Running Head: UGLY UNIFORMS

Rhetorical Analysis of How Ugly School Uniforms Will Save Education

UGLY UNIFORMS

The schools of El Paso and of the United States are in need of help. The good news is that,
since 2000 to 2010, the rates of schools, in the United States that enforce uniforms increased by
7.1 percent (Toppo, 2013). The TIME Article How Ugly School Uniforms Will Save
Education, by Belinda Luscombe, actually explains the many reasons uniforms will save the
future generations of children. Luscombe is in complete accordance with the uniform policy and
to better investigate the articles structure, this analysis will investigate the audience, purpose, and
use of the three rhetorical appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos.
The intended audience for How Ugly School Uniforms Will Save Education, is overall,
for the parents of students that will eventually take on the uniform policy at their school or
school district. The article, although through the eyes of someone who supports uniforms, is
made particularly for parents who might have a doubt about the effectiveness of the use of
uniforms in schools, or a parent who is completely opposed. The audience that is included for
this article must also be computer clever, as this article is posted online on the TIME website.
This also indicates that part of the audience for this article was directed to the people who have a
subscription to the magazine, as well as someone looking for the specific topic; uniforms helping
to save education. Belinda says, I wore a hideous outfit to school every day and you should
make your kids wear one too (2014). She gives her personal experience of when she was a
student, and tells the parents that, now she can see how much of a benefit it was for her and the
rest of her classmates to wear a school uniform. Consequently, the authors intended audience are
the parents of children who might, or will, use uniforms.
In addition, the purpose of this TIME article is to inform the audience of the benefits that
come with uniforms. However, this article also could be seen to persuade because of the lack of
consequences shown. This article would be to persuade parents to adopt the uniform policy at

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their childrens school and school district. The article can inform the audience of all the benefits
and give examples like: when students grow older and get a job they will have to use appropriate
clothing for their career, at this point, the now adults, will be used to it and will most likely not
complain. This article states a few facts about a newspaper article that had a school on the front
page, that now, will not allow any tight pants (Luscombe, 2014). The article Luscombe refers to
is about schools banning yoga pants and leggings. These pieces of clothing, like others, the
students wear are provocative and distracting, and parents do not like their children to be
distracted while learning. She also states that, nobody likes school uniforms, but that using
uniforms could set some common ground for the students to get along, instead of bullying each
other, they can bully the uniforms (Luscombe, 14). Thus, the purpose of How Ugly School
Uniforms Will Save Education, is more to persuade, but also to inform on the benefits of
uniforms.
The rhetorical appeal that, How Ugly School Uniforms Will Save Education, most
weakly used is logos, the logical way to appeal to people. However, this could be argued
because the author is credible and tells her own story. The facts stated in this article, although
may sound logical, are not supported by details or examples. The author Luscombe, give her
own anecdotes, for example, the boys at the local boy school, would be obligated to pick up litter
and tip their hats to the cars that would let them cross the street (2014). Forcing the boys to tip
their hats trained them to be courteous and polite. This statement made by Luscombe, sounds
logical, but there are no facts or studies included in the article to prove that the boys who picked
up the trash became nice and polite young men. Since the story is from such a credible, person
as well as publicized on a credible reading source, it can be argued that logos is present. Because

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of this facts and statistics are not necessary, and come to a conclusion that the logos is neither
weak nor strong, but simply there.
Furthermore, How Ugly School Uniforms Will Save Education, has a very strong
amount of credibility, therefore having strong ethos. The strong ethos can be seen because of the
fact that TIME magazine, although the readers of magazines have diminished, is the massmarket magazine among the traditional news magazines, (Sasseen, 2012). Being the biggest
magazine in the United States, this gives the writers and the magazine its self, extreme
credibility. The author for this article is also a credible person. Belinda Luscombe has worked
at TIME magazine since 1995; she is an editor and writer for the magazine and this shows her
credibility for the magazine. Although the only source for the article is the author herself, there
is not a loss in ethos because of her own credibility.
The rhetorical appeal pathos has a medium use in the article, How Ugly School
Uniforms Will Save Education. As Luscombe talks about her personal encounters with school
uniforms, she appeals to the emotional appeal, pathos. This makes the article feel more personal
and gives a feel of trust. While this is not the part that shows the most pathos. She mentions a
worldwide problem: bullying. Many people can relate to being bullied and is where most pathos
is implied. Body type disappears, one of the most common reasons children are bullied is
because of their lack of a perfect body type (Luscombe, 14). With uniforms, most of this
disappears. Theft also disappears with the use of uniforms; all the students hate the uniforms
with the same amount of passion, and for this reason would not steal something they do not like.
The use of uniforms also reduces the distraction between male and female students. With the
points she gives, the parents are emotionally attacked because they do not what their children to
be bullied or stolen from.

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In conclusion, How Ugly School Uniforms Will Save Education, was designed and
written to keep the audience (the parents) thinking more about their children. To persuade them
to take on the uniform policy, for the better of their children. This can be seen through the use of
rhetorical appeals, purpose of the article, and the audience. After the information gathered from
this analysis, the information can be used to help the students of El Paso and the United States be
saved from worse education.

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References

Belinda Luscombe (2014, March 25). How ugly school uniforms will save education. [Online
article]
Retrieved from time.com/37090/how-ugly-school-uniforms-will-save-education/

Greg Toppo (2013, August 18). What to wear? Schools increasingly making that decision.
[Online article]
Retrieved from www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/18/more-schooluniforms/2662387/

Jane Sasseen et. (2012). News magazines: by the numbers. [Online article]
Retrieved from http://stateofthemedia.org/2013/news-magazines-embracing-their-digitalfuture/news-magazines-by-the-numbers/