Alison Bechdel demonstrates on “compulsory reading” essay that children should never be pressured on reading books or stories beyond their desire ones, otherwise they develop aversion toward reading. She begins by admitting that she was a hardcore reader when she was young, but that change when her parents give her undesired books to read. Consequently, Bechdel develops a strong aversion toward reading. Furthermore, she loathes reading that anybody suggested her. She becomes an adult with a strong hatred toward reading, however that changes when she founds more compelling books on her parents’ book shelves. Children are naive and skeptical therefore adults should not force them to anything beyond their desire interest…
Fridman stated “average professional ballplayers are much more respected and better paid than faculty members of the best universities” , which is in fact true. Faculty members acquire a lot of knowledge and their job is to share their acquired knowledge with students which is a complicated task. Education is very important and is being ostracized. Fridman included this to support the fact that athletes…
It is important that an essay not be a series of quotes or paraphrased material; one’s own analysis must be part of the essay. How can you create a balance between your own analysis and the source material?…
The short Essay, An Experiment in Criticism, by C.S. Lewis brings to light many new perspectives to how people read and experience literature. Throughout the essay Lewis works to give the message that; how good a book is doesn’t depend on the quality of writing but on the reader. He begins by defining two types of readers- the “literary” and the “non-literary”- which he uses through the rest of his essay to categorize different traits for treating literature.…
1. It is important that an essay not be a series of quotes or paraphrased material; one’s own analysis must be part of the essay. How can you create a balance between your own analysis and the source material?…
With the use of examples from personal as well as her friends’ and family’s experiences, her argument is considered more credible and trustworthy. In paragraph 30, Prose describes her experience being taught how to deeply analyze the meaning of a Shakespeare play, and how she loved it after being able to deeply understand it. This gives the audience a different perspective, one of a student who received the education Prose argues for. This consequently supports her proposal that the reason english class has become such a useless chore to students is as a result of the straightforward and fruitless examinations of literature. Along with the narration of her and her friend’s children’s experiences, found in paragraphs 5 and 23, the audience may relate to the description of a poorly taught english class that uses unoriginal reading choices or cursory lesson plans, which in turn inspires them to invoke change in the education…
Throughout the essay, Prose argues that literatures in high schools are dumbing down the English curriculum. She says books that are “chosen for students to read are for ‘obvious lessons.’” However, Prose does not mention “great” books that students should read and that will help them to understand what the characters are feeling. “…The weaker novels of John Steinbeck, the fantasies of Ray Bradbury,” (424). Prose explains how her sons never read the better of Steinbeck’s novels in high school and she makes the assumption that all high school students read the so-called weaker Steinbeck novels. She also makes an argument that the English curriculum is an important issue both culturally and politically. If both the teachers and books are not challenging the young students minds, then how can we expect them to understand challenging books. “We hear the more books are being bought and sold than ever before, yet no one, as far as I know, is arguing that we are producing and becoming a nation of avid readers of serious literature” (423). Again, Prose brings up her own personal experience and what she has heard. From what she has heard, people today are not reading “serious” literature. She does not even go to defend her argument and further explain what she means by “serious literature” and “avid readers.”…
Agger writes that “pleasure readers would be the sloths hiding in the jungle while everyone else is out rampaging around for fresh meat” (Agger 612). We constantly like finding out new facts about random and cool things, but if we do not find what we are looking for by skimming a particular site many of us will just go on to the next site and repeat the process. In Agger’s essay, he suggests that writers eliminate some of the unneeded material in order to sustain a reader’s attention longer. He says that it is the writer’s responsibility to change their writing style and methods by using only one idea per paragraph and providing less word content than conventional writing. These techniques will enable writers to connect to their readers…
Thesis: Be sure you have a clear and focused thesis statement that addresses the effectiveness of the authors’ uses of the rhetorical appeals, argumentation, and writing…
4. The focus of the paper should be supporting and explaining your interpretation. Work to keep summarizing to a minimum. The summary exists only to support the analysis. Do not let summarizing dominate your essay.…
Freire, Paulo. “The Importance of the Act of Reading.” Academic Universe: Research and Writing at Oklahoma State University. Eds. Richard Frohock, Karen Sisk, Jessica Glover, Joshua Cross, James Burbaker, Jean Alger, Jessica Fokken, Kerry Jones, Kimberly Dyer-Fisher, and Ron Brooks. 2nd ed. Plymouth: Hayden-McNeil, 2012. 281-286. Print.…
In the introduction to “They Say/ I Say”: the Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates designed to help with academic thinking and writing. Specifically, Graff and Birkenstein argue that the types of writing templates they offer realistically help set up a conversation and argument. As the authors themselves put it, “In our view, then, the best academic writing has one underlying feature: it is deeply engaged in some way with other people's views.” Although some people believe to sound intelligent you must state your claim and provide facts on why your claim is true, Graff and Birkenstein insist that to “play it safe and avoid controversy in your writing” is lifeless. In sum, then, their view is that if you are going to write, write to stir controversy and cause discussion, along with giving the basics to master good academic writing. I agree, in my view, the types of templates that the authors recommend invite people to start conversation and learn different points of views as well as teaching others, and the templates themselves gives people the opportunity to hone the skills of academic writing. For instance, when using the template for writing they get us to include the opposition’s possible belief or rebuttal to our own points, which in return force us as the writer to look beyond just our thoughts and look through other’s eyes. Some might object, of course, on the grounds that our creativity when using templates would be greatly diminished. Yet I would argue that the templates simply give us a cornerstone to start with, and we can build our paper off of it as creative as we want. Overall, then, I believe the templates simply help us practice to become better writers much like practicing sports when you first begin playing, to become the best we can be.…
As a child, Graff always looked for a happy medium between brawn and brain. As Graff describes, he felt "the need to prove I was smart and the fear of a beating if I proved it too well." In a culture that values sports and entertainment, Gerald knew he would face ridicule if academic subjects became his main point of interest. Gerald believes that academic knowledge can be a hindrance to social life and continues to argue that sports are a much better topic to be interested in. Because football and baseball statistics became his center of interest, sports became the topic of conversation between him and his friends. Instead of talking about chemistry, Graff found himself in arguments about who should be the next MVP. Little did Graff realize, conversation with his friends helped develop analysis, summaries, generalizations, and "other intellectualizing operations."…
Next, Graff uses his personal experiences to help the reader connect with his ideas through pathos. He tells us how, as a young man, he did not consider himself an intellectual and was not interested in scholarly matters. “I offer my own adolescent experience as a case in point. Until I entered college, I hated books and cared only for sports.” (Graff 199) He later reflects his newfound thoughts on intellectualism as he states, “I have recently come to think, however, that my preference for sports over schoolwork was not anti-intellectualism so much as intellectualism by other means.” (Graff 200) He then allows the reader to…
In an article on Sky Sports, “Why Hue Jackson's clash with sports science is bad for analytics in Cleveland”. Pundit Sean Wagner-McGough states some comments about the Cleveland Coach Hue Jackson’s belief for not allowing the staff to adjust the team’s padded practice. He says that Jackson actually does not accept the sports science principle because he trusts his feelings. In Jackson’s opinion, he believes that his feeling knows the aspect that is needed to be improved for the team to thrive in American football. Then, Wagner-McGough adds that sports science is not a revolution if it is always trumped by coaches such as Hue Jackson. Perhaps because the author said his comments in almost the entire of the article without any data or facts,…