College Pressures Zinsser Analysis

The author, William Zinsser, is a very acclaimed writer. He has wrote for many newspapers, magazines, and serval books on the culture of the United States. The article “College Pressures” is a magazine article about the struggle that college students go through. Zinsser has created and taught many writing classes at Yale University. With these writing classes, he was able to see the types of students and what they went though. Therefore he was able to write this article. Since this was written in 1979 do these principles of pressure that the author talks about still applied to college students today?

Summary “In their urgency and their gallows humor they are authentic voices of a generation that is panicky to succeed” (2). This implies
There are four types of pressure each college student endures: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. Economic pressure talks about how students are trying to make themselves stand out so their applications look better than anyone else. Also in this section it talks about how an employer would rather employ someone who has a liberal arts degree because it shows curiosity. Next the article talks about parental pressure. Parental pressure talks about how students feel obligated to major in what their parents want them to major in. Lastly it talks about peer pressure and self-indulged pressure. Everyone goes through peer pressure, but as a college student it gets even worse. Every college student thinks they have to be the best. Students think they can only get an A and nowadays they think B’s are bad. Self- indulged pressure goes along with peer pressure. Self- indulged pressure talks about how students have a mind set of wanting to be the best. Students are perceived to do more than what they are expected to do. To conclude, the author talks about how college students are so afraid of failing and are set on succeeding at such an early age that they forget to enjoy