling academically. In the article itself, there is a small 3 paragraph devoted to Cathey’s semester-by-semester grade point averages. Having the actual GPA’s at your fingertips as you read the article is an effective rhetorical strategy. According to the article “How to Change Someone’s Mind, According to Science” published on the Washington Post’s website, “Numbers are important…” (Swanson) Also, Wolverton uses infographics to back-up his claim that Cathey was struggling in school. He includes a bar graph that depicts the number of classes Cathey enrolled in, along with the classes he passed, failed, and withdrew from. Because Cathey failed and withdrew from many of his classes, this bar graph is an effective rhetorical device. Numbers and infographics are pieces of evidence that cannot be debated, which is why using the GPA’s and the bar graph with Cathey’s depicting the classes he took as Logos are effective rhetorical techniques. Wolverton also effectively uses the appeal to authority throughout his article. He quotes Cathey’s advisors, coaches, and professors numerous times, which strengthens his argument. By quoting other people (of higher authority) the reader knows that the facts stated in the article are true and not debatable. It’s not as if Wolverton is writing the article from his own point of view, which is an ethical way of trying to persuade an audience. Also, the story becomes more real by quoting people’s words and experiences. Using the appeal to authority, Wolverton was able to successfully give us facts that not only convinced the readers of Dasmine Cathey’s academic struggles, but brought this story to life as well. Throughout “The Education of Dasmine Cathey” Wolverton uses strong rhetoric and writing techniques to persuade the audience that Cathey truly struggles with his life/academic/football balance. However, the ending of this article does not match the strong use of language that precedes it. The article seems to end in middle of what seems to be a larger and more meaningful story. Wolverton includes at the end of the article Cathey’s experience in 4 writing his first professional resume as well as a description of him becoming a tutor for an elementary-level student. And while these final “thoughts” evokes a sense of Pathos, they hardly suffice for the ending of such an important article. The reader is left to wonder what happens to Cathey’s life. The reader may ask the following questions: Does he ever get a job? Does he do better in his remaining classes? Does he learn to balance his life more effectively? These unanswered questions leave the reader to wonder about the success of Cathey, which is not particularly persuasive. Wolverton wrote the article with the intention of portraying the life of a colligate football star whom struggled academically. The article builds on the fact that Cathey actively continues to try (though he is not always successful) to better himself academically and personally. As readers, we are left to wonder whether any of this comes true. In order to have a more effective rhetorical argument, Cathey should have finished the article with the achievements that Cathey faced through his hard effort in bettering his life. The reader almost expects a “happy ending” from the story. Since there was no definite ending, it leaves room to wonder whether or not Cathey was in fact a success or a failure – not particularly persuasive. In conclusion, Wolverton uses a wide and vivid variety of rhetorical techniques to persuade the reader that Dasmine Cathey struggles academically not because he didn’t put the time into learning, but because of his weak academic background and busy personal life. Though most of the rhetorical techniques used throughout this article are very successful (such as the use of Pathos and Logos, the ending of the article could have been strengthened by including information that makes the reader believe that Cathey’s efforts to become a better student at the University of Memphis had been successful. Had this been included, the article would have been more complete and fulfilling. Thus, enhancing the rhetorical ability of this article.