Education: The Idea of a University
The common ingredient that I find in all the writing I admire ... is something that I shall reluctantly call the rhetorical stance, a stance which depends on discovering and maintaining in any writing situation a proper balance among the three elements that are at work in any communicative effort: the available argument about the subject itself, the interests and peculiarities of the audience, and the voice, the implied character of the speaker. I should like to suggest that it is this balance, this rhetorical stance, difficult as it is to describe, that is our main goal.
-- Wayne Booth
We have been reading and discussing many education topics for the last few
weeks. Re-read the introduction for the Education section in your book
(49). You might also want to review what you have written so far.
Some of the questions raised by the reading selections in POO
-
Should colleges and universities serve to pass on to students the great traditions and values of Western
culture? (Newman, Rose, Slate's "College Makeover")
- Do colleges and universities need to change to accommodate students once excluded from the university?
("Mission Satements," Rich, Rose, Sommers, Pollit, Fryer, Brooks)
-
Should colleges and universities emphasize a unified view of culture and the commonalities among people,
or should they emphasize people's differences? (Newman, Rich, Rose, Pollitt, Fryer)
- What is (or should be) the relationship between the
college/university and society? (Newman, "Mission
Statements," Spayde, Rich, Croissant, Rose, Sokolove, Tierney, Pollitt)
-
In what ways is knowledge acquired, passed on, or made in
college/university? Are some better than others? (Newman, "Mission Statements," Slate's "College
Makeover," Spayde, Rich, Rose)
If you haven't already done so, take a look at the questions in your text after the articles for even more possibilities.
You may use the above questions as starting places to focus your
paper, or you may wish to develop your own question for a focus and try to
answer it. Please do not attempt to recycle a paper written for a
previous class. Outside research is not only
unnecessary, but also not called for in this assignment because you are
asked to use the texts we have read together for the class. The material
we have covered is sufficient for the assignment, and in fact, using more
than two sources will likely cause too broad a focus for your discussion.
The final draft should
be 5 pages minimum (double spaced, MLA format with a Works Cited page,
not included in the final pagination).
Please follow the dates below as closely as possible in order to allow
enough time for feedback and development.
You may use the above questions as starting places to focus your paper, or
you may wish to develop your own question for a focus and try to answer
it.
The first draft (3 pages typed, double-spaced) is due in the following
class period.
- A question worth answering:
- An audience who could
possibly care:
Dues Dates:
- Feb 8: Rough draft
(min 3 pages) for topic and development
- Feb 13: Workshop dev and
organization
- Feb 15: Editing workshop
- Feb 22: Final Due,
published on mahara with an early draft and a self evaluation.
- REVISED
DUE DATE: Feb 27.
Final draft due (paper draft, MLA format with
work/s cited and self-evaluation). Collection due online (rough draft and
final draft with an uploaded MLA formatted file).
I do not accept drafts or final papers in email, so if you have a question
about an area
of your paper that might be giving you a headache, please upload a draft
to a page on mahara.
Follow up questions, as usual, can be posted to the FAQ forum on mahara.
Return to syllabus