Ideas Critique

Edmundson presents many claims in his essay. One of them is that college has become a consumer driven establishment. He says how people are buying education as entertainment. Well, even if that is true, college has become an extreme money drain. If we are paying that much for an education, we shouldn’t be spending money to sit there all day and be miserable. He is a teacher, of course he wants the power to be back in his hands, where he can’t be judged by the student, and students have to listen and learn no matter how they present the material. Another one of his points is that students have become afraid to take risks, and are in specific majors just to get a good job in life, not to learn. The world has become a tough, money based place. For many people, money can buy happiness and make life a lot easier. Therefore, of course we are trying to get into the occupations that can help us live life to the fullest. We may want to learn about things that we can use to our full potential because of our individual skills, but we are thinking of the future. Mark Edmundson is not a student; he has his occupation set and his future set. Students are going out into an economy that is becoming more and more difficult to live in. He is considering his part and how the new consumer culture is affecting his world. However maybe there is good reason that students are becoming this way, because we need to survive the future.

Rhetorical Analysis Edmundson

In this essay, Edmundson uses many rhetorical devices to get his points across. I believe he uses all three of the appeals throughout his essay. He uses pathos by appealing to the audience of parents who went to college at the same time that he did. He can also appeal to students at universities currently by painting the picture of what we all went through senior year of high school, and now freshman and sophomore years at college institutions. He is able to prove his points by writing the truth and proving how it is affecting the current college student. His point is that the current consumer culture of America is causing universities to in a way, cater to the student. I believe he also appeal to ethos by establishing his credentials as a college professor and otherwise someone who is in the perfect position to make these observations. He states his points directly and it is easy to understand what his point is throughout the entire essay. He also uses statistics and details to support his points, which makes them easier to relate to. He uses phrases that appeal to the reader and metaphors to make his speech more interesting. Overall I really enjoyed this essay which is saying something because it was extremely long. He made it very easy to follow and understand.

Edmundson Summary

Edmundson begins this essay by portraying the scene of teacher assessment day, by depicting the student as a consumer. Throughout most kid’s lives, they have been taught to live with a consumer mentality, even in the classroom. This point is supported by the facts, that kids are able to assess the teacher with such “calm consumer expertise,” which is easier for them they writing a paragraph. The students say that they like him as a teacher because he makes the material interesting to them. This leads to the next main point which is how our culture is becoming primarily entertainment driven. There is no more passion or enthusiasm in students because they have been taught that calm is “cool”. They have been taught that in a perfect life there are no outbursts of passion, and no deviations from the norm. Lastly, they have been taught that if you were to deviate from the standard, and you don’t blend in, you will be excluded and snubbed. Another point is how equality has become the new stand out. Students have been sheltered and made to believe that the best thing is to be like everyone else. They don’t want to take chances because they fear that failure could completely mess up the future that they are supposed to have. Edmundson states that in order for a student to be different, or excellent, they have to work to go against the conformity. They have to try to be strange. However, another point of Edmundon’s is that it’s not the students fault. Universities everywhere are conforming also. College is becoming motivated by the customer and starting to reach out to students to see what they want. Students are now given more and more choices, and entire departments of schools are loosening to give students an easier time. Students are given power over the teachers, while teachers also have power over the students. This makes both parties unwilling to take chances in fear that they could somehow offend and put themselves in jeopardy. Teachers are making entertainment take the front seat over learning by conforming to the student’s wishes that it be that way. Edmundson’s last point is the outcome of skepticism over genius. Students have no opinions, just want to have everything be easy, don’t want to take chances. Therefore, the thought of genius is disappearing because it is opposite to what the consumer culture kids are exposed to is teaching. It is no longer commended and no one cares because they don’t want to take chances anyways. But what is the solution? Edmundson states that the solution lies in the individual students, they alone must decide to go against the conformity in order to renew the thought of genius and passion.

On the Uses of a Liberal Education

I actually really enjoyed reading this essay. It gave me a little bit of a scare because it was 15 pages, but before i knew it i was on the last one. Edmundson was able to completley relate to how colleges really are nowadays. I love reading this because everything he said was true. Even though i am a college student and i am reaping the benefits of all these changes, it was good to be able to see the other side of the arguement. College really is becoming all about making us happy. It was brave of Edmundson to write this essay because it was him taking a chance. People reading it are going to realize what college has become like. It has become hard work for them, and easier for us. Colleges are beginning to want us more than we want them, and because of this they have to change everything to make it more appealing to future students. Even as this is great for us, i have to admitt that i do see how it could become a problem when were are going out into the real world. People aren't going to be as nice, no one is going to cater to our every need. And now that college is becoming more relaxed, we arent going to know what the real world is like, and we arent going to work harder than we have to. If the colleges continue at the rate in which they are changing, the future of all businesses and work places are going to get into trouble.

Part A Part B

Part A:I am currently sitting in my dorm room at my desk. My desk has all my pens, pencils, books and notebooks on it which makes it very easy to get anything i need to do my school work. All my jackets are behind me on the back of my desk chair so i can grab them very quickly and make it to the bus on time if its cold. My food is all on the top of my desk for easy access and also so i can see what i have to eat. My calendar is on my wall so i can look up what assignments i have due that day and my drawers are all open so i can see what clothes i need to wear.

I am currently sitting in my dorm room at my extremely uncomfortable wooden desk. The top of my desk is completely covered with all my school supplies making it difficult to find anything or see anything on my desk. I also have trouble moving around without knocking anything over. All of my jackets are on the back of my chair and underneath me making it very uncomfortable for me to sit with the zippers pressing into my back, and hard to locate in the morning because there are so many layered. My calendar is on my wall but it is all smeared because it falls down about every five seconds because the wall hanger isn't strong enough. My drawers are extending from my dresser because i cant close them and they frequently get in the way and hurt me when i try to get into my bed.

Part B:Now that i have realized what i have just done in this exercise, it truly makes me see how an angle of vision can completely mold the way the reader can think. I can turn a comfy, large, warm dorm room into an echoing, stifyling hot dorm room just with my word choices. It is clear to me now how important the angle of vision is in developing a written work.

Rhetorical Analysis

We recently had an election with one of the largest voter turnouts ever. However, it seems to be a difficult thing to get people to come out to vote. This cartoon is showing that in a straightforward way, a lot of people care more about trivial things such as American Idol than they do about who is going to lead our country. The purpose is to make fun of the fact that more people tune in to American Idol each season and vote, while it is getting harder to get the public to show up to the ballots to vote for our president. I believe the cartoonist's audience is the American voters, becacuse he is showing them how ridiculous they are being. This cartoon is very to the point since American Idol is a television program a good portion of America watches, so it is a realistic scenario. The sarcasm of this cartoon shows that the cartoonist is making fun of Americans and our lack of voting turnout percentages. I believe that this cartoon uses logos because it is appealing to the fact that we need to vote for someone to lead this country, and we need a voter turnout to do it. I believe it also appeals to pathos, because the audience are those who do not show up for voting, but still have time to tune in to American Idol, which this cartoon could make those people feel stupid. This cartoon is heavily persuasive because it cuts right to the point in a way almost all of America can understand.
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