From the beginning of his article Kurt Wiesenfeld gave me the impression in his article "Making the Grade" that he was out to do one thing: complain and moan over students begging for a higher grade after they had been posted for the semester. However once you have read the entire article, he really can make you see and feel exactly where he is coming from. The way he organized his article and his use of pathos and logos really make you think as a reader that is a somewhat frightening thing going on.
The author did a very good job organizing his article. From the opening statement, he makes the reader feel as if this is nothing more than a professor hating his life over what he does for a living. He continues this on for over eight paragraphs complaining over how student after student contacts him, wanting a higher grade, describing it as a new form of consumerism, if you dn't like the grade then you should return it. There all of a sudden, he completely changes the attitude from which he is coming from. Wiesenfeld shoves so many examples of pathos into two paragraphs it seems almost over-whelming. He mentions that most of the students in his class are either majoring in engineering or science and begins to pull examples from real life to show what happens when those are not educated enough or who failed to have the knowledge for what they are doing. Wiesenfeld mentioned how a person was killed in Atlanta when a light poll at the Olympic Stadium collapsed. The language he used that appealed to parent's emotions by asking is the foundation of your child's dormitory sound, and so on. He stated this all comes from students wanting something from nothing, or in this case an C for a F. It kind of makes the reader go, oh wow, I never thought something so little could possibly affect so much.
These three things really came into play in the writing of this article. Wiesenfeld adds so much emotion towards the end of his writing that you really cannot feel anythis else but afraid of what people are trying to do and how some may be succeeding in doing this. It makes the person feel as if they should just continue on working hard, but how could someone else's actions affect you?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I like how this analysis invokes thoughts and questions. I’m glad you were able to hit on Wiesenfeld’s appeal that we cannot expect something from nothing, and hard work is all we can be accounted for.
I think that this article may be less about the idea of students grubbing for grades and more of a cretique about our generation's (or at least those 10%) sence of entitlement and embrace of superficial values. see this sentance "In a society saturated with surface values, love of knowledge for its own sake does sound eccentric. The benefits of fame and wealth are more obvious. So is it right to blame students for reflecting the superficial values saturating our society?"
and this one..."The one thing college actually offers -- a chance to learn -- is considered irrelevant, even less than worthless, because of the long hours and hard work required."
He basically says that the people who grade grub at the end of the semester are those who only value the money and the job and not knowledge. And that they are lazy...
Post a Comment