Well known article writer, Leonid Fridman, in his article, “America Needs Its Nerds”, describes the truthful idea that nerds and geeks, in our society, are ostracized while the kids who play sports and party are prominent. Fridman’s purpose is to impress upon the readers that nerds should not have to conform to society’s unimpressive values of what it means to be “popular”. He adopts an indignant tone in order to convey to his readers that the idea of nerds and geeks needs to fought. Fridman moves to the idea that children who would rather read and build model airplanes are the social outcasts compared to the ones who would rather play football and get wasted at parties.
Brains vs Brawns: A Summary In Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism,” Graff explains that having “street smart” (244) does not mean one is not intelligent. Graff mentions schools and colleges might be the reason for why students are missing an opportunity to be both academically smart and street smart at the same time. Graff implies that knowledge comes in many different forms (246). Graff argues for the use of non- topics in a school setting, because the non-academic topics start healthy competition and bring students together.
Keith Shirey is a writer for The Spoof!, an online website that focuses on what the title echoes. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a spoof is a light humorous parody (Spoof). Most spoofs are only supposed to only be taken with a grain of salt, but some writers use it to add emphasis to their writing. When analyzing Keith’s article “College Football Teams Should Go Semi-Pro”, he uses examples of humor, ridicule, statistics, and emotional appeal to stress his argument to the typical person that college football has become so enormous that they could create their own semi-pro teams.
In general, people do not consider the commonly used words “nerd and geek” to be that deprecatory. Referring to them as “derogatory” develops his argument that intellectuals receive undeserved criticism. To make an additional point, Fridman uses the words nerd and geek throughout the remainder of his essay, further drawing the reader's attention to his view on the words and their disparaging
A respected author John Green questions, "Why is being a nerd bad? Saying I notice you 're a nerd is like saying, ‘Hey I knows that you 'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you 'd rather be thoughtful of them be vapid, that you believe that there things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan and why is that?” Many people who are passionate about their studies question the same thing. Leonid Fridman wrote a passage “America Needs its Nerds” in order to raise concern that our society does not value intelligence. Fridman uses compare and contrast to get his point across to the readers.
Re: The Closing of the (North) American Mind Dear publisher, This letter is regarding a provocative essay, titled “The Closing of the (North) American Mind,” by Robert Nielsen where he reviewed a book by American philosopher Allan Bloom. The article discussed a lot about the aims of education beyond high schools. Some elaborate ideas were presented, but not all are to be agreed upon.
Leonid Fridman writes about the disrespect and ridicules smart people get for how they live and how it greatly impacts our country's future. Smart people are bullied and then in a lot of cases thought
“On average, college graduates make significantly more money over their lifetime than those without a degree… What gets less attention is the fact that not all college degrees or college graduates are equal. ”(pg.208 para. 1) Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill are senior researchers at Brookings’ Center on Children and Families, Sawhill is also a senior fellow in economics study at Brookings’. Owen and Sawhill authored the essay, “Should everyone go to College?” The authors use a wide variety of rhetorical devices in the essay, including ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade their audience to take another look at whether college is the right choice for them.
In the article, The World Might be Better Off Without College for Education, written by Bryan Caplan, explains how people do not apply what they learned in college into their actual jobs. He mainly focuses his argument on people who are deciding if they want to go to college or not because he is expressing if going to college is actually worth the money being spent. Through the use of rhetorical strategies like testimony, statistics, exemplification, and authority they help the audience have a clearer understanding of his argument. Throughout the article Caplan uses testimony to prove to high schoolers that a lot of people do not apply what they learn in college to their jobs.
Imagine blowing up a balloon, with every exhale of breath the balloon gets bigger. Similar to a balloon, with every year that passes grades inflate. In “Grade Inflation Gone Wild” by Stuart Rojstaczer, he discusses how the grading system has changed over the years. Rojstaczer’s overall purpose is to increase awareness of grade inflation and persuade his audience to take action. He argues that “changes in grading have had a profound influence on college life and learning” (2).
In the article, “Anti-Intellectualism and the “Dumbing Down” of America” Ray Williams discusses the increasing trend of anti-intellectualism in American culture. There is an anti-intellectualism that exists in American culture that is the result of the unpopularity of being smart in High School, the lack of the importance of teachers in the U.S. compared to Japan and the effect of reality TV and pop culture. Williams indicates that one of the reasons that anti-intellectualism exists is that education in the United States is not as strong as it once was. Williams says, “After leading the world for decades in 24-34 year olds with university degrees, the U.S. is now in 12th place. The World Economic Forum ranked the U.S. at 52nd among 139 nations
Throughout the story of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Oscar pointed out many oblivious actions done by the characters. He constantly used the characters to exaggerate actions of our society today. Wilde uses exaggerations to show how the characters were unable to be a complete individual without the face of the strict social expectations influencing their actions. Everywhere in the society, they are all unable to make their own decisions, and it is very hard for them to be truthful towards who they are without societal norms interfering causing them to lose all individuality. Wilde uses reversal to show how the characters actions were completely insane since they were trying to accommodate societal expectations.
The Rhetorical Analysis of the “America Needs its Nerds” The mental capacity is treated as a disadvantage in the America, despite the fact it already helped the country many times. This long-term problem became the main topic of the Leonid Fridman’s essay “America Needs its Nerds”. The work first appeared on January 11, 1990 in the New York Times as a part of the series “Voices of the New Generation”. The author spoke about the negative attitude the American society has to smart people and demonstrates it with the usage of words like “nerd” or “geek”.
“Hidden Intellectualism,” by Gerald Graff starts off with an older argument between being book smart and street smart. Throughout the reading, Graff uses his own life experiences to critique the education system today. Points made focus on the idea of overlooking the intellectual potential of those who come across as being, “street smart”. Different authors cited in the reading to show how to accept another’s different intellectual. However, we realize that people who come across as being intellectual weren’t always labeled as that.
The Other Education Rhetorical Analysis David Brooks is a well-refined journalist for the New York Times News Paper Company. He writes many different controversial articles, that tends to focus around arguments of education. Within Brooks’ arguments he uses effective techniques to persuade the audience. In this specific column, he addresses society as a whole, but with special emphasis on students. David Brooks successfully persuades his audience through his presentation of his claim, his persuasive writing style, and his usage of emotional appeals.
