Why do we have college, writing homework help

**For your final paper, your task is to write an argumentative, editorial-style essay – an opinion piece – that joins the ongoing conversation about the state of higher education. All year, we have been reading about and discussing the idea that the college and university system in the United States is experiencing a crisis, that it has somehow lost its way and is no longer meeting our expectations in terms of its purpose and its value for students. We have read articles and editorials that address this crisis on a national level, and we have recently read articles and editorials that address this crisis on a local level, as it relates to SanFranciscoStateUniversity. We have also viewed a documentary film that examines this crisis at several different kinds of colleges and universities across the country. At the same time, we have read discussions of higher education that date to the 1990s and 1970s, which suggests that many of the questions and issues that underscore this crisis have been circulating for some time.

To focus your efforts, I will ask that you write your editorial in response to ONE of the two fundamental topics or questions we have been reading about and discussing this year:

1. Why do we have college? What is its true purpose?

OR

2. Is college worth it? What is its true value?

While these questions are based on those discussed by Joseph Menand and John Cassidy, you may respond to either one, regardless of which essay you were assigned for Paper #4, the rhetorical analysis. However, I think your task will be easier if you focus on the topic – purpose or value – that you have already read, written, and thought about.

**In structure and organization, your editorial should be very similar to Paper #5, the album review. In your introduction, you will need a HOOK to grab the reader’s attention; you will need to establish the CONTEXT and CONVERSATION for your topic; and you will need to make a CLAIM (your thesis) in respect to this conversation: to that end, it will be helpful to provide a brief SUMMARY of the article most related to your topic.

In the body of your paper, you will need to make two or three of YOUR OWN POINTS, and develop them in individual paragraphs. For evidence, you may draw from any of the sources listed below in our bibliography, and you must cite specific passages from the text for support. You will then need to develop a separate paragraph in which you respond to the NAYSAYERS, those who hold an opinion different from yours. Here, you may also draw from our bibliography of sources, but you may also need to brainstorm other possible opposing views.

In your conclusion, you should then make a final RECOMMENDATION or CALL TO ACTION about your topic. You also need to be clear about why your opinion matters: WHO CARES? SO WHAT?

**Note: as an editorial, this paper is argumentative by design: you should carefully craft a targeted claim or thesis statement (topic + comment), carefully consider your rhetorical situation (purpose, audience, and voice), and carefully deploy the basic persuasive appeals (logos, ethos, and pathos). In drafting your papers, you should also review and draw on the material that we have covered in They Say/Say.

**BIBLIOGRAPHY
In supporting your discussion, you may draw from any of the following sources. To give you a sense of

the kind of essay I am asking you to write, I have highlighted the editorials in bold.

Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, “College too easy for its own good” (2011)

John Cassidy, “College Calculus” (2015)

Sheila Tully, “Why I’ll Strike: a Letter from the CFA Chapter President” (2016)

Mark Edmundson, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As lite entertainment for bored college students” (1997) Colleen Flaherty, “Iconic ethnic studies college at San Francisco State says it can’t pay its bills” (2016)Darcy Fracolli, “Students Will Suffer from Ethnic Studies Financial Woes” (2016)Paolo Freire, Chapter 2, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970)

Gerald Graff, “Hidden Intellectualism” (2001)
bell hooks, Introduction, Teaching to Transgress (1994)
Lisa Leff, “Deal that averted strike calls for 10.5 percent raises” (2016)
Louis Menand, “Live and Learn” (2011)
Keith Osajima, “Internalized Oppression and the Culture of Silence” (1993)
Adrienne Rich, “Claiming an Education” (1977)
Andrew Rossi, director, Ivory Tower (2014)
Earl Shorris, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As a weapon in the hands of the restless poor” (1997) Jonathan Zimmerman, “Are college students learning?” (2012)