Rhetorical Analysis: Mental Health Services and College Struggles

This essay offers a rhetorical analysis of Caroline Simon's 2017 article, "More and more students need mental health services. But colleges struggle to keep up." The analysis focuses on Simon's effective use of ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade colleges to improve mental health services for students. The essay examines how Simon employs statistics and research findings (ethos) to establish credibility, appeals to the emotions of college authorities through student testimonials (pathos), and presents logical arguments regarding the need for improved services (logos). The paper highlights how these rhetorical strategies contribute to Simon's advocacy for change, aiming to address the increasing mental health challenges faced by college students and the shortcomings of current institutional support. The essay references academic sources to support the analysis of the rhetorical techniques employed.

Running head: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTICLE “MORE AND MORE
STUDENTS NEED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES. BUT COLLEGES STRUGGLE TO
KEEP UP”
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
Mental health issues among the college students is a concept which had not been much
explored over the years and the ever increasing number of mental health issues that the different
college students are facing presently had made the concerned topic an important one. The article
“More and more students need mental health services. But colleges struggle to keep up” of
Caroline Simon (2017) while highlighting this particular issue faced by the students in the
different colleges also tries to persuade the college authorities to take the help of required
measures which in turn would help in the resolution of the concerned issue. More importantly,
Simon also highlights the fact that despite the exponential surge in the mental health issues
experienced by the students within the college campus the college authorities have failed to
devote the required amount of resources for the purpose of helping the students to overcome the
mental health issues that they suffer from.
As a matter of fact, it is seen that the majority of the colleges have counselors however
the students have to pay to use their services which often becomes very difficult for the students
since the majority of them have taken a student loan to join the college and are even doing part-
time jobs just to get their pocket money (Simon). In addition to these, the stigmatization,
complications, issues and others that the students face related to the usage of the counseling
services offered by the colleges or for that matter to even come forward and accept that they are
suffering from mental health issues had aggravated the situation even further. Simon in her
article had effectively used the three literary elements, namely, ethos, pathos and logos, for the
purpose of persuading the colleges or the educational institutions regarding the importance of
helping the students to maintain adequate mental health through the improvement of the mental
health counseling services and others offered by them. The purpose of this paper is to undertake
a rhetorical analysis of the Catherine Simon’s article “More and more students need mental

2RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
health services. But colleges struggle to keep up” (2017) in the particular context of the manner
in which she had used the literary elements of ethos, pathos and logos.
Brown is of the viewpoint that rhetorical analysis is a technique which helps the
individuals to break down the different parts of a fictional or non-fictional work and thereby
analyze the manner in which these parts are related to each other. Adding to this, Garcia and
Manderino have noted that this is generally being done as to ascertain the purpose of the author
in the fictional or the non-fictional work, namely, persuasion, entertainment or merely to cascade
the required information to the desired audiences. In this relation, it needs to be said that three of
the most important literary elements which are being used for the analysis of the different literary
texts as part of the rhetorical analysis framework are ethos, pathos and logos. Ethos refers to the
ethicality or for that matter the credibility of a piece of work and is generally being used by the
authors for convincing their intended audience regarding the credibility of the information which
is being cascaded by them (Corbett). On the other hand, pathos is related to the emotional appeal
of a piece of work and is generally being used by the authors for the purpose of appealing to the
emotions of the audience for whom they are writing the text (Beigman Klebanov et al.). Lastly,
the logos refer to the logical appeal of a piece and is generally being used by the authors to
convince their intended audience regarding the validity or the importance of the issues that they
are discussing in their text by appealing to their reason or logic (Milliken).
In the particular context of Simon’s article “More and more students need mental health
services. But colleges struggle to keep up” it is seen that the concerned article is redolent with
the effective usage of the rhetorical element of ethos. For instance, it is seen that Simon had
effectively used the findings obtained by the different researchers related to the mental health
issues faced by the students in the colleges for the purpose of lending credibility to the arguments

3RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
which are being made by her in the article under discussion here. The lines of the articles like
“Today’s college students are also more diverse than ever….more students from low-income
backgrounds, more students who identify as minorities or are LGBT….”, “But if colleges can't
provide students with timely counseling, problems can arise….provide on short notice for
emergencies” and others of the article are important to note in this connection (Simon). More
importantly, the author of the article rather than merely summarizing the findings obtained from
the research works conducted by the other researchers had also highlighted the important
statistics related to the mental health issues experienced by the students and also the lack of
support that they get from the college authorities which in turn had aggravated the mental health
issues experienced by them even further. In this regard, the lines of the article like “institutional
enrollment grew by 5.6% between 2009 and 2015, while the number of students seeking services
increased by 29.6%, and the number of attended appointments by 38.4%”, “Ideally the
counselor-to-student ratio is one to 1,000 or 1,500…hiring hundreds of therapists at a large
institution like Penn State, which has 46,000 undergraduates” (Simon). The primary purpose of
the author Simon for the usage of different statistics or numerical data related to the mental
health issues experienced by the college students and also the lack of help which is being offered
by the college authorities is to make the readers of the article convince about the gravity of the
issue and thereby facilitate the required change which in turn would benefit the college students.
Thus, it can be said that through the effective usage of the element of ethos Simon had been able
to enhance the credibility of the article under discussion here while being able to advocate for the
required change within the quality or for that matter the nature of mental health services that are
being offered to the students by the different colleges.

4RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
Simon in the article “More and more students need mental health services. But colleges
struggle to keep up” had also taken the help of the element of logos for appealing to the logic or
for that matter the reason of the readers and also the colleges for facilitating the required change.
For instance, highlighting the inadequate mental healthcare services which are being offered by
the different colleges Simon states that “Increased demand…colleges are often strapped for
resources……the most pressing concern regarding resources is simply not having enough
counselors”. On the other hand, she herself acknowledges the fact that there are various reasons
because of which had accounted for the various mental health issues experienced by the students
and thereby the need for the mental health services offered by the colleges. In this relation, the
lines of the article under discussion here like “mental health treatment has drastically improved.
Students….can now go because of advanced medication and other forms of treatment”,
“students…..stressed and overwhelmed, away from home, unsure of resources, afraid to seek
help” and others (Simon). In this relation, it needs to be said that the presentation of these logical
arguments by the author Simon in the article had substantially enhanced the logical appeal of the
article and the primary purpose of the author for this was to make the audiences or for that matter
the readers think regarding the arguments or the ideas which are being shared by her in the
article. This is important since the author would not have been able to enhance the effectiveness
of the article and thereby its ability to influence the behavior of the college authorities related to
the mental health services which they are presently offering to the students merely by
highlighting the issue of inadequate mental health among the students. Thus, it can be said that
the adequate usage of different logical arguments through the usage of logos had helped Simon
to enhance the logical appeal of the article which in turn is likely to help her to facilitate the

5RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
required change through which better quality mental health services would be able available to
the college students.
Simon’s article is also redolent with the effective usage of the literary element of pathos
and it is seen that through the usage of this particular element she had tried to appeal to the
emotions of the college authorities for improving the quality of mental health services which are
being offered by them. As a matter of fact, Simon is hoping by effectively using this element she
would be able to make the college authorities understand the gravity and even the implications of
the mental health issues which the majority of the college students are presently facing within the
different colleges or for that matter the educational institution. For instance, the words of
Johnson, one of the students of Georgetown University regarding the challenging battle which he
had been fighting against mental health issues in the absence of any effective mental healthcare
services offered by the concerned college are important to note in this connection “Seeing
firsthand mental health crises and feeling pretty powerless to do anything about it” (Simon).
Furthermore, the author also raises an interesting point that merely the initiatives of the students
to improve the mental healthcare services which are being offered by the educational institutions
to the students is not likely to improve the situation rather than the initiatives need to come from
the end of the college authorities. This becomes apparent from the lines of the article “And when
students are the ones pushing……it can be difficult to get their administrations to
cooperate….navigating a maze of bureaucracy and working with administrators who have other
priorities” (Simon). In this relation, it needs to be said that through these lines or for that matter
through the effective usage of the element of pathos, the author of the article under discussion
here had tried to make an emotional appeal to the college authorities for the improvement of the

6RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
mental healthcare services which are being offered by them to the students so as to help the
students in the best possible manner.
To conclude, Catharine Simon in her article “More and more students need mental health
services. But colleges struggle to keep up” have tried the highlight the manner in which mental
health issues have increased among the college students and the lack of help that is being offered
by the college authorities is aggravating the condition of the students even further. The author in
this article have tried the highlight the issues associated with the mental healthcare services
offered by the college authorities and also the manner in which they can be improved as to help
the students in the best possible manner to cope up with their mental health issues. Thus, it can
be said that the objective of the author in the article is to advocate for change by highlighting the
issue. For the attainment of this particular end, she had taken the help of the literary elements of
ethos, pathos and logos which in turn while helping Simon to highlight the gravity of the issue
had also enabled her to advocate for the required change as well.

7RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
References
Beigman Klebanov, Beata, et al. "Advancing the validity argument for standardized writing tests
using quantitative rhetorical analysis." Language Testing 36.1 (2019): 125-144.
Brown, Richard Harvey. "Poetics, politics, and truth: An invitation to rhetorical
analysis." Writing the social text. Routledge, 2017. 3-8.
Corbett, Steven J. "Rhetorical Analysis." Theories and Methods of Writing Center Studies: A
Practical Guide (2019).
Garcia, Lori, and Michael Manderino. "Interrupting “Single Stories”: Using Socially Just Media
Texts to Teach Rhetorical Analysis." Acts of Resistance: Subversive Teaching in the
English Language Arts Classroom (2020): 95.
Milliken, John. "Rhetorical Analysis: Never Give Up." Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning
Student Writing 5.1 (2018): 9.
Simon, Catherine. "More And More Students Need Mental Health Services. But Colleges
Struggle To Keep Up". Usatoday.Com, 2020,
https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2017/05/04/more-and-more-students-need-
mental-health-services-but-colleges-struggle-to-keep-up/37431099/.