Rhetorical Analysis Weakness

Throughout elementary and secondary education, challenge and regular English-Language Arts classes were offered to the student in my school districts, each with the goal to build on what the previous class had taught us. Whether it was sixth grade English where short essays and essay structure was first taught or eighth grade where the grammar and prose were drilled into our heads. Whether it was sophomore year where the challenge ELA class began writing five and six page essays or in AP Language and AP Literature where everything we had been learning was now applicable to our writing and we learned how to write a synthesis, rhetorical analysis and arguments. I truly believe that all of these classes prepared myself adequately for what was
Rather than just assigning one synthesis, one rhetorical analysis and one argument, evenly divide them or focus on the classes weakness. In most colleges that weakness lies in the rhetorical analysis, so if the composition classes assigned two syntheses, three rhetorical analyses and one argument than the weakness is accounted for while the strengths are being added too. It is vitally important to fill in the weaknesses of incoming students and many first-year composition students have never seen a rhetorical analysis whereas even basic secondary-education English classes teach arguments and synthesis. This would be my first recommendation as this rigorous structure would most likely improve critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing skills in students instead of “45 percent of 2,300 students at 24 colleges showing no significant improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years.” (Arum &
Therefore, the argument in Strauss’s piece that, “Colleges should teach the important writing behaviors first, one at a time, in sequence. They should offer new writing courses that assume students know nothing about sentences and train new sentence behaviors from the ground up. Be repetitive and tricky — fool the kids into doing the right thing. Create muscle memory.” Seems to discredit the importance of the secondary English education system in what they should be teaching. What many post-secondary institutions assume is that all of their students have an ability to write papers effectively and from experience, we do, so the new class that Strauss proposes would be a waste of time for many, not the “trickery” she