TOW #7 - Consider a Gap Year

On April 15th, 2011, the Huffington Post published an article written by David D. Burstein titled Consider a Gap Year. Burstein, a writer who focuses on young adults and millennials and took a gap year himself, writes to inform readers about the potential benefits that exist for those that take a gap year between high school and college. The article is clearly geared towards high school students who plan to attend college as it was published in the month of April that year, which is when many students across the country could expect to see the results of their college applications. To prove that a gap year could really be beneficial, Burstein uses personal anecdotes as well as statistics on the subject matter. Towards the middle of the text, Burstein writes, “The direction and perspective that my gap year gave me was far beyond anything my traditional educational experiences could ever provide. I made a film and started an organization dedicated to getting young people involved in politics.” (Burstein). Through his own personal example, Burstein is able to appeal to ethos and pathos as this not only displays his credibility, but it also is easy for a high school student to relate to the ideas of ‘not learning much’ from school. He goes on to talk about its profound effects for him, strengthening the emotional value. He also tells that “more than 3,000 students took gap years [in 2010]. This year that number is expected to go even higher.” (Burstein). By providing the reader with this statistic, the author is able to show his audience that taking a gap year is slowly becoming a more regular occurrence. With more and more people taking on this opportunity, the benefits will become even more apparent to the public. Overall, I do believe the author accomplished his purpose. I always thought the idea of a gap year was interesting, but this showed me that it was not simply a year off from schooling, but a year to learn more about who you are and what it really is that you want to pursue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-d-burstein/consider-a-gap-year_b_849487.html