Background William Zinsser was a Protestant, fourth-generation New Yorker, and a World War II sergeant. He earned degrees at multiple universities; two of them being in Indiana. He attended Rollins College, Wesleyan University, and the University of Southern Indiana. Zinsser was born October 7, 1922 in New York City. He married a teacher and historian, Caroline Fraser, in 1954. The author has two offspring, John and Amy, as well as four grandchildren. He was the editor of Yale Alumni Magazine, worker for The New York Herald Tribune and Life, the master of Branford College, and the nonfiction writing professor at Yale in …show more content…
He clearly divides the different pressures into four types. To start the piece off, Zinsser provides several examples of some messages that Carlos Hortaz, the dean at Yale University, receives on a daily basis. This allows the audience to get the feel for what the essay is going to be about. In the first two paragraphs, he explains who those messages were from and that this problem is found across the nation. The author uses an emphatic organizational structure by leaving self-induced pressure, the biggest cause of sending Carlos a message, at the end. He describes economic pressure first, because this is not as valuable as the others. Despite the growing cost, there is plenty of financial aid, grants, and scholarship money out there. Zinsser brings his essay to a satisfying close by persuading his audience, the older generations, to take action towards making the younger generations more brave. For instance, “It’s why I think we should all be worried about the values that are nurturing a generation so fearful of risk and so goal-obsessed at such an early age” (38). Overall, “College Pressures” deserves an A due to its interesting topic and impressive organization using both division-classification and