This document summarizes key findings from the report "Hunger on Campus: The Challenge of Food Insecurity for College Students". The report surveyed over 3,700 students from 12 states and found that 48% experienced food insecurity in the last 30 days. Food insecurity was more common at community colleges (25% had very low food security) compared to 4-year schools (20%). Groups more affected included students of color (57% of Black students) and first-generation students (56%). Many food insecure students also experienced housing insecurity. The report concludes that food insecurity negatively impacts students' education and calls for colleges and policymakers to implement programs and policies to address this issue.

1. LING 281
Spring 2017
Paper #2 – Analysis of persuasive appeals
This paper features an analysis of the persuasive appeals used in
two kinds of academic writing.
Choose one of the following texts to analyze:
Report: “Hunger on Campus: The Challenge of Food Insecurity
for College Students,” Dubick, et al.
Research Article: “Children Are Aware of Food Insecurity and
Take Responsibility for Managing Food,” Fram, M.S. et al.
To be successful, this analysis will include the following
components:
1. An introduction that introduces your project to the reader and
describes the analysis to be done in the body of the paper.
a. Preview the general organization of your paper
b. Preview the key questions your paper addresses
c. Supply the reader with background on the author, the
audience, the social context,
the place of publication, and so forth
d. Stateyour claim and reason concerning the effectiveness of
the report or research article.
2. A discussion of the author’s central claim and reason for
producing the report or research article.
3. A discussion of the authors’ use of persuasive appeals. You
may decide to discuss ethos, pathos, and logos. Or, you may
decide to discuss only one of these elements.
4. A general conclusion that discusses the significance or
consequence of understanding persuasive appeals.
Although these sections are listed separately, your paper will
link them through smooth transitions. Remember that you will

2. need to provide quoting and examples to support your claim.
Revised essay is due one week after the in-class writing is
returned. The final draft should be at least 3 pages and typed,
Times font, double-spaced, and in MLA/APA format.
In-class writing: __________________
Final Draft due: __________________
Does Civility Pay?
Often, one doesn’t realize how crucial civility is to the success
in life and particularly to the success of his or her career.
Christine Porath and Alexandra Gerbasi, the authors of the
article “Does Civility Pay?” provide results of their extensive
studies that demonstrate the benefits of civility. The authors are
Business School professors who have devoted more than two
decades researching the effects of civility on one’s career. They
have conducted an in-depth research to identify the benefits of
civility and whether it is worth to be civil. The results of their
extended studies show that those people who chose to be civil
prove to be more prosperous. Porath and Gerbasi claim that
civility empowers people, opens doors and opportunities for
advancement and therefore brings success in their many areas of
their life and their career. Authors’ goal in this article is to
persuade those who strive to be successful that civility is the
key ingredient. Moreover, they make recommendations on how
people can improve and develop civility in order to reap its
benefits. In this paper I will analyze how the two authors
persuade their readers by skillfully using appeal to ethos, appeal
to logos and appeal to pathos.
I would like to start by examining the strongest of the three
forms of persuasion used in this article, the ethos. Ethos is the
ability of a speaker or a writer to build trust and credibility in
the eyes of the audience. Porath and Gerbasi were able to
achieve it by making their readers aware of their expertise.
They say that “over the last two decades we have studied the

3. cost of incivility – and benefits of civility” (281). Thus, by
indicating the amount of time they have dedicated to
researching this area of interest they were able to demonstrate
their commitment to making an in-depth research. This gives
their audience the sense of genuine interest the authors have in
the subject of their research. Furthermore, they say that “we
polled tens of thousands of workers across industries around the
world about how they’re treated on the job and the effects”
(281). This information builds credibility and conveys to the
readers that Porath and Gerbasi know the topic well. Therefore,
based on those evidence the readers can trust the authors and
their expertise. The authors, in turn, gain the ability to persuade
their readers. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, thought that
ethos is the most powerful of the three forms of persuasion and
the authors of this article were able to clearly demonstrate the
power of ethos.
Another form of persuasion used by authors of this article is
logos or appeal to logic. Appeal to logos is a way to persuade
the audience by supporting claims with factual data, statistics,
and examples just to name a few of the ways. Porath and
Gerbasi provide results of their own experiments and researches
along with some real life examples in order to logically
persuade their audience. For example, they say “in an
experiment, we found that people were 59 percent more willing
to share information, 72 percent more likely to seek advice and
57 percent more likely to seek information from civil person as
compared to the uncivil behaving person” (282). This type of
quantitative information allows the audience to understand the
impact of civility and allows them to see the possibilities it
brings to one’s life. Furthermore, the authors share more
results of their experiment where the “Participants were 73
percent more likely to want to do well for this (civil) person and
1.22 times more likely to recommend him (for a job) compared
with the uncivil person” (282). This experiment that Porath and
Gerbasi performed, allows readers to make some logical
conclusions that if they choose to be civil they gain the

4. mentioned above benefits such respect and job opportunities.
And lastly, the authors have also used the pathos or appeal to
emotions to persuade their readers. Throughout the article, they
use vivid descriptions such as “incivility repels people” (282)
which evoke negative emotions in readers and therefore allows
them to get a sense of what incivility brings into their lives. On
the other hand, when they describe civility they say “civility is
unique” (281) and “civility draws people” (282) which gives
readers a positive feeling. By allowing readers to emotionally
experience the difference between civility and incivility authors
persuade them to choose the first one. In addition, authors use
real life examples that allow readers once again to
understanding the difference between the two qualities. The
first example describes Steve and exposes the hidden
consequences of incivility. His story evokes fear of failure at
work and therefore encourages readers to avoid it. The second
example talks about Carrie and demonstrates how her actions
and civility lead her to success. By including these examples,
authors once again let readers to feel the difference between
civility and incivility and to convince readers of the benefits of
the first one.
In conclusion, the knowledge of how to use the persuasive
appeals helped authors of this article to create a powerful and
persuasive argument in how civility pays off. The first and most
powerful appeal they used was ethos, based on their
background, the researches and the studies they have personally
conducted to earn credibility and trust of their audience. The
second and also a strong one they used is logos. To appeal to
the readers logic authors included the results of their
experiments and researches. And finally, Porath and Gerbasi
also used pathos to appeal to their readers’ emotions by vividly
describing hidden qualities behind uncivility in contrast to the
positive one that comes along with civility. The three appeals
used by authors helped them to create a convincing article that
persuades their readers to choose to be civil in order to be more
successful.

5. Work Cited
Alexandra, Gerbsi. Christine, Porath “Does Civility Pay?”
Science Direct. Elsevier Inc, 2015. 281-6. Print
Logos, Ethos, and Pathos
Whenever you read an argument you must ask yourself, “is this
persuasive? And if so, to whom?” There are several
ways to appeal to an audience. Among them are appealing to
logos, ethos, and pathos. These appeals are prevalent
in almost all arguments.
To Appeal to LOGOS
(logic, reasoning)
To Develop or Appeal to ETHOS
(character, ethics)
To Appeal to PATHOS (emotion)
: the argument itself; the reasoning

6. the author uses.
: how an author builds credibility &
trustworthiness
: words or passages an author uses
to activate emotions
Types of LOGOS Appeals
Ways to Develop ETHOS
Types of Pathos Appeals
reasons (because…)
analogies
experts &
authorities

7. examples)
background
minded, knowledgeable
ally / ethically likeable
audience and subject
language

8. s, or
Narratives about emotional
experiences or events
sarcasm, disappointment,
excitement, etc.)
Effect on Audience
Effect on Audience
Effect on Audience
Evokes a cognitive, rational
response. Readers get a sense of,
“Oh, that makes sense” or “Hmm,
that really doesn’t prove anything.”
Helps reader to see the author as
reliable, trustworthy, competent,

9. and credible. The reader might
respect the author or his/her views.
Evokes an emotional response.
Persuasion by emotion.
(usually evoking fear, sympathy,
empathy, anger,)
How to Talk About It
How to Talk About It
How to Talk About It
The author appeals to logos by
defining relevant terms and then
supports his claim with numerous
citations from authorities.
The author’s logos appeals of
statistics and expert testimony are

10. very convincing.
Through his use of scientific
terminology, the author builds his
ethos by appearing knowledgeable.
The author’s ethos is effectively
developed as readers see that he is
sympathetic to the struggles
minorities face.
When referencing 9/11, the author
is appealing to pathos. Here, he is
eliciting both sadness and anger
from his readers.
The author’s description of the
child with cancer was a very
persuasive pathos appeal.

11. 2/27/2017 Report: Hunger On Campus | National Student
Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness
https://studentsagainsthunger.org/hunger-on-campus/#. 1/3
Report: Hunger On
Campus
Hunger On Campus
The Challenge of Food Insecurity for College Students
October 2016
Download (PDF)
Executive Summary
Food insecurity –
the lack of reliable access to sufficient quantities of affordable,
nutritious food – is
common at colleges and universities across the country, potentia
lly undermining the educational
success of untold thousands of students.
Given its potential impact, the collective understanding of this i
ssue is still far too limited. The
existing studies on campus food insecurity have almost exclusiv
ely looked at individual colleges and
university systems or focused on community colleges.

12. In order to expand the understanding of campus food insecurity,
the coordinators of this report set
out to implement the broadest study on this issue to date by surv
eying students across a wide range
of regions and school types. In doing so, the goal was to foster
a more expansive understanding of
https://studentsagainsthunger.org/
http://studentsagainsthunger.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/10/Hunger_On_Campus.pdf
2/27/2017 Report: Hunger On Campus | National Student
Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness
https://studentsagainsthunger.org/hunger-on-campus/#. 2/3
campus food insecurity and its impact on students, while also br
inging national attention to this
critical issue.
Four campus-based organizations –
the College and University Food Bank Alliance, the National
Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness, the Stude
nt Government Resource Center,
and the Student Public Interest Research Groups –
surveyed college students on food insecurity
between March and May 2016. The study sample includes 3,765
students in 12 states attending
eight community colleges and 26 four-year colleges and univers
ities. The sample was assembled
using in-person recruitment, and represents about 0.5% of the st
udents attending those 34
institutions.

13. Findings include:
Consistent with prior studies, 48 percent of respondents reporte
d food insecurity in the
previous 30 days, including 22 percent with very low levels of f
ood security that qualify them as
hungry.
Food insecurity occurs at both two-year and four-year institutio
ns. Twenty-five percent of
community college students qualified as having very low food s
ecurity, compared to 20 percent
at four-year schools.
Food insecurity was more prevalent among students of color. Fu
lly 57 percent of Black or
African American students reported food insecurity, compared t
o 40 percent of non-Hispanic
white students.
More than half of all first-generation students (56 percent) were
food insecure, compared to 45
percent of students who had at least one parent who attended col
lege.
The study also took a close look at the approximately 1,800 stud
ents who reported experiencing
food insecurity in order to better understand their experiences.
Students experiencing food insecurity often also suffer from ho
using insecurity, such as difficulty
paying the rent, mortgage, or utility bills.
Sixty-four percent of food insecure students reported experienci
ng some type of housing
insecurity.
Fifteen percent of food insecure students reported experiencing
some form of homelessness –
the most extreme form of housing insecurity –

14. in the past 12 months.
Housing insecurity is greater at community colleges, where 13 p
ercent of all respondents
(regardless of food insecurity) experienced homelessness, comp
ared to seven percent at four-
year schools.
Problems with food or housing harm students’ educational effort
s. Of the food insecure students in
the study, 32 percent believed that hunger or housing problems
had an impact on their education.
These students reported a range of consequences:
Fifty-five percent reported that these problems caused them to n
ot buy a required textbook;
Fifty-three percent reported missing a class; and
Twenty-five percent reported dropping a class.
2/27/2017 Report: Hunger On Campus | National Student
Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness
https://studentsagainsthunger.org/hunger-on-campus/#. 3/3
Food insecurity is a problem even for students who are employe
d, participate in a campus meal
plan, or seek other financial or material help.
Fifty-six percent of food insecure students reported having a pa
ying job. Of those employed
students, 38 percent worked 20 hours or more per week.
Being enrolled in a meal plan with a campus dining hall does no
t eliminate the threat of food
insecurity. Among the respondents from four-year colleges, 43 p
ercent of meal plan enrollees

15. still experienced food insecurity.
Three in four food insecure students received some form of fina
ncial aid. More than half (52
percent) received Pell Grants and 37 percent took out student lo
ans during the current
academic year.
Sixty-one percent of food insecure students reported that their h
ousehold had utilized at least
one existing aid service in the past 12 months. Twenty-five perc
ent reported using the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly kn
own as food stamps), making it
the most widely used food program.
These findings reinforce the growing understanding that food in
security presents a serious challenge
for today’s college students, and highlight the need for addition
al research to better understand this
problem and explore effective solutions.
School leaders and policymakers can take a number of steps to h
elp lessen student food insecurity
and reduce its threat to educational quality and student success.
Colleges should pursue a wide range of creative ways to address
food insecurity, including the
creation of campus food pantries, campus community gardens, f
ood recovery programs, and
coordinated benefits access programs.
More significantly, policymakers should take steps to improve s
tudents’ access to existing
federal programs, including expanding the SNAP eligibility req
uirements for college students,
simplifying the FAFSA process (particularly for homeless stude
nts), and adding food security
measurements to the annual National Postsecondary Student Aid

16. Study.