Hannah Keller
Mr. Barron
CO 150
February 10, 2015
Creative Title
“Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here” was written by Mark Edmundson and published in the Fall 2011 edition of Oxford American (Edmundson 17). In this academic article, Edmundson is clearly addressing incoming freshmen to college by stating, “Welcome and congratulations: Getting to the first day of college is a major achievement (Edmundson 18).” On a student’s quest to receive a diploma he says that students go get an education for “a means to an end (Edmundson 20),” the end leading them to a good paying job. His purpose of this article is convey to students that college is the place discover who they are and that they should aspire to become what they genuinely want to …show more content…
One way he achieves his purpose is by using a strong sense of dictation. By using descriptive phrases such as, “In college, life is elsewhere,” and “Life is what celebrities have,” Edmundson paints a very descriptive picture of how students in college only live in “the future and not the present (Edmundson 20).” This achieves his purpose by describing the road to a well paying job is not always pleasurable, and in the end the person is trapped doing a job they do not actually care about with large student loans in their back pockets (Edmundson 20). Another way Edmundson achieves his purpose is by connecting to the reader. From the get go Edmundson connects his article to the students by sharing his personal experiences. He depicts a scene with his father telling him that “[he] was going to go to college only once,” and because of that “[he] had better study what [he] wanted (Edmundson 19). This gets his purpose across by showing the upcoming freshmen that he too was once in their positions. By linking his past with their future and showing that he too was once in their shoes, it gives them comfort and hope for their futures as he describes his decision to become what he wanted. By approaching his article with strong dictation and connecting himself to the reader, Edmundson constructs an emotional appeal with the students and gets his purpose …show more content…
It seems in portions of the article, he is very unorganized by bringing up topics without explaining the significance to his purpose. An example of this would be when he brings up plagiarism and cheating. He describes how “[Students will] find that cheating is common (Edmundson 22),” without explaining the relevance. This does not achieve his purpose because it is hard to follow and unclear why it was brought up. Without clarity on matters such as this, the students are left grabbing at straws trying to understand what Edmundson means. His disorganization leaves the logical approach to this article short and does not get his purpose across to the students very
Mr. Barron
CO 150
February 10, 2015
Creative Title
“Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here” was written by Mark Edmundson and published in the Fall 2011 edition of Oxford American (Edmundson 17). In this academic article, Edmundson is clearly addressing incoming freshmen to college by stating, “Welcome and congratulations: Getting to the first day of college is a major achievement (Edmundson 18).” On a student’s quest to receive a diploma he says that students go get an education for “a means to an end (Edmundson 20),” the end leading them to a good paying job. His purpose of this article is convey to students that college is the place discover who they are and that they should aspire to become what they genuinely want to …show more content…
One way he achieves his purpose is by using a strong sense of dictation. By using descriptive phrases such as, “In college, life is elsewhere,” and “Life is what celebrities have,” Edmundson paints a very descriptive picture of how students in college only live in “the future and not the present (Edmundson 20).” This achieves his purpose by describing the road to a well paying job is not always pleasurable, and in the end the person is trapped doing a job they do not actually care about with large student loans in their back pockets (Edmundson 20). Another way Edmundson achieves his purpose is by connecting to the reader. From the get go Edmundson connects his article to the students by sharing his personal experiences. He depicts a scene with his father telling him that “[he] was going to go to college only once,” and because of that “[he] had better study what [he] wanted (Edmundson 19). This gets his purpose across by showing the upcoming freshmen that he too was once in their positions. By linking his past with their future and showing that he too was once in their shoes, it gives them comfort and hope for their futures as he describes his decision to become what he wanted. By approaching his article with strong dictation and connecting himself to the reader, Edmundson constructs an emotional appeal with the students and gets his purpose …show more content…
It seems in portions of the article, he is very unorganized by bringing up topics without explaining the significance to his purpose. An example of this would be when he brings up plagiarism and cheating. He describes how “[Students will] find that cheating is common (Edmundson 22),” without explaining the relevance. This does not achieve his purpose because it is hard to follow and unclear why it was brought up. Without clarity on matters such as this, the students are left grabbing at straws trying to understand what Edmundson means. His disorganization leaves the logical approach to this article short and does not get his purpose across to the students very