Grades are the most important thing to most students today. Every student is aware of how their grades can affect their future. While many of us would like a pass-fail system better, all of us worry about how we"re doing. .
One essay that intrigued me about this topic is Jerry Farber's "A Young Person's Guide to the Grading System." It is about his views on the grading system in our schools today. These views are not shared by Stephen Goode and Timothy W. Maier, the authors of another essay entitled "Inflating the Grades." These two wrote about the inflation of grades in high schools and colleges today. Both articles agree that problems with the grading system are affecting the quality of education, but they find different causes for the problem.
Farber's essay is mostly his opinion about grades and how they are important to a student. He argues that "just because you pass a subject doesn't mean you've learned it" (333-334). His style is very informal, with a relaxed tone, like he is having a conversation with you. I believe this helps to get his point across well. He says that to have no grades at all would be his ideal, but proposes the credit system as a more practical alternative.
Farber discusses self-discipline as being "a certain way of pleasing yourself" (334). He says that people think self-discipline is like "staying up all night to finish a term paper" (334). He feels it "is revising one paragraph fanatically for weeks-for no other reason than that you yourself aren't happy with it" (334). The reason he discusses self-discipline is to point out that people have a natural desire to learn, but grades interfere with that by replacing it with a desire for a letter grade.
Unlike Farber's very opinionated piece, the Goode-Maier essay takes an informative approach. Goode-Maier says that the high grades given to the students are not worth what they used to be. They point out that students have "come to believe they"re entitled to them" (347).
In one essay, Nancy Mairs, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, labels herself "a cripple." ... Mairs" ardor for the truth explains why she chooses to call herself a cripple. ... According to Mairs, the other popular euphemisms negate the magnitude of her illness. ... This depicts Mairs" courage to the reader. ... Mairs notes that society believes that words such as "crippled" should be covered up. ...
Rhetorical Analysis Nancy Mairs "Body In Trouble" Nancy Mairs begins her essay by stating that in biblical times, physical and mental disorders were considered to signify possesion by demons. ... Mairs uses this figurative language to explain the difficulties of her disability. ... The author Nancy Mairs establishes her credibility well. ... Mairs presents herself as a woman who talks about her experience being in a wheelchair. ... Mairs' essay is both intensely personal and conceptually abstract. ...
Nancy Mairs was one of those people. ... Mairs uses many tactics and techniques to show the reader what it's like to be disabled. ... In this essay, Mairs shows that an individual has choices in life, no matter what the situation. ... Nancy Mairs then goes on to address the questions that have been floating around in the readers? ... At the end of this paragraph, Mairs questions the reader, guess which woman I hope to be. ...
Castro put together the best army any Latin American country had ever had (Goode, Stephen 76). ... These people were known as Cuban exiles (Goode, Stephen 76). ... The CIA chose Manuel Artime Buesa as the leader of the troops (Goode, Stephen 79). ... The morning before the invasion, April 15, 1961, he ordered a nationwide alert (Goode, Stephen 80). ... At midnight on April 16, the invasion began (Goode, Stephen 81). ...
Castro put together the best army any Latin American country had ever had (Goode, Stephen 76). ... These people were known as Cuban exiles (Goode, Stephen 76). ... The CIA chose Manuel Artime Buesa as the leader of the troops (Goode, Stephen 79). ... The morning before the invasion, April 15, 1961, he ordered a nationwide alert (Goode, Stephen 80). ... At midnight on April 16, the invasion began (Goode, Stephen 81). ...
Book Review on The Age of Great Dreams: America in the 1960s David Farber's "Age of Great Dreams" sketches an arresting picture of what life was like between 1960-1969. ... Farber goes on to talk about Kennedy's anti-communist plans, the two programs he developed: the Peace Corps and the Special Forces of the U.S. ... As usual, Farber will mention how Kennedy's assassination changed America forever and how certain hopes and dreams would be tarnished forever. ... Farber goes into heavy detail about how a lot of children and teenagers of the 1950s were unsatisfied with ho...
Mairs says: "I lead, on the whole, an ordinary life, probably rather like the one I would have led had I not had MS. " (Mairs 247). ... I pick up freelance editing jobs here and there " (Mairs 248). Mairs does not let her condition stop her life. ... On the other hand, Nancy Mairs fights a physical obstacle. ... Some even like it " (Mairs 249). ...
These people were known as Cuban exiles (Goode, Stephen 76). ... (Goode, Stephen 77). ... The CIA chose Manuel Artime Buesa as the leader of the troops (Goode, Stephen 79). ... who had been part of the former dictator's brutal government (Goode, Stephen 79). ... At midnight on April 16, the invasion began (Goode, Stephen 81). ...
