Teller's Argument Analysis

Serving the Audience Lazy, entitled, and narcissistic are just some of many cataloged adjectives used to describe the most recent generation of students. Clive Thompson, a well-credentialed journalist, makes a casual attempt at removing these damaging preconceived views that the young people of today face and challenge daily. However, the succinctness of his piece, “On the New Literacy,” allows the writing to unravel quickly, pulling apart at both ends by committing logical faux pas. Thompson pleads his case based on the study of a Stanford University professor of writing, Andrea Lunsford, titled “The Stanford Study of Writing.”

Having never taken a college writing course before, I did not know what to expect and therefore assumed that I would choose my own topic to write about; of course, this isn’t the case. However, if I had the choice, I would not have chosen to write a response to Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism”. After going through his essay with a fine-tooth comb, I have found a few flaws in his reasoning. Gerald Graff believes that schools and colleges are not taking advantage of “street smarts” by not using them in an intellectual setting when in fact, schools are providing students with a large assortment of other knowledge and skills. In Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism”, he argues for the importance of changing school curriculums in order to better reflect the interests

It never occurred to me that they were even students to begin with. *** “We Grow Writers.” Yes, we do. The We is not a single teacher or a classroom, but of an entire city, a community that goes beyond lectures and workshops, classes and departments. The We goes back to almost 60 years.

Now as a teacher himself he finds his students struggling to put words on paper and express themselves. He blames the educational system for his students inability to write with their own style and voice. Ballenger stresses the ability to write is more about the topic and the student’s interest in the essay than the grammar and structure of the essays. He finds that other professors view their students essays as badly written with sloppy writing, yet Ballenger focuses on the writing that his students do well. He points out that

In Alex Johnson’s text, “Why Isaac Bashevis Singer, Truman Capote, Joseph Conrad and Virginia Woolf (Among Others) Were Having a Bad Morning,” Johnson discusses the difficulties that college students and beyond face when writing essays. In reading Johnson’s piece, one thing that I found particularly interesting was when he discussed the product versus the process of writing (159). I found this part of the reading particularly interesting because I have found that the way I go about writing essays has changed drastically since high school. Generally speaking, as high school students, the key to success was to meet the deadlines set by teachers. For example, in my senior year english class of high school, my teacher had set various dates for

In both articles, the teacher showed no connections with students. However, Wayman didn’t give up on helping his students but Katie did walk away from her class. Through the introduction, we can see Wayman is a good teacher and patient enough with his students. He understand his students and tried to help

Article Analysis: The Importance of Writing Badly Bruce Ballenger’s article titled “The Importance of Writing Badly” takes a rather peculiar approach to addressing the issue of effective writing. The author eccentrically argues for the importance of ‘bad writing’ by describing different reasons to support his arguments. He argues that it is normal to apportion blames without understanding the root causes of poor writing skills. The author quotes different people who have expressed concerns about poor writing among students including his doctor. He proceeds by explaining why he would encourage his students not to concentrate on their poor writing experiences.

As I was reading Melissa Duffy’s “Inspiration, and Craig Vetter’s “Bonehead Writing,” I found myself connecting with Vetter’s paper more than Duffy’s. I found that the presentation in “Bonehead Writing” to capture my attention, and that Vetter’s feelings about writing was similar to my opinion on writing. Through his wording and humor, I think Craig Vetter wrote the best essay. I find that the wording and presentation of an article or essay influences my opinion of the writer, and it affects how I receive the idea they are trying to present to me. Craig Vetter uses a blunt approach to convey his idea that writing is nearly impossible to teach, and describes writing as “A blood sport, a walk in the garden of agony every time out.”

Over the course of the semester, my main goal was to become a more precise writer and develop my identity as a writer. According too, the Portfolio Letter assignment sheet, becoming a better writer consists of precise planning, draft and revising. It also includes understanding a variety of academic genres by examining the basic characteristics that defines each type. In order too efficiently meet my goal of becoming a better writer, it was very important to have my work evaluated by others and myself as well. The use of rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, reading and writing all are the important aspects in this course.

1.Robinson argues that education systems and society are at fault for the low amount of creativity found in students. 2. Ken Robinson suggests there is a decrease in creativity as a result of an academic inability to nurture individualism as well as a societal pressure to become academically similar. Robinson effectively brings to mind the inadequacy of the education system by addressing its failure in equalizing the importance of all subjects and developing different types of intelligence. His line of reasoning mainly built upon a logical narrative that succeeds in persuading his audience.

As I began to read in week one Unteaching the Five Paragraph Essay by Marie Foley, I was reminded of the importance of how writing lends to reading, which in turn infers absorbing the content. Writing is essential to not only education but in connecting through this form of communication as well. Appropriately, this was addressed again by John Dewy in Democracy and Education in 1916. I found it interesting that this subject matter written about so long ago is still prevalent today. I can relate to Foley description of writing in structure as being “alien” as I have found my words always flowed without structure.

Student’s name Professor’s Name Course Date Successful use of Rhetorical Strategies Introduction Ken Robinson delivers a TED talk on “schools kill creativity” filmed in February 2006. The talk aims to challenge the education system and the fact that it has little emphasis on the creativity of individuals. Robinson notes that children should not only be made to pursue their studies but also follow their passions and their interests which lie in their talents.

Djimon Bailey 2/13/2018 English ii Honors Mr. Griffin Bad Teacher Essay There’s no doubt that a bad teacher can make school such a frustrating, embarrassing and bad experience, such student won’t learn much. Bad teachers often don’t have organization skills, class management, and professionalism.

Ken Robinson successfully convinces his intended audience that even though literacy is understood as being more important in schools over creativity it is not more important they should be treated as equal. Ken Robinson is a well-known professor, writer, and public speaker (Robinson, "Do school's kill creativity?). Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures

Writing essays and other types of posts has always been difficult for me. But, throughout this composition class, I have learned many interesting and new things about the different types of writing styles. When starting this class, I considered myself to be an average writer with run-of-the-mill vocabulary, ordinary sentence structure and typical finished products. This class has helped me greatly improve my writing skills in a variety of ways. I have learned multiple things by taking this class, such as new ways to approach writing and that there is much that I still need to learn about composition.