218 CHAPTER 8 | FRom ETHos To Logos: APPEALing To YouR REAdERs■ (^) establish that You have good Judgment
Most readers of academic writing expect writers to demonstrate good
judg ment by identifying a problem that readers agree is worth addressing.
In turn, good judgment gives writers credibility.
Loewen crafts his introduction to capture the attention of educators as
well as concerned citizens when he claims that students leave high school
unaware of class structure and as a consequence “have no understanding
of the ways that opportunity is not equal in America and no notion that
social structure pushes people around, influencing the ideas they hold and
the lives they may fashion” (para. 1). Loewen does not blame students, or
even instructors, for this lack of awareness. Instead, he writes, “textbooks
can take some of the credit for this state of affairs” (para. 2) because,
among other shortcomings, they leave out important events in “labor his-
tory” and relegate issues facing labor to the past.
Whether an educator — or a general reader for that matter — will ulti-
mately agree with Loewen’s case is, at this point, up for grabs, but cer-
tainly the possibility that high schools in general, and history textbooks in
particular, are failing students by leaving them vulnerable to class-based
manipulation would be recognized as a problem by readers who believe
America should be a society that offers equal opportunity for all. At this
point, Loewen’s readers are likely to agree that the problem of omission
he identifies may be significant if its consequences are as serious as he
believes them to be.
Writers also establish good judgment by conveying to readers that
they are fair-minded and just and have the best interests of readers in
mind. Loewen is particularly concerned that students understand the per-
sistence of poverty and inequality in the United States and the historical
circumstances of the poor, which they cannot do unless textbook writers
take a more inclusive approach to addressing labor history, especially “the
growth of multinational corporations and their exporting of jobs overseas”
(para. 2). It’s not fair to deny this important information to students, and
it’s not fair to the poor to leave them out of official histories of the United
States. Loewen further demonstrates that he is fair and just when he calls
attention in paragraph 6 to the inequality between rich and poor children
in schools, a problem that persists despite our forebears’ belief that class
would not determine the fate of citizens of the United States.
■ (^) Convey to Readers that You are Knowledgeable
Being thoughtful about a subject goes hand in hand with being knowl-
edgeable about the subject. Loewen demonstrates his knowledge of class
issues and their absence from textbooks in a number of ways (not the least
of which is his awareness that a problem exists — many people, including
educators, may not be aware of this problem).
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