Rhetorical Reading Response : "How Serious Was the Volkswagen Scandal?" Jacob Skovran

In Jacob Skovran’s essay “How Serious Was the Volkswagen Scandal?” (2017), he informs that there was a serious scandal involving Volkswagen car production that affected the environment. Skovran develops the idea by appealing to ethos; he includes several sources about the situation which helps to authenticate the essay. Skovran wrote this work to educate readers about the scandal, its effects, and why there are certain regulations set in place concerning what gas is used. The intended audience is people who haven’t been enlightened about the situation.

After reading this essay I was shocked. I had never heard anything about this scandal, and it was really an eye-opener. The text states, “Diesel engines produce much more pollutants than gasoline engines (European Environment Agency 34). One of these pollutants is nitrogen oxide, also known as NOx, which is regulated because it is very damaging to the human respiratory and cardiovascular systems when present in the atmosphere (European Environment Agency 11)” (Skovran 203). Before reading this passage, I didn’t know this. It was extremely surprising that even after Volkswagen knew all these rules that they continued to do what they did. They violated so many rules that caused many people their lives, and that is unforgivable. When people of a higher power found out what was going on they should’ve put a stop to it immediately. Instead, they overlooked it, so they’re equally at fault for the lives lost. Volkswagen should be stopped now rather than later.

Skovran uses ethos to properly inform us about the Volkswagen scandal. He starts off by explaining to us the use of a diesel engine. “The most effective way to increase the fuel economy of a car without dramatically increasing the production costs is to use a diesel engine” (Skovran 202). Here Skovran tells us why diesel engines became so popular. Not only can it propel a car further than a gallon of gasoline, but it is also very responsive to turbocharging (Skovran 202). However, Skovran then goes to the dark side of the scandal by pointing out one major con of the diesel engine. “Nitrogen oxide which is regulated because it is very damaging to the human respiratory and cardiovascular system” (Skovran 203). In this quote, Skovran goes into detail about the damages nitrogen oxide can do to humans and the environment. He connects these points by informing us about the decline of the diesel engines. The strict regulations made it impossible to stay on budget (Skovran 203).  Skovran then goes to the heart of the scandal with the “defeat device”. “The cheat device was software in the engine control unit that concealed the real emissions of the cars during laboratory testing” (Skovran 203). The following quote tells us how Volkswagen got away with using diesel engines during emission testing. Volkswagen then claimed that it was not a corporate decision. Skovran talks about the bigger picture of the issue. “Volkswagen cars have caused significant environmental and economic damages that could result in the death of innocent people” (Skovran 205). The quote says, that damage the cars have done during the scandal cannot be undone and we will start to pay the consequences. He later states the damage it has done to more than just the environment. Various innocent lives have already been taken and much more will be claimed because the regulations are still being ignored (Skovran 205). Skovran not only informed us about the Volkswagen scandal, but the kind of future we got ourselves into. 

Works Cited

Skovran, Jacob. “How Serious Was the Volkswagen Scandal?” Connections, edited by Mary Lamb, Fountainhead Press, 2017, pp. 202-206.