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Marisa Phillips
Professor Manley
ENG 111
17 February 2014
The Prospect of Studying Abroad
As I entered college, I began to ponder the thought of studying abroad either my
sophomore or junior year. Because studying abroad is such a great expense I knew it
would take a large amount of convincing in order for my parents to allow me to study
abroad. For me, the greatest aspect of studying abroad would be gaining fluency in a
language. With the world continually getting smaller and smaller, it is starting to become
imperative that students today learn and develop fluency in multiple languages. Because
of this aspect, I want to travel as much as possible in order to see as much of the world as
possible as well as understand what different cultures are all about. I know that through
study abroad I will be able to begin to do so and therefore understand the world on a
much deeper level.
Once in college, I began contemplating what major would best fit what I wanted
to accomplish as an adult. Through discussing with multiple advisors as well as my
parents, I knew I wanted to at least minor in International Business. I partially picked this
minor in order to further persuade my parents that study abroad was truly the most
optimal route for what I wanted to accomplish in life. But largely, this minor set me up
very well for my future. It requires that I get to a certain level in a language of my choice
as well as study abroad. By choosing this, I essentially pushed the idea of studying
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abroad into being not just an idea, but also an event that would take place within the next
three and a half years of my time here at Miami University.
Through the use rhetoric, which can be defined as an effective type of persuasive
language used in writing or speech, in order to convince my parents that study abroad
was truly the best option for me, and what I want out of life. By using logical statements,
statistical facts, advisors as well as emotion, I was able to effectively convince my
parents that studying abroad was a viable option.
When I first introduced the idea, emotion was my main convincing factor.
Although pathos often works very well and allows speakers and writers to connect with
their audience, I knew this was a much more logistical case and my parents would need
much more than my emotions in order to agree with the idea. Because study abroad
entails so many logistical details, my parents needed to understand that studying abroad
had many more benefits than I was able to correctly portray through my emotions and
love for travel. Just because one loves something does not necessarily mean it is always
the best thing for them and my parents understood this. By meeting with advisors here at
Miami University, I introduced credibility to the statements I had already been portraying
to my parents. Many advisors in colleges today, advise their students in order to learn
about the real world and learn much more than what schools typically have to offer
within the classroom. But beyond that, advisors say that it allows students to connect to
those around the world and make everlasting friendships that could help them out when it
comes time to search for a job whether its when one first graduates or is looking for one
in their middle years. Study abroad is what helps to shrink the world through something
much more personal than technology. Through the introduction of a credible source not
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only did I provide more truth to my statements, my parents were then able to connect
with emotion on a much more logical basis.
Not only did I let the advisor help me to convince my parents, but also I was then
able to provide them with statistics. By providing numbers and cold hard facts, it made
study abroad much more real and not just an idea that I came up with out of the blue.
Facts allow ideas to become logical and something that ensures that the message being
portrayed is a consistent one.
Ethos, pathos and logos, the small parts that make up a large portion of what
rhetoric is, allows those trying to convince those around them that the idea that they are
portraying is in fact a logical one—one that they are also able to connect with on
something much deeper than the surface. It is imperative for the audience to be able to do
so because without that, the audience will never truly be convinced. Through rhetorical
analysis I was able to convince my parents that studying abroad would be one of the best
decisions they helped me make. Studying in Barcelona, Spain will not only enhance my
fluency in Spanish but it will truly allow me to understand the culture in a very real way.