Narrative Arguments

“A Few Words About Breasts”

I really enjoyed reading this essay because it was very relatable, especially to females, and had a humorous conversational tone.  Every little thing she did in grade school could completely ruin her femininity and she tried desperately to have breasts.  Having breasts was the epitome of being a girl or being feminine. These components kept it interesting to read, but at the end, I was not sure what her argument was.  It was not explicit to the reader and I think that is what put me off from this essay.  Yes, I got the point breasts ran her life and that was all she thought about, but what was the point.  I guess I expected the cliché answer that she learned to be happy with herself no matter what, but instead it threw me off at the end when she said “I have thought about their remarks, tried to put myself in their place, considered their point of view.  I think they are full of shit.”

“The Androgynous Male”

I could not relate as well to this essay as I could “A Few Words About Breasts,” and I am pretty sure it is because I could relate to what the girl was saying and not relate as well to what the boy was saying.  Then, I also think this is what these two essays kind of talk about, gender roles and stereotyping.  The essay above was struggling to get the one thing that symbolized her femininity, to her, and here he is defending that just because he is not the stereotypical “he-man” does not mean he is not masculine.  He is masculine but has more freedom to do other things and express more feelings without the worries of fulfilling the “he-man” image. I guess this essay had he more typical response that I was looking for in the first one.  “The Androgynous Male,” to me, developed his argument more concisely and the argument was much more explicit.  He included needed details from personal experience to support the argument, but did not over do it to the point that he began to lose me in detail. 

“Minivan Motoring, or Why I Miss that Old Car Smell”

This was a fun story to read, but I think what ultimately made this story was the incorporation of statistics.  That was one thing I worried about trying to incorporate into this paper and this was an excellent example of how to use them to support your story.  As I was reading the essay, I was not really sure what his argument was going to be, until I got to the end.  The first one I was left unsure, the second essay told us early and here he waited until the end. Now, as I go back and reread some of his points I understand why he chose them and how they support his argument.

“Surviving the Mustard Lid Days”

This story above all appealed to pathos.  Her story begins with an unexpected blow as a very young child; then again, a few years later she is hit with another devastating loss.  You feel for the author and sympathize with her throughout her struggle as she tells it to us in the essay.  Overall, the moral of the story is no matter how annoying, unfair, or embarrassing the ones who are raising you act, they ultimately have the best intentions for you.  She develops her story by taking us through what she was feeling and experienced as she learned to cope with her feelings through her writing.  I think this story could have ended up very cliché, but how she wrote about wrestling with her emotions and struggles brings you closer into the story because she really opens up and tells us everything. 

 

Brainstorm for Classical Argument

How readily available should birth control be to teenagers in school systems.

• It's not meant to encourage sexual activity but provide protection to those who choose to be sexually active.
• How involved/ "in the know" should parents be?
• Maine Middle School approved allowing prescription birth control to be distributed through the heath center
• Willamina High in Oregon still debating after 2-2 vote.
• Should schools still only teach abstinence or also prevention methods (condoms, birth control, etc...)
• Teen pregnancy rates have risen

Rhetorical appeals and informal fallacies analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXpGXnUsK9o

            The commercial I chose was one I know many people have seen.  It is the Dunkin Donuts commercial that everyone is on their rooftops screaming that they love Dunkin Donuts coffee.  An appeal to pathos used in the commercial is there is an audience-based reason.  The audience targeted is middle-aged working class people, whom many of drink coffee.  Therefore, to target this audience’s value of a good cup of coffee to give them the pick-me-up they need they used middle-aged, average looking people that viewers can relate to.  This commercial also uses informal fallacies.  These include appeals to false authority, bandwagon appeals and hasty generalization.  In this commercial, the appeal to false authority and hasty generalization go hand in hand.  The false authority appealed is the first lady who speaks up an says “… I just want to say that Dunkin Donuts coffee is the best coffee I’ve ever tasted.”  We do not know if she is a food critic or has any credentials to be judging coffee and saying it is the best.  The hasty generalization, because of lack of data, is we do not know against what kind of other coffees she is judging Dunkin Donuts coffee.  Lastly, there was a definite bandwagon appeal because once the first lady spoke up everyone else in the neighborhood spoke up also and they all loved Dunkin Donuts coffee.  This showed that everyone drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee loves it giving the viewers the idea if that many people love it maybe I should try it too.  

"On the Uses of a Liberal Education" -Ideas critique

Edmundson’s essay is intriguing because of the many arguments and ideas he brings up.  He discusses a topic that, I think, many people do not want to face, so they choose not to talk about it.  I have to agree with his overall argument that education is changing due to the leak of consumerism into universities.  One of his supporting arguments, to this is that students think a good class is one where professors are enjoyable and also make the subject matter enjoyable.  This idea is something he does not like about the changing education system.  I believe a good class is one that is enjoyable.  Enjoyable to me does not mean easy though.  I find I like the teachers who are passionate about what they are teaching, which makes them enjoyable and in return the subject more enjoyable.

             Edmundson also argues that students lack passion; meaning they do not study subjects they are interested in.  Instead, they choose what will be best for their future and financial success.  One article also states the same thing as Edmundson, but in a statistical form.  “Evidence of Student Consumerism” states that in a survey they did with 195 sociology majors in four different schools, “75 percent report that they want to go to college so that they can make more money.”  This is a tough fact to believe, but I have to agree with it.  I chose my major, nursing, because it really is something that I am strongly interested in.  But, if I were to think about my friends and others I would believe that many of them are in a major because they hope to get a good job with it after college.  Lack of passion is also shown in the classes student choose to take.  Everyone asks other people if they have taken a certain class and whom their professor was to get the easy way out.  And once we get a chance to make our schedule what is the first think a majority of students do?  Jump on rate my professor.  This apparently is not an uncommon thing though, because according to the article, “Evidence of Student Consumerism,” 73 percent of students “would take a course in which [they] would learn little or nothing but would receive and A.”

            It seems that even though this is a tough topic to discuss for many people, more and more are beginning to explore it.  After reading trough a couple articles, Edmundson makes points that many people agree with.  And I must say I agree with his overall argument.  It’s not something we all want to fess up to, but we do all care about our future and financial success.  If that means we study something we don’t truly enjoy in college, many are willing to take that risk.   

"On the Uses of a Liberal Education" - Rhetorical Analysis

Mark Edmundson’s essay, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education,” was published in Harpers magazine, which has a wide audience.  This essay specifically targets those who have some relation with universities, whether it is students, students’ parents, or faculty.  Edmundson is trying to show how education has changed due to the leak of consumerism into universities.

In the essay, I did not find the thesis to be directly told.  I think Edmundson’s essay has more of an evolving thesis.  There is not one sentence you can pin point in his essay that would summarize the entire article.  Instead, he uses many arguments and examples.  At the end of each of his paragraphs you can generally find a sentence that would summarize his main point of the paragraph, which all work together to support the thesis of the entire essay.  One example of this is in paragraph eleven, when he is speaking about an attribute, which he believes to be very important, that he no longer sees in students.  The last sentence of this paragraph is “But there’s little fire, little passion to be found.”  This sentence is sufficient enough to stand on its own and I would understand the point he was trying to make.

Throughout “On the Uses of a Liberal education” I believe Edmundson was making an appeal to ethos, his credibility.  Edmundson tells us that he is a professor at the University of Virginia. This helps his appeal to ethos because the University of Virginia has a fairly well known reputation, more so in our area, to be one of the tougher schools.  Another appeal to ethos he uses is he references credible sources. At one point, he quotes a college financial officer saying “Colleges don’t have admissions offices anymore, they have marketing departments.”  The use of the quote from the financial officer helps the credibility of his argument that colleges no longer appeal to the education students could get at school but the updated commodities they could have.   I think his largest appeal to ethos is through his choice of words.  Often, I ran into comprehensive words that I had either never heard or were not familiar with, and I actually looked them up.  A few examples of these words would be arcana, perilous, and weltanschauung.

Even though some of Edmundson’s word choices are complex, he still manages to keep a conversational tone and stay relatable.  His conversational tone is represented through out the essay, especially when he uses rhetorical questions.  A good example of this is when he says, “Am I coming off like something of a crank here?   Maybe.” When he does things like this it adds to the conversational tone, but it also touches on his sarcasm and humor.  He uses his sarcasm to get his point across in an indirect direct fashion.  Sarcasm is especially evident when Edmundson states, “Clearly even the author of the Declaration of Independence endorses the turning of his university into a sports-and-fitness emporium.”  The ultimate relatable aspect to Edmundson’s essay is the beginning.  The opening of his essay is a description of one of his classes, on evaluation day.  This targets his readers because they are students who are currently doing this, or professors and faculty who have been through college and also know what its like on evaluation day.

 

Summary "On the Uses of a Liberal Education"

Mark Edmundson’s essay, On the Uses of a Liberal education, raises the problem of consumerism leaking into the education system.  He begins by painting us a picture of his classroom on a day he doesn’t particularly enjoy, evaluation day. He states that he often gets good reviews; just not the type he wants.  Certain words, such as “interesting” and “enjoyed,” are not the reviews he is looking for.  Instead, he wants the student to say that his class has changed them. It’s through the evaluations he receives that he see’s education changing.  Edmundson believes that universities are now devoted to consumerism and the entertainment of their students.  The consumerism aspects of college campuses is shown when funds go to building new dorms, improving student lounges, and stocking the gym with the newest name brand machines.  No longer are colleges appealing to their potential consumers, also known as students, through what they can learn, but through the superficial things they will have- things that really won’t affect their learning.  The other issue that is startling to Edmundson is how students expect to be entertained in classes in order for them to be good classes.  Students expect teacher to be enjoyable and make the subject matter enjoyable also.  Instead Edmundson thinks a good class is one that challenges the students or ultimately changes them.  More specifically in his class he wants “them to measure themselves against what they’ve read.” 

Another main topic in his essay is the lack of passion and emotion shown in students.  He brings this about when he mentions one particular student whom he admired, Joon Lee.  Joon Lee stood out from the crowd, which has become engulfed in this idea of consumer culturalism.   The vast majority of people, to Edmundson, are desperate to fit in, to wear the right thing, and blend in with the crowd.  No longer do students show a passion for learning something that interests them.  This is because they are worried about the impact it will have on their future and financial success.  The lack of passion in education coincides with the lack of expressed emotions in students, according to Edmundson.  If they were to express true emotions and passions they would stick out from the crowd; something no one wants to do.  But, where do students get this mindset?  The “tube.”  Edmundson blames the portrayal that everything must run perfectly on television to why students fear an occasional slip up which may embarrass them.  This is what set Joon Lee apart from the crowd.  He followed his interests, no matter how they might affect his future, and with strong enthusiasm and passion.  Edmundson ends his essay with changes he thinks the universities should take to make less of a “Club Med.”  He also in the end acknowledges his own conformity and pledges to change back to what he thinks will make a good class and challenge his students to think on another level.                   

"On the Uses of a Liberal Education" By Mark Edmundson

Mark Edmundson’s essay, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education,” was, yes, quite long when I printed it out to read, but as I began reading I was intrigued by what he began describing.  It was the end of the semester evaluation day in his class. He had clearly been through this multiple times and would usually get a similar outcome each time. The consensus amongst a vast majority of his students is that the class was “enjoyable.”  This frustrates him because he takes this as almost degrading.  He believes his purpose, as a professor, is to change people from the course; to challenge his students to “measure themselves against what they’ve read.”  Edmundson uses the rest of the article to explain how professors can no longer do what they want in their classes, or teach how they would like because of criticism of the students.  If the students complain the university cares because they are ultimately the “consumers” they are targeting.  When colleges target their “consumers” they gloat on the superficial things, gyms with fancy exercise equipment, new dorms, and improved student unions.  With the focus on things that truly don’t matter to education, the learning that is supposed to be going on in universities has suffered.  Edmundson believes because universities are competing for their students it caused an easing grading and relaxing of major requirements instead of giving students the challenge of thinking.