classwork 3/7

Writing into the day

                Wikipedia is not a credible source because anybody can get on and make edits to it. Sometimes the miss edits are corrected right away and sometimes it take months.

                Wikipedia should not be allowed to be used in academic papers because you never know if what you are reading is true or false.

                Personally I wouldn’t want to use Wikipedia but if I had to I would read some of whatever I am researching and check with other sources to see if it is credible or not.

Higher education for all

                If I knew this essay was written by a college professor of 20 years I would find it a lot more creditable. I would think that because of the students he’s seen come and go and had the pleasure of teaching that he would be more invested in the student’s life and really hope that everyone has a fair chance at college and he has seen how it is beneficial.

                If I knew that a high school student wrote this, even though its sited, I would see it as much more opinion based. While it would be opinionated for a college professor to write it, because he has experience in the field he appears more creditable.

Writers purpose

1.       the writer directly states that he wants school to be affordable and available for everyone

2.       the author wants to encourage everyone to attend school to better themselves

3.       logic- he points out how it would make the US better and make the individual better

4.       I don’t believe the writer has a hidden agenda

Writers audience

1.       The writers intended audience are those who have yet to attend college, to persuade them to do so.

2.       I believe the writer sees the audience as friendly because he never antagonizes the writer and is simply stating his opinion.

3.       The writer assumes the audience has strong values and will agree that everyone deserves the chance to go to school and better themselves.

4.       The writer sees the audience as uninformed because he sites surveys, statistics and sites several other credible sources to give a good background and go in depth about each of his points.

The topic

1.       The topic of the argument is to give everyone the opportunity to attend school

2.       I would assume the writer chose to write about this topic because throughout the essay he appears very passionate.

3.       I believe the writer has fully developed his argument. He gives 3 pros, 1 con and the argues against the con to really validate his point.

The context

1.       The situation that sets the stage is that college should no longer be for the rich, everyone needs an equal opportunity.

2.       The social events that triggered this argument is that times are changing. When veterans got back from war they had the chance to go to a university and that bettered the nation so why shouldn’t everyone have the same opportunities?

                The author used both pathos and logos. Pathos because he says how when the veterans from WWII came home they had the opportunity to go to school and that helped the nation, if everyone had the chance it could really help the nation. In the conclusion the author says “this country has the obligation to offer all students access to an affordable and useful education.” This appeals to emotion because this statement make you want to stand up and cheer with the author that everyone deserves an opportunity. This statement also appeals to logos because the author says that with people more educated it will strengthen the democracy. People will be able to more clearly ‘analyze’ our society and politicians.

Importance of 5 elements reading understanding and analyzing

The 5 elements in considering the rhetorical statement are important because they all help you analyze a paper more in depth. While reading I would find it helpful to focus on the purpose and the context more than anything. I think those are more important because to understand the full meaning of an essay or paper you need to understand why they are writing the paper, their inspiration for doing so and the context or background they are writing it for.  While I do think it is important to know what the writer is thinking about the audience, I think that is one you can focus on after you have read the entire paper. That information is not crucial to the comprehension of the essay. It’s interesting to know why the writer choose the topic that they did and I think that any background information you would like to do to get to know the author and learn why they chose the topic they did should be focused on before even beginning to read the essay.