Expanding on a popular, outrageous recent event in which a passenger was forcefully dragged off of a United Airlines flight, Yasmeen Serhan reports in this brief article on the airline's attempt to improve its over-boarding policies and how situations involving stubborn passengers are handled in the future. Serhan primarily uses an informative, neutral tone, but some of her diction proves rather critical: "The airline’s PR scandal may be far from over, however" (Serhan). Use of the word "scandal," (Serhan) in particular indicates an acknowledgement of the negativity of United Airlines' actions. This article is also abundant in appeals to logos, as Serhan cites numerous facts and statistics to back her claims. One section addresses the stock-related results of the incident, saying that shares for United Airlines' parent company "dropped by nearly 4 percent in the immediate aftermath of the scandal, wiping nearly $1 billion of its value" (Serhan). The use of these statistics furthers the notion that this article's intention is to inform and expand on a previously established incident. As a result, the purpose of this article has value in that it continues to report on a story with a large following, allowing readers of The Atlantic to be informed on the status of the incident. The structure of the article follows a simple pattern--review of the incident's past, a report on the present, and an outlook on what the future potentially holds for the airline. Much of the article does not exactly argue for or against a particular stance, but instead makes use of plentiful factual evidence to reach a conclusive prediction. Overall, the lack of length to the article and use of only one statistic makes the argument somewhat weak, but this is understandable since it is merely an update to an existing story.
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