Throughout this text there are several rhetorical elements that are used. The imagery that the school presents is what would appear to be an Abercrombie & Fitch advertisement. According to the article, everyone should dress in a particular way that meets the standards of the high school's dress code and from this an image is perceived: a very preppy student body. Another image that is present is the phrase "clear and present danger" (planner). This phrase is a figure of speech that has a negative connotation to anyone reading the text. In this case, it is describing clothing that could appear to be a threat to the students? safety. The main ideograph presented in this text is the word "safety." The word "safety" appeals to parents as well as school administrators who wish to provide the best learning environment for their students. The text is trying to portray a message of safety implying that unrestricted articles of clothing are seen as dangerous.

There are several pieces of evidence supporting the author?s major claim. Much of the evidence that the author pointed out was specific statistics dealing with the issue of school uniforms. In Long Beach California uniforms became mandatory in all elementary and middle schools and the overall school crime decreased 36%, fights decreased 51%, sex offenses decreased 74%, weapons offenses decreased 50%, assault and battery offenses decreased 34%, and vandalism decreased 18%. In Seattle Washington "the demeanor of the school has improved 98%, truancy and tardies are down, and they have not reported one incidence of theft" (US Department of Education). In Richmond Virginia the benefits of the uniform program have been improved behavior, increase in attendance, and higher student achievement. In Memphis Tennessee the tone of the school has changed because there is not the competitiveness over clothes anymore. In Baltimore Maryland there has been a new sense of seriousness about work due to uniforms and in Norfolk Virginia there has been several improvements in students? behavior. Finally, in Phoenix Arizona there is an "overall improvement in the school climate and a greater focus on positive behavior" (US Department of Education).

Throughout the article there were many rhetorical elements used. One example of this was shown in the ideographs of the text. hese ideographs had negative connotations such as gangs, theft, violence, peer pressure, life threatening, intruders, disruption, and weapons. These negative words were used in order to grab the attention of parents and school officials and to try to convince them that adopting a school uniform policy will be very beneficial to their school. The negative ideographs would make people think that schools are in a bad situation and that school uniforms might be the answer to the problem. In addition, one metaphor is stated about how "adopting a school uniform policy can promote school safety" (US Department of Education). The author continues to stress the idea that school uniforms will make the school a safer and better place to learn in, therefore causing people to want to adopt the policy. A second metaphor is the idea of the "disadvantaged students." The author referred to the families that would need financial help as being "disadvantaged." This causes the reader to look at these people much differently because of how the author describes them.

The next claim says that the reduction of violence in schools due to uniforms is incomplete and misleading. There are also several points of evidence focused on this claim. All of testimonies, surveys, and high hopes of the positive effects of uniforms are based on personal experiences in schools. There are no documented results or proven records of reduction in the acts of violence, just an insufficient body of evidence.

In addition to this claim, evidence from Long Beach school district in California is presented. This district experienced success with a uniform policy; however, some aspects are quite misleading. This was the first school district in the country to adopt a mandatory public school uniform policy in grades K-8. First, without a careful assessment of the data from Long Beach over time and the elimination of competing explanations for why reductions of violence have taken place, the data has to remain suspicious. Another problem is that the data was only from grades K-8 and did not include high school evidence. Further, other factors could have contributed to the decrease in violence including: increased parental involvement with their children and in the activities of the school, the trend of violence was at its peak and ready to decline, or it could have been a case of the "Hawthorne Effect," where the short-term attention to and visibility of the problem created an immediate downturn in violence (Paliokas and Rist).

The last claim states that a jump to the uniform bandwagon is sometimes too readily taken without thoughtful consideration of the possible consequences. There is certain evidence supporting this significant claim as well. The euphoria of early results comes from the tendency to overstate possible benefits and overlook potential costs. The adoption of a school uniform policy may not be as easy or as sustainable as the enthusiasm for the idea might suggest. Making policy decisions based on incompletely verified information or personal opinions is dangerous because we do not know what is not proven.

There are a couple of ideographs used throughout this article that appeal to readers. The word "bandwagon" means that everyone is doing it and naturally if one is not participating then they are not cool. President Clinton jumped on the uniform bandwagon promoting the policy to the country. Also, "trend" suggests that uniforms be seen as a public school fad that other school districts want to adopt to cure school violence. In addition to the ideographs, visual imagery is provided of a parochial school uniform to resolve violence. "The perception of the Catholic schools is that they are safe, secure, and orderly learning environments" (Paliokas and Rist). Lastly the narrative of the article indicates that school uniforms should be carefully considered based on all possible negative and positive results. Additionally, uniforms are not the cure-all for violence in schools.

The rhetorical elements from all of the articles differed. The first article used calming, alerting words to describe a safe school environment, whereas the second text utilized harsh words and phrases to describe an environment without uniforms. The third artifact used words from pop culture, such as "bandwagon" and "trend," when describing the negative aspects of uniforms.