“Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?”
The author of this essay, Mark Edmundson, is a notable English professor associated with the University of Virginia. Professor Edmundson received a B.A from Bennington College in 1974, then in 1985, earned his Ph.D. from Yale University (Department of English). “Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?” focuses on how a typical university functions from the administration, to the professors, and most importantly the students. Edmundson goes on even further to question what the student thinks she knows about education and gives his own philosophical outlook on it. In this informal essay, he draws the students’ attention to the false depiction that universities paint for them of what true education is composed of. …show more content…
One might go even further and argue that his message is directed more towards students at Ivy League Schools. Not once in his essay does the author mention a school that is not considered prestigious or in the Ivy League. To support this argument the author comments, “The primary function of Yale, it’s recently been said, is to create prosperous alumni so as to enrich Yale University” (120). Edmundson himself is a graduate from an Ivy League School and teaches at a prominent, public research school. Although the author aims his essay towards Ivy League students, as mentioned earlier, he still manages to reach a whole other group of people. In the beginning of this essay, he narrates a story of him and his father at their kitchen table discussing his future plans to attend college, he writes, “I was about to go off to college, a feat no one in my family had accomplished in living memory” (Edmundson 116). There a lot of individuals who can relate to Edmundson just from this one point. He shares personal experiences that people from different walks of life can retell. The author sets out to address one cohort, but ends up reaching out to
The author of this essay, Mark Edmundson, is a notable English professor associated with the University of Virginia. Professor Edmundson received a B.A from Bennington College in 1974, then in 1985, earned his Ph.D. from Yale University (Department of English). “Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?” focuses on how a typical university functions from the administration, to the professors, and most importantly the students. Edmundson goes on even further to question what the student thinks she knows about education and gives his own philosophical outlook on it. In this informal essay, he draws the students’ attention to the false depiction that universities paint for them of what true education is composed of. …show more content…
One might go even further and argue that his message is directed more towards students at Ivy League Schools. Not once in his essay does the author mention a school that is not considered prestigious or in the Ivy League. To support this argument the author comments, “The primary function of Yale, it’s recently been said, is to create prosperous alumni so as to enrich Yale University” (120). Edmundson himself is a graduate from an Ivy League School and teaches at a prominent, public research school. Although the author aims his essay towards Ivy League students, as mentioned earlier, he still manages to reach a whole other group of people. In the beginning of this essay, he narrates a story of him and his father at their kitchen table discussing his future plans to attend college, he writes, “I was about to go off to college, a feat no one in my family had accomplished in living memory” (Edmundson 116). There a lot of individuals who can relate to Edmundson just from this one point. He shares personal experiences that people from different walks of life can retell. The author sets out to address one cohort, but ends up reaching out to