Monday, October 8, 2012

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Routes of Man, 11-117

In the first chapter of Routes of Man, "Forest Primeval to Park Avenue," Ted Conover argues about the limited supply of the valuable wood-mahagony; he takes us on his journey where he meets people within Peru whom chop down mahagony for a living. Conover uses many rhetorical modes throughout the first chapter. He uses definition when explaining what a foreign word means in the area he is currently visiting. Conover uses description both literal and figurative when explaining what he heard, smelt and tasted. He narrates his trip to Peru by describing his experiences and the kind of roads he encounters. He uses compare and contrast by comparing the different kind of people he meets and the places he visits. He also used the rhetorical mode cause and effect by explaining the difference in having paved roads and non-paved roads. In the United States having paved roads makes travel much faster; whereas in Peru they hardly have paved roads making travel much slower.

Learning as Freedom Precis

In “Learning as Freedom”- an article published on September 5, 2012 in the New York Times, Michael Roth argues that contrary to the “customized playlist of knowledge” of predesigned systems of education that condenses students to one limited field, higher education should act as a doorway to expand our knowledge, skills, and individuality in order for each person to choose his or her own educational path and grow his or her own sense of significance. Roth supports this claim about education with arguments and examples made by educational thinker, John Dewey. His purpose is to show the world the importance of teaching life lessons in schools to prepare students not only for their occupation but for the real world.