"Should Undergraduates Specialize?" Response

The points that Allitt portrays in this essay were very intriguing to me. The way he presents the pros and cons of the schooling systems in Britain and America brought up certain points that I had never thought of before. Something that many people should reflect on is his argument that education isn't "one size fits all." There are ups and downs to both specialized and liberal arts education; consequently, neither of these systems are perfect. Allitt's essay provoked in me the idea that education will probably never fitsociety's exact needs or interests. Some students are ready for a vocational school right out of high school, and some need that broad spectrum that a liberal arts school provides so they can find what it is they want to pursue.

"Should Undergraduates Specialize?" response

Patrick Allitt makes it clear that college education in England is very different from an American education now. Anyone could have guessed that. I understand his point that students should specialize because it makes them much more aware of their field and they get a more in depth understanding of it; but, just has he made clear before, education has changed. A college education used to be rare, now it is a commodity. Basically every high school graduate goes to some type of college these days. There is not really a need to specialize in an undergraduate degree. The current undergrad degree is the equivalent to the old high school degree. Now, students will get a masters to be ahead of the curve and to get a good job. A masters degree is the place where students should specialize in the field of their choice. Then, they will be old enough to decide what they want to do with their life and will have had enough prior education to have a well rounded knowledge of different topics as well.

"Livinging 'Savage Inequalities'" Response

In this article not only did the fifth graders surpass the expected response to "Savage Inequalities", but they even took it a step further by acting on their response. They were given an example of a similar situation to their own and took the old cliché that they "could do whatever they put their minds to" and actually did something. What really drives it home is the adult mindset the fifth graders took. It really saddens me that the board would not take the fifth graders response. The board could not see past the age and/or race of the fifth graders when they are really the ones most affected by the injustices dealt to their society. I am glad that through the help of Mr. Schultz their voice was heard and they did make a difference in their school and community.

"Shitty first drafts" response

While reading "shitty first drives" I had a really easy time connecting to the feelings of the authors who sit down and all they want to do from the begining is write a perfect paper, one that doesnt have to be edited or revised. Of course if we did this it would save us time and energy, but the author of the article makes a good point when she says creating a first draft that doesnt necessaraly flow is a good thing because one sentence that you write could create a whole new idea that would make the paper even better. I agree with the author when she says that alot of times those things you write down in "shitty first drafts" that make an excellent paper wouldnt come up if u were trying to write close to perfect from the get go. Just being able to relax and get all your ideas down on paper is the best way to start a really good paper. Its nice to sit down and not have all that pressure on ur shoulders, feeling like you need to be perfect, becasue eventually, your paper will be perefect, if you just relax when u start! I thought that article was really well written!

(the blogging generation freaks me out)

The truth is I’ve never been truly comfortable with the notion that there are public sites containing the thoughts and ideas of anyone that has the accessibility. Free, (in all sense of the word) press is a great thing. Okay. Sure. I get lost, though, thinking of the fraction of the billions of people in the world who own blogs, and how many of them believe they are ground-breaking, completely original, and absolutely have this inherent human right to blog. From my perspective and previous experiences, there are two kinds of blogs. Mostly, there is an abundance of small blogs, mostly with few subscribers and containing few original thoughts. The latter (and lesser) are great lists and pictures and essays and stories, fictional or nonfictional, the Standout Blogs. Despite this, I still can’t shake my uneasiness towards blogging. More often than not, I come across writing that is wholly self-indulgent and vain, or filled with lols and slang, or just the opposite, with overuse of precious rhetoric and vocabulary. I’m frazzled of wondering if blogs are supposed to be all about you or about populations. I believe that a blog should have writing without any agenda to sound like anything more than who you absolutely are. There shouldn’t be predispositions about fame or popularity. Forget the feigning for attention. Leave the obnoxious wordplay and write. Even while writing this, my jumbled words sound so wrong. My opinion now sounds more decadent than anything I could ever remember reading. I’m wriggling with discomfort with every tap of the keyboard. I guess I’ll have to try to find a balance of this so vain, so modest, essay-like, conversationalist type of writing. For now, I'll stick to my fail blog.

Response to "Clutter" by William Zinsser

I feel that "Clutter" by William Zinsser emphasizes a really important point that people often ignore when they're writing; Words may sound great altogether in a sentence, and your point may get across successfully, but normally a lot of your words are unnecessary.

Zinsser says, in addition, that "each profession has its own jargon to fire at the layman and hurl him back from its walls," referring to the icky style that politicians and professionals use when speaking to the public. This is the most striking point to me because society seems to think that confusing the public will save us from knowing the grim realities. I'm sorry, but no -- its all unnecessary and annoying to me. Zinsser is right in criticizing this, and thats why I like his article and connect with it very well. However, this is a very professional sense of 'clutter', and we are just college students writing essays. Either way, we have our own 'clutter' that we could clean up on, which Zinsser writes about.

This is definitely an article that I would use as a remembrance for writing better essays. It will really help me with writing college-level essays and eliminating the unneeded sentences and words in my papers, and I recommend the rest of you remember the points made in "Clutter" as well for the future.

Drafts and Blogging

The article “Shitty First Drafts” was a very informative article and really hit home for me. As a student, writing has been ingrained in my mind. We have all been taught to write multiple drafts for papers, but I think that as we get older this idea isn’t as appealing. In high school it is obvious to see the people that actually take their time to write a good paper and those that put it together the night before. Those students fail to write multiple drafts and turn in their first draft because they procrastinate until the last second, and their grade reflects their effort. Writing is a difficult skill to achieve and very subjective and therefore many people fail to put forth the effort. I think reading this article was helpful because most times we sit down and expect a masterpiece to flow from our fingertips but in reality it takes time, revising, mistakes and much more to come out with a good piece of writing. Anne tells use to trust writing processes because they do lead to success.

I thought the article about blogging was interesting because it has become widespread throughout the Internet. I think teenagers thrive in blogs because they are more technology savvy and because they use the colloquial language blogs are known for.