This chapter contains additional reading and writing activities related to the articles in Themed Texts: The Evolution of Education.

Making Connections

Both Elisabeth Gruner (I No Longer Grade My Students’ Work – and I Wish I Had Stopped Sooner) and A. D. Carson (Hip-hop Professor Looks to Open Doors with World’s First Peer-reviewed Rap Album) write about changes they believe are needed in higher education to address inequities.

Gruner focuses on the problems with grading student work when students enter courses at different starting points with the course content. Some students may already have experience and be familiar with the course content, whereas others may have limited or no experience. Gruner believes this makes grading inequitable because some students have advantages in already knowing the course material. To address this inequity, Gruner wants more professors to consider adopting “ungrading” in place of traditional grading systems.

Carson writes about how hip-hop has historically been dismissed as a scholarly or academic topic in college courses. He believes it should be viewed as scholarly work like many other forms of music. He is seeking to change this in his work as a professor of hip-hop and with the creation of the first peer-reviewed hip-hop album.

Reread the articles by Gruner and Carson. Respond to the following questions.

1. Imagine a conversation between these two writers. What do you think they would say to each other? Would they support each other’s argument or have a different opinion? Explain your thinking.
2. Do the inequities described in the article exist at your college? What have you observed?
3. What other inequities in higher education deserve attention and research at your college? Why do you think they should be examined and considered?

Rhetorical Analysis

Analyzing Narration and Argumentation

Writers use rhetorical methods, or different types of writing such as narrative and argumentation, to communicate their ideas to readers. Andrea Cantora (Teaching in America’s Prisons Taught Me to Believe in Second Chances) attests to the power of education to change people’s lives. Specifically, Cantora writes about how education transforms the lives of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. She uses narration and argumentation in her writing.

Reread the article and consider how the impact of Cantora’s writing would have changed with some alterations to the rhetorical methods.

1. How would Cantora’s essay impact the reader if she took solely a narrative approach, writing the stories of her encounters with incarcerated individuals, without including the research and argumentation?
2. How would Cantora’s essay impact the reader if she took solely a research-based and argumentative approach, leaving out her personal experiences?
3. Why do you think Cantora chose to use both narration and argumentation?
4. If you were going to write about how education changed your life or someone else’s, what would your specific focus be? Which rhetorical methods would you use?

Analyzing Cause and Effect

When writers want to analyze why something happened or the outcome of some occurrence, they are using cause and effect. When examining causes, they focus on the reasons behind some outcome or result, asking the question, “Why did this happen?” When writers address effects, they present the consequences or results of some cause. A writer may choose to examine only causes, only effects, or both causes and effects in a text.

In the article 5 Drawbacks to Following Your Passion, Erin A. Cech uses a cause/effect pattern of organization. Cech presents the negative effects of following one’s passion.

In the article Does It Pay to Get a Double Major in College?, Christos A. Makridis examines the effects of double majoring.

Choose one of the articles. Make a list of the effects that the writer identifies. Then, analyze and evaluate Cech’s or Makridis’s writing using the following questions as a guide:

1. Is each cause-effect relationship clearly explained?
2. Is there sufficient evidence to explain the link to each cause and effect? If not, what additional evidence would you like to have seen?
3. Does the writer cover all the major causes and effects? Are there any that the writer overlooked and should have included?

You may also choose to evaluate both articles and decide which writer did a better job of presenting the effects.

Evaluating Sources

Choose one of the following articles: From Public Good to Personal Pursuit: Historical Roots of the Student Debt Crisis by Thomas Adam, Does It Pay to Get a Double Major in College? by Christos A. Makridis, or 5 Drawbacks to Following Your Passion by Erin A. Cech.

The links in the articles serve as citations or references to the sources where the writers obtained their information. In the article you chose, click on the links to evaluate the sources. Use the questions below to guide your evaluation.

1. Does the source seem reputable? Has the information from the source been reviewed by editors or experts?
2. Does the author include enough details and information from the source, or should the author have included more information to provide a clearer context?
3. Is there anything the author should have told the audience but omitted?
4. Does the author misrepresent or misuse any of the research?
5. Does the source seem current enough, or should the author(s) should have searched for a more recent source? (The need for currency varies according to the topic.)