You Ll Never Learn By Annie Edphy Paul Analysis

In the article “You’ll Never Learn,” Annie Murphy Paul, a journalist and frequent contributor of articles on education and science, informs readers about the way students in today’s educational landscape use media to multitask while learning. Paul argues that this practice hinders the quality and quantity of information that students retain. The author explains the myriad of negative outcomes due to multitasking, particularly with media, while learning. Paul supports her argument with numerous studies; nevertheless, definite weaknesses arise in her case. The article Paul presents, reads as a bleak presentation of facts without sufficient commentary and no significant passion. The sources she incorporates to prove her claims come off as condescending …show more content…
Those arguments not only have evidence to back up the author’s claims but also have passion and heart that engage the reader and drive the discussion forward. Paul’s article falls flat in this aspect. She presents a great deal of facts from multiple studies that serve as a foundation to her argument and make it believable and logical. An article’s true purpose is to create a responsive audience that not only understands the subject matter, but establishes a connection with it in their own lives. Most authors provide vivid, detailed commentary that establishes this connection. In place of accompanying commentary, Paul drones on endlessly about facts and studies and information, without ever truly asserting her opinion. This approach allows the reader to grasp the content intellectually, but prevents any connection to the work emotionally, on a personal …show more content…
Most of the quotes given by the various scholars have a harsh tone. The researchers seem overly defensive and even condescending to the young students they are talking about. For example, David Meyer, a psychology professor who conducted a study on the role of students’ divided attention while learning, comments at one point, “[young people] are deluded … there’s nothing magical about [their] brains.” Meyer explains that no matter how much this younger generation likes using media, the simple fact remains that the human brain cannot effectively handle carrying out two tasks at once. Another psychology professor, Larry Rosen, articulates similar arrogant language towards adolescents, saying, “Young people have a wildly inflated idea of how many things they can attend to at once.” Both Rosen and Meyer have many intelligent and meaningful thoughts to share on the subject of media multitasking; however, when they use language that denigrates other people, their ethos is called into question as well as their respective arguments. Paul exploits the professors’ poor phrasing and lack of subtlety by twisting it to fit her argument, which truly only weakens