Zimmerman’s article is a paper that argues why colleges should require a mandatory gap year for their students. He provides his reasoning throughout, which consists mostly of the positives of requiring a gap year in college. His thesis for the article is colleges and universities need to require a gap year for students, since the federal government can’t require mandatory servitude due to the Constitution. I know that this is the thesis because Zimmerman goes further into this topic, presenting his reasoning and arguments for this line of thought. Some of Zimmerman’s claims for his thesis are how a required gap year will make better citizens and therefore a better America and that it would get rid of the elitist view on gap years. He supports this by presenting some scenarios students could do during the gap year and gives some examples of colleges that give incentives for students who take a gap year and domestic agencies can team up with colleges to provide gap year opportunities like habitat restoration and other environmental activities. Zimmerman, unlike Karl Marx, also provides a way for this change to begin, since “a few elite colleges could get the ball rolling” (5).  These claims help explore his thesis by expounding on the positives of requiring a gap year. When it comes to persuasive appeals, Zimmerman appeals to pathos by writing his article in a more casual manner. Many times, throughout the article, he speaks to the reader like they’re a friend that he ran into at the store, like when he’s talking about why a mandatory gap year hasn’t been require by Congress, he states that “there’s that pesky thing called the Constitution, which bars involuntary servitude” (3). It makes it feel more personal than if he wrote it as just a scholar. He also excels at presenting his logical appeals, giving examples of colleges who have given incentives for students who take a gap year and that colleges could give course credit to those in service. As a student, I don’t believe that the proposal that Zimmerman gives is good. He says that making a gap year mandatory would “erase the elitist shine of gap years, which are too often reserved for the privileged” (5). But I think that having all colleges and universities require a gap year would make the colleges more elitist. A good portion of America doesn’t seek higher education, and requiring a gap year, which would require more effort to go through college, would most likely turn even more people away from seeking higher education. This would probably result in a weaker America, with less people being able to fill positions of importance, like medicine and law. Another reason I don’t buy into his reasoning is that he barely talks about an opposing side and never talks about any possible risks, making it seem more like propaganda.