Preview

Summary Of William Zinsser College Pressures

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
353 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary Of William Zinsser College Pressures
Due to my uncanny similarity with the group of college students William Zinsser described in his essay “College Pressures,” his words induced within me feelings of guilt and regret. Throughout my years of schooling, there have been many occasions in which I have labored to a maximum which resulted in an almost unbearable amount of stress and panic. Oftentimes, I credited this anxiety to my teachers who assigned many projects and tests; or to the School Board that made continuous changes to the learning curriculum and expectations for “success.” At the beginning of his essay while he elaborated on his thesis, William Zinsser, master of Branford College, countered this thinking, “It is easy to look around for villains -- to blame colleges… the
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    ECON 545 Week 4 DQ 2 Healthcare
    • 571 Words
    • 4 Pages

    ECON 545 Week 4 DQ 2 Healthcare

    Years ago, the college experience applied only to recent high school graduates and meant spending hour after hour in a crowded lecture. Today, this is only one of the possible snapshots of a college student. The ideas in this article are perfect for students from all backgrounds and in all majors. Read on for insight and inspiration.…

    • 571 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Attending College By Caroline Bird Summary
    • 168 Words
    • 1 Page

    Attending College By Caroline Bird Summary

    Over the years, college has shifted from a place of learning where individuals go to voluntarily learn more about a field of study that they want to pursue, to a place that young people feel like they are forced to go to land a job or impress their parents. Known author, Caroline Bird, argues that our generation is only attending college for reasons that are “entirely irrelevant to the course of studies for which college is supposedly organized.” Bird concludes that the new generation of college students only enrolls to impress their parents or have a good time away from home. I have come to the conclusion that Bird is correct in assuming that our generation is attending college for all the wrong reasons based on an overwhelming amount of…

    • 168 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alfred Lubrano's The Shock Of Education
    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Alfred Lubrano's The Shock Of Education

    In Alfred Lubrano’s The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts, the conception that college alters the bond between past and present is heavily implied. Lubrano discusses how change occurs within thoughts, familial ties, peer interactions, and socioeconomic status. The author takes advantage of numerous techniques including anecdotes, contrasts, and inductive reasoning in order to explain the change occurring due to the pursuit of knowledge.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Charles Murray's Are Too Many People Going To College?
    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Charles Murray's Are Too Many People Going To College?

    Charles Murray’s “Are Too Many People Going to College?” essay is adapted from his book published in 2008: Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back to Reality. In this essay, Charles Murray aims to convince his readers that too many people are going to college, too many people whom do not have the proper core knowledge that is needed to succeed. Instead, many students get ahead of themselves and plan for an unforeseeable future, when they do not know if they are going to succeed in this higher level of education without that proper core knowledge or the proper linguistic ability. Charles Murray states his opinions in this persuasive essay by incorporating ideas of other works of writing by other people and by drawing the audiences’ attention through realistic situations. I will not be doing a critique, I will be analyzing his essay to see whether he used deductive reasoning or inductive reasoning.…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Anne E. Fernald: The Crisis In The Humanities
    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Anne E. Fernald: The Crisis In The Humanities

    Out of all the assumptions about what makes a college a successful college, I believe the value of college is not solely based off of the cost or graduation rate, but it’s value is reflected by the students’ efforts and the life lessons learned. After reading the articles, Why I’m not afraid of Virginia Woolf -- of the, ‘crisis’ in the humanities by Anne E. Fernald, The Crisis in the Humanities and the Corporate Attack on the University by P. Winston Fettner and College is not a commodity. Stop treating it like one by Hunter Rawlings, I began to understand more about other perspectives of college that have broadened my understanding of higher education.…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of College Pressure By William Zinsser
    • 250 Words
    • 1 Page

    Summary Of College Pressure By William Zinsser

    In Article (College Pressure) 1978, William Zinsser, an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher, claims that there are four main college pressures that college students faced in the late 1970s, which included economic, parental, peer, and self- induced pressures. Zinsser develops this claim by first saying that we live in a brutal economy. In 1970s a 4 year institution private college tuition was $1,561. He says that students never get ahead, because after they graduate, they were working to pay off loans. Then, Zinsser discusses parental pressures by saying that the parents are pushing their children to go on to high paying professions, and then he goes into peer pressure saying "Students think that every student is working harder…

    • 250 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Coddling Of The American Mind Analysis
    • 244 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Coddling Of The American Mind Analysis

    The article “The Coddling of the American Mind,” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, describes the increasing overprotective culture of American colleges, and why that is a negative thing for education. The authors include many reputable sources, as well as detailed arguments in order to convince the reader of this. For me, this article’s subject matter turned out to be more interesting than was anticipated. The article taught me some intriguing new words, like “microaggressions,” and “vindictive protectiveness.” It gave many examples to help illustrate the meaning of these words, and how they relate to colleges around the United States. It was also interesting to learn of the various ways overprotectiveness hinders college students. Such…

    • 244 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    1223
    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages

    1223

    “College Pressures” by William Zinsser is about how college students are so worried about getting perfect grades, and under so much pressure to succeed. The article starts off with notes from anxiety filled students asking for advice from the dean of Branford College at Yale University. It only gives a few examples of the hundreds of messages that are sent to the dean asking for advice and help. This panic among students does not only occur at Branford College but at many colleges and universities across the country. Zinsser is also sought out for advice by the students of Branford; he is an English instructor at Yale University and the master of Branford College. He is close with many of the residents of the Gothic quadrangle, the resident hall where he also lives by. Zinsser states, “Mainly I try to remind them that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns then they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches” (208). This is stating that they need to relax, dare to take some risks, and experiment with life.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Julie Scelfo Suicide
    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Julie Scelfo Suicide

    Scelfo provides, “Anxiety and depression, in that order, are now the most common mental health diagnoses among college students, according to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State”. By including precise data, Scelfo presents concrete evidence to her audience that is incontrovertible, thus enabling the reader to recognize the prevalence of mental health issues on college campuses. This information expands on the seriousness of such situations and stresses how more emphasis should be invested into making sure college students are emotionally healthy. Furthermore, Scelfo asserts, “In 2003, Duke jolted academe with a report describing how its female students felt pressure to be ‘effortlessly perfect’ :smart, accomplished, fit, beautiful and popular, all without visible effort”. By including this statistic, Scelfo further develops her thesis pertaining to the expectations of college students, specifically, how their mental states can be adversely affected by such pressures. By displaying legitimate feedback directly from college students, she effectively addresses the preconceived notions surrounding college life. In order to further convince her audience of the validity of mental health concerns, Scelfo incorporates reputable individuals in her essay, including, “William Alexander, director of Penn’s counseling and psychological services... Meeta Kumar, who has been counseling at Penn for 16 years…”. Although Scelfo might not be an expert on all subjects of mental health, she reinforces her assertion by including shared viewpoints from professionals, therefore making her own ideas more credible. Scelfo’s addition of logos and ethos emphasizes the factual evidence of of mental health issues among younger generations, prompting her audience to recognize the magnitude of such…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Personal Narrative: My Mother Never Went To College
    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Personal Narrative: My Mother Never Went To College

    My mother never went to college. Despite—or perhaps [because] of—her lack of collegiate experience, she was a powerful influence on my ever-present desire for academic distinction. For her children, anything besides “extraordinary” was simply not an option. The constant pressure meshed painfully well with America’s flawed education system, which—not unlike my well-intentioned mother—continually creates an unhealthy environment of apathy in the face of competition. For the duration of my traditional education, I made intense efforts for a false, unfulfilling concept of academic success. I sacrificed my emotional well-being again and again for fleeting validation from any surrounding adults, in a desperate lifelong attempt to prove my worth…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis
    • 1438 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis

    Today in America many people question whether or not college is truly worth the stress, time, and cost it throws on an individual. With these “burdens” comes alienation from the outside world with little fun and fulfilling experiences. Some people even say that many college students have zero creativity, and are proud of it. This idea of self-growth and freedom along with a diverting experience, while going through college, is something that Rick Perlstein himself has had the opportunity to do. Unfortunately, Perlstein experienced this in his days, and has come to realization that, “College as America used to understand it, is coming to an end” (Perlstein). With this article being published in the liberal magazine, New York Times, many people, mostly ones who have gone through college, completely disagreed with his opinion. One of those insulted people being Liz Addison. Addison’s claim argues that college is yes, much different, but in a positive way, especially in the community colleges. All together in her one sided- argument, she includes several rhetorical devices to persuade, inform, and emotionally prove her claim. These devices being ethos, and pathos, gives her a strong foundation and effective argument to the liberal audience she is writing her article to.…

    • 1438 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Personal Narrative: My First College Class
    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Personal Narrative: My First College Class

    When I first arrived to Richmond Early College High School, I anticipated an academic career characterized by hard work, nightly homework assignments, and incredible doses of stress that a middle school classroom could not synthesize. Although I actually landed my first college class in the second semester of my ninth grade year (ACA, which was required for all newbies and taken simultaneously by all 50 of us), I found myself still shaken. I looked forwarded to the challenges of a college experience, but merely hearing the click of my instructor's heel's as I sat in that classroom for the first time sent my bones into a furious rattle. A worrywart by nature, I was both delighted and horrified by ACA.…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Best Essays

    Why Students Fail in College
    • 3201 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Why Students Fail in College

    The society of the twentieth-first century has put an extremely high demand on attending and graduating college. Some basic employment opportunities today require a college degree, where close to ten to fifteen years ago, the only requirement was a high school diploma and acceptable ability to perform the specific task. However, the twentieth-first century college experience has become a challenge and the amount of individuals graduating is slowly declining year after year. It is obvious across the country that the hardest task of being a college student is actually staying and completing a degree. The experience of college has a great number of things to offer, but the experience can also change an individual’s life forever. Many scholars, college graduates and random individuals have suggested their variety of reasons on the success and failure in college. Among the large variety there has been large debate on the actual and/or legitimate reasons for the success and failure in college, therefore the purpose of this research project is to clarify and declare the realistic reasons for why student of the twentieth-first century succeed or fail in college.…

    • 3201 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Managing Stress as a College Student
    • 1988 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Managing Stress as a College Student

    Giancola, J. K., Grawitch, M. J., & Borchert, D. (2009). Dealing with the stress of college: A model for adult students. Adult Education Quarterly, 59, 246-263. doi: 10.1177/0741713609331479…

    • 1988 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    pressures students face
    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages

    pressures students face

    These are some of the pressures that most college students have to face in this time of their lives.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More