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

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Denzell Moss

Professor Cantice Greene

English 1102

19 September 2017

Rhetorical Reading Response: “How Serious Was the Volkswagen Scandal”

Jacob Skovran’s essay entitled “How Serious Was the Volkswagen Scandal” (2017) illustrates the scandal featuring Volkswagen’s “defeat device” (203), a highly complex cheating software that hid the true emission rate of their vehicles during testing, thus violating EPA limits concerning emission pollution. Skovran develops his perspective by providing background information about diesel, gasoline, and pollution to then thoroughly explain how Volkswagen impacted society environmentally. The purpose of the Skovran’s essay was to interpret the Volkswagen scandal in order to educate the audience regarding the impact of carbon emissions and how companies have dealt with it in the past. Skovran’s audience was directed towards common individuals to understand the importance of the scandal, along with environmental engineers to highlight the importance of efficient innovation and high moral ethics.

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The Volkswagen scandal featured in Skovran’s essay initially shocked me, as I have never heard of the incident before. At the same time, however, found the incident to be expected as many big businesses find a way to manipulate and cheat the systems we have in place to protect the world in our modern day. Although many corporations aim to innovate and serve the population, there are almost always sacrifices made by these companies to protect their interests and assets to remain prosperous. I took interest in Skovran’s illustration of the entire incident, as he provided background information and concise, common diction to explain how dangerous unregulated carbon emissions could have a devastating impact on the planet.

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            Skovran’s essay entitled “How Serious Was the Volkswagen Scandal” (2017) utilizes background information and a narrative style to thoroughly describe the effect of the “defeat device”, the significance of the incident itself, and how events such as those are contributing to numerous environmental concerns across the globe. In the first paragraph, Skovran introduces the importance of constant innovation and how competition effects the automobile industry. Furthermore, he elaborates on the “desire to drive more efficient cars” (202) and how “engineers must work harder than ever to design efficient yet powerful cars that meet the stiff regulations set by governments” (202). In addition, the author provides information regarding the efficiency of diesel engines, a “great option for high fuel economy at a lost cost” (202), but known for “produc[ing] much more pollutants than gasoline engines” (202). This provides the basis for the Volkswagen scandal, a popular automobile company that aimed to expound on the EPA’s stricter regulations regarding vehicle emissions. Skovran states, “by 2008 they were selling their ‘clean diesels’. I say that in quotes because said cars were not exactly clean. In reality, the only way Volkswagen’s cars could meet the standards was due to the installation of what the EPA calls a ‘defeat device’” (203). The author continues, explaining, “Basically, the cheat device was software in the engine control unit that concealed the real emissions of the cars during laboratory testing” (203). Skovran further elaborates that the same cars made by Volkswagen could emit “more than 34 times the EPA standard” (205).

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 Through the use of vivid detail, the author explains how these money-grabbing or rouge tactics could potentially lead to more pollution in major countries across the world. Ultimately, Skovran points the responsibility towards the companies and engineers to take note of this “unacceptable scandal” (206) and hold themselves to a greater standard of ethics to avoid mass pollution and most importantly, the risk to the people they are providing for in the first place.

Works Cited:

Skovran, Jacob. "How Serious Was the Volkswagen Scandal?" Connections: Guide to First-Year
     Writing at Clayton State University. Ed. Mary R. Lamb. Texas: Fountainhead Press, 2017. 
     202-206. Print.