English 113A and B: Approaches to University Writing: Progression one

SUMMARY 1.

Jani

Professor B.

English 113

8 September 2013

Summary of the article “A’s for everyone”

Written by Alicia Shepard, the article “A’s for everyone”, is about the college grading system and how it has gone through inflation. Shepard claims that the number of A’s granted for students have increased very rapidly and the lower grades are starting to disappear. Shepard also writes about several professors who confront all sorts of cases where the students are trying to get their grades up. In quite a few cases Shepard finds that there is actually no argument towards increasing the students’ grade. Most of the time it is also only about the grade itself, not so much on how much has the student learned during the class. Shepard also states that in many cases the parents are also pushing the professors to give better grades for their children. Parents are also the main reason why students are so anxious about their grades and why A is the only grade that is satisfactory.

SUMMARY 2.
Jani

Professor B.

English 113A

14 September

Summary of the article “College Makeover”

In the Article “College Makeover” C. Georgia Nugent addresses the issue of what constitutes a good college education including moral development. However, Nugent writes that on a national survey only 69% of college faculty said it is important to learn moral development of character in college. Nugent also states that in another national survey a majority of college students wish for guidance to define their life’s values. According to Nugent colleges should take more responsibility to develop the moral character of their students. Nugents believes this development should be done through courses that would give the students an experience of understanding and growth. Nugent states that is important that students get wisdom for life-changing experience from their college studies.

SUMMARY 3.

Jani
Professor B.
English 113A
14 September 2013

Summary of the article “Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters”

In this article “Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters” the author Vedika Khemani explains why it is so important to study liberal arts even if ones’ major is technical. Khemani writes that the global economy needs employees who can communicate and work well with others. Khemani explains that liberal arts helps one to see the world from someone else’s perspective and helps to develop the ability to form the big picture from different perspectives. In the real world, Khemani states, many problems are so complex that the answers one finds through technical subjects are not enough. She believes the Liberal arts help students and employees to find creative solutions and different ways to handle challenges.

LETTER TO A FRIEND

Jani
Professor B.
English 113
11 September 2013

Letter to a dear friend of mine

Dear Satu,

Now that I have been in the USA for couple of weeks I have read through some interesting articles considering the American college education. The articles I read were “What’s Wrong With Vocational School?” by Charles Murray and the other one is written by Alicia Shepard and the name of the article is “A’s for Everyone!” I think both of these articles provide evidence that the higher education in America has somewhat suffered an inflation during the past years. In his article, Murray states how too many people go to college even though their wants and level of skills would be better met at the vocational school. Murray explains several reasons for why too many people go to college instead of vocational training. The most visible reason to go to college seems to be that the society and the parents have created an environment where only college education is acceptable.

When it comes to individual courses I feel that the same kind of inflation has gone through what students feel constitutes a good grade. According to Shepard many students are no longer willing to accept a grade that is not an A. Even if the student has not worked enough to earn an A, they will still try to get it in a way or another. Students are desperately trying to succeed by, for example, begging the professors to grant them better grades. This means that students might not understand all the work that has to be done in order to get a good grade. Or maybe some of them are not willing to accept what Murray states in his article, that they are not college people.

For example Murray writes that a lot of people whose IQ is not high enough, go to college no matter the consequences. Could it be that the students who should be in vocational school have gone to college and are not accepting their below A grade. Both of the articles state that often it is the students’ parents who push them to go to college or get an A from every class. I would say that the inflation of grades and inflation of college education has started from the parents of the students. Parents push their children to earn the best grades and get the highest available education. Every grade below A and all the education below college is not good enough. This type of thinking passes from the parents to the students. Mostly this great concern seems to be about getting a good job in the future. The author of the “A’s for everyone” states that a B is a good grade and that there is no way that an A- is ever going to affect the job the student will get. Mr. Murray gives very good examples for the same subject. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs never even got their bachelor’s degree and they became more successful than most of the people will ever be.

I would really hope that the parents here in America would find a better way of supporting their children than just pushing them to get an A or going to college. After all those parents are more than likely just wanting to make sure that their kids will have a good and safe life in every possible way.

LETTER TO THE AUTHOR

Jani
Professor B.
English 113
11 September 2013

Letter to the author Charles Murray

Dear Mr. Murray:

I read the article “What’s wrong with vocational school?” and I think the message of the article is positive and the subject is something that really needs public discussion. Stating that too many young people go to college is, in a way, an unexpected subject to read in the Wall Street Journal. I think that most of the readers of your article would more likely expect to read that the rising level of educated people in America is a positive thing. Usually highly educated people tend to be the more productive workforce, but like you wrote in the article it is hard to find a good electricians and skilled laborers. I think the audience for your article in the Wall Street Journal is exactly the people who should read that. It is likely that parents who have read your article are those pushing their children to go to college and forget to ask if they would actually want to do something different. I especially find it a good way to give examples of successful business people who have not finished college. It is a really strong argument for those who are certain that without a college degree there is not going to be much success. Also writing, that vocational school is second class, in those very words, is a great way to make the readers actually understand how bad their thoughts sound. It is true that students who are pushed to study in college instead of vocational school are in danger of getting nothing out of their studies. Students might end up with no degree and no skills because they are not smart enough to succeed in college.

There were a couple of things that I would have formed in a different way for the article. The way you write about college is in a form where the only variables are money used to pay for the tuition, time used for studying and how effective these are towards getting a job in the future. I think that college education should also be about the moral development of character. I would like to add that education should be looked from a wider perspective. For example, educated people are much more likely to know what their rights are and how to advocate them in the society. These skills would be useful for the vocational occupations as well. I would like to ask if you, Mr. Murray, think that two years of vocational training are really enough. Surely one can obtain the technical knowledge for an occupation but how about the tools one needs in life. The curriculum in vocational schools should at least offer the basic knowledge about the society. Like you said the change in attitudes is really important. Vocational school should be seen as a real option for college not just a second-class institution.

ESSAY, DRAFT NUMBER ONE

Jani Riihola
Professor Bieber
English 113
15 September 2013

College should create aware citizens

For me college education is about becoming civilized. In my opinion being civilized is about two topics that I view as the major tasks for all higher education. First of all I think college education should provide the students with necessary equipment to find answers to questions. The second subject college education should cover is moral development of character. Moral development of character and being able to find answers to questions go hand in hand. Both of these affect and support each other. I think If either one is not fully developed, education has failed to reach its goal. College education is also about better opportunities and a wider range of choices in many areas of life.

Being able to find answers means that education should provide various skills that can be used in many different ways. Because we live in a diverse and global environment it is a good idea to study at least one foreign language in college. The more languages one knows the more people one can also communicate with. Communication is a basic tool needed for all problem solving, especially in the working life. Foreign languages also provide a good way to get to know another culture. Every language reflects the culture behind it and studying a new language provides an encounter with something totally different. Being able to naturally encounter new ideas and ways of thinking makes it a lot easier to find answers and not exclude any possible solutions just because something is different.

The students’ moral development of character is a subject that should be addressed throughout college education. I think a great definition for moral development of character is provided in the article “College Makeover”. S. Georgia Nugent writes that college should provide an experience of understanding and growth for their students. I think every time a student has to evaluate and make a choice between two or more options it supports this growth. Another way of gaining understanding is that during college the students study certain types of courses. “How to Get a Good College Education” the author Jeffrey Hart describes some of the topics that should be covered. Hart states that it is important to know the main historical points and the works of major philosophical thinkers of ones civilization. Knowing history helps to understand the way things are today. Knowledge of history also provides the concept of making a decision, living through the consequences and seeing what could have been done differently. This type of learning experiences help the students to understand what is right and what is wrong.

College education is not just about gaining credit for courses and finding a job at the end of the line. Colleges should educate students so that they became aware citizens. Civilized citizen will cherish their culture and its traditions but also accept the fact that sometimes there is a need for change. When a need for change occurs educated people will know how to act and most importantly they will act inside the ethical boundaries they have been thought.

ESSAY, DRAFT NUMBER TWO

Jani

Professor B.

English 113

22 September 2013

College Should Create Aware Citizens

For me college education is about becoming civilized. In my opinion being civilized is about two topics that I view as the major tasks for all higher education. First of all I think a college education should provide the students with good critical thinking skills. The second subject college education should cover is moral development of character. Moral development of character and critical thinking go hand in hand. Both of these affect and support each other. If either one is not fully developed, then I believe education has failed to reach its goal. College education is also about better opportunities and a wider range of choices in many areas of life.

Being able to think critically means that education should provide various skills that can be used in many different ways. These skills include communication, problem solving and reading comprehension for example. Because we live in a diverse and global environment it is a good idea to study at least one foreign language in college. Learning how to communicate with another language is not only about learning the language itself. It is also about becoming aware that certain type of vocabulary or manners might be offensive in another culture. Another culture doesn’t have to refer to another country. Another culture could form inside of such concepts as a religious group, corporation or school. Every language reflects the culture behind it and studying a new language provides an encounter with something totally different. College education should include studying foreign language but the student should be free to choose which language. To understand the value of diversity it is not important what language one chooses to study. Being able to naturally encounter new ideas and ways of thinking makes it a lot easier to find answers and not exclude any possible solutions just because something is different. Diversity should be something that every college graduate is used to.

Problem solving skills in general are really important and I think college should teach all kinds of ways to solve different kinds of problems. Mathematical skills and basic knowledge on science provides a good toolkit for many everyday challenges. Mathematics and science help to gain understanding of boundaries in life. For example, science gives the limits that nature has for providing resources to humans. Science and math combined will help to develope efficient and realistic answers on how can humans take advantage of nature without permanently hurting the ecosystem. Mathematical skills also help to understand proportion and for that matter, at least understand what is bigger than the other. Math is needed by the individual to calculate ones finances but also to understand the scale of climate change or government spending or other complex issues. For example, if one has insufficient math skills they will never know that when the government spends a million it is actually not a lot. When science and math are learned in college I think it would be important to learn them through the perspectives of ones major. Though this doesn’t mean that the instruction can’t look at other kind of examples along the way. Learning how to look at things from the perspective of ones major supports specialization towards the end of studies. To be able to use science skills, good reading comprehension is also a valuable thing to learn. Developing good reading comprehension requires hard work and understanding of several types of texts. College is the place that should teach students to understand the importance of sources, the background of the author and the influence of a possible sponsor that the text might have. Critical thinking towards the source is important because otherwise it is really easy to believe anything that the author states.

College should also provide, but not demand, students with opportunities for interdisciplinary minors or chances to study liberal arts as part of their studies. I think liberal arts classes support diversified thinking and help the students to look at things from different points of view. For example, Vedika Khemani, author of “Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters” writes that liberal arts offer a whole range of viewpoints that the technical subjects can’t provide. However, the Reason why I don’t think liberal arts should be a mandatory part of the college curriculum is the principle of academic freedom. In all areas of life, including college, it is better for the individual to get to choose what to do rather then to be told what to do. A student who doesn’t want to be in college is not going to be a good student. Also if a student doesn’t want to study certain liberal arts they shouldn’t have to. Rather than making students study certain liberal arts it is better to support the student to study something in the area of liberal arts. I think taking courses from any another area of study than ones major is just as effective as taking liberal arts courses. For example, if a business student majoring in marketing takes electrical engineering courses it doesn’t matter that both of the subjects are technical ones. Student majoring in marketing will find electrical engineering courses very mind opening experiences. The students’ moral development of character is a subject that should be addressed throughout college education. In the article “College Makeover,” S. Georgia Nugent writes that college should provide an experience of understanding and growth for their students. I think every time a student has to evaluate and make a choice between two or more options it supports this growth. Another way of gaining understanding is that during college the students study certain types of courses. “How to Get a Good College Education” the author Jeffrey Hart describes some of the topics that should be covered. Hart states that it is important to know the main historical points and the works of major philosophical thinkers of ones civilization. Knowing history helps to understand the way things are today. Knowledge of history also provides the concept of making a decision, living through the consequences and seeing what could have been done differently. This type of learning experiences help the students to understand what is right and what is wrong. A good college education should give the student the chance to choose some courses from several liberal arts subjects. This way academic freedom exists along side with moral development of character.

Works cited

Hart, Jeffrey. “How to Get a College Education.” National Review Online. National

Review Online, 29 Sept. 2006. Web. 9 Aug. 2012.

Khemani, Vedika. “Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters” The New York Times. The New York Times, 1 Feb. 2012. Web 5 Sep. 2012.

Nugent, S. Georgia. “College Makeover: Morality-based learning.” Slate. The Slate

Group, 17 Nov. 2005. Web. 9 Aug. 2012.

English 113A and B: Approaches to University Writing

Pages

Progression one

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