“Summary/Reaction Paper”

Substantial Efforts in Writing a Must? The world of academia as we see it has been in the presence of insufficient exertion for a large quantity of scholars in these past years. Whether it’s dealing with reading comprehension or mastering analytical essays, the issue has been presenting itself with a very unyielding argument as to whether specific disciplines in the first place are indeed teaching effectively or not. Possessing sufficient writing skills and while practicing unique themes and techniques in general seems to be paramount in order for one to be successful. The question we have to ask ourselves is how exactly do we master this goal? The first writing theme comes from Julie Gordon’s article “Memo to Students: Writing Skills Matter” which focuses on accumulated statistics and factual data regarding some various ACT scores (Gordon 1). Unlike the other piece under observation here, Thomas Bartlett’s “Why Cant Johnny Write, Even though he went to Princeton”, there is really no emotional and/or down to Earth ways of saying things here. This fact right here I think exhibits a noteworthy and significant fault in her writing piece. So why precisely do I deem this to be a fault? As far as what I believe, in order to make a solid connection between the authors point and purpose of any given writing piece, the audience has to establish themselves a true understanding of what’s really trying to be learned or suggested from it in the first place. Gordon does not succeed to do this being that she only focuses and gives great attention to real modern day factual statistics. Apparently the lack of preparation can have a most negative effect when taking these standardized tests. Gordon quotes, “Only 51% of all high school students who took the college entrance exam are prepared for college level reading. Essentially, anyone deemed ready has a 75% chance of earning a grade of C or higher and 50% chance of getting a B or higher in reading intensive college classes” (Gordon 1). After observing and understanding something as staggering as this statement, one could only speculate where this matter could have been derived from. One may believe it’s solely the students fault, but then again there’s another question that lingers along with the previous proclamation. Could it essentially be the school’s fault? I believe so for the reasoning that schools are simply putting the spotlight on other things such as student attendance in the classroom or even racial discrimination issues. Gordon goes on to mention that strong writing skills are crucial for business majors looking to enter the corporate world (Gordon 1). “The ability to communicate topped the list of recruiting companies’ desired traits this year among college candidates” (Gordon 1). Communication turns out to be one of the key attributes towards how one could accomplish finding a career/job at any given business derived company. I agree with Gordon here in that communication, especially computer-mediated communication, is a crucial attribute for one to have in order to thrive in society. Without communication, how is an individual able to express his/her ideas? Lastly, she explains that starting at a more premature age might be the answer to achieving precision in the English language (Gordon 2). Although this might very well be true, it’s unfortunate that these expectations cannot be met for the reasoning that the lack of student/instructor efforts in a high school setting was simply deficient. I consider Gordon’s “Memo to Students: Writing Skills Matter” piece to possess some legit proven facts about writing deficiencies but tends to leave the reader “hanging” in the conclusion of it. She doesn’t execute in summing up her major intention and point for why this article was created and established. Or in other words, I saw no concrete message being said through it and that actually suggests another major fault to this piece. What is the reader