Weekly Writing Assignment – Argument and Persuasion

Fellow bloggers, today I am going to discuss the relation between education and one’s intelligence.

Why does a post-secondary education mean that a person is smart? It is believed that education is the ultimate deciding factor of one’s intelligence, but why. Take for example one of the world’s most prominent geniuses, Sir Isaac Newton. Newton is often regarded as the greatest and most influential scientist of all time. There could be no doubt in anyone’s mind that this man possesses brilliance far beyond that of an average man. A common known fact about Newton is that he had a post-secondary education. His post-secondary education was indeed a necessity for his brilliance to grow and develop, which in turn led to many marvellous strides in the scientific field. Even the world’s greatest minds have some sort of post-secondary education as a foundation for their intellectual minds to develop, which helped them learn to think more critically.

The primary association to be made here is that education directly correlates with one’s intellectual superiority—as one cannot exist without the other. A degree, diploma, or a certificate is confirmation of your superior qualifications in your respective field of work. One could rightfully assume that a person with a degree or diploma is more qualified, or “smarter”, in a specific field of work when compared to someone who does not own such credentials. By being considered more qualified or “smarter” than those who do not have any post-secondary education, your education would be the subject of attention during job interviews, whereas those without the education would be the subject of inattention. Since education determines your intelligence, those with education have an advantage over those who do not, because they are considered “smarter”.

As previously mentioned, post-secondary education determines your credibility and grants you credentials, credentials which those who did not receive any post-secondary education do not have. As pursuers of a higher education, those who attend a post-secondary institution invest tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours into their education, and they are rewarded with more developed intellectual abilities. These advanced abilities can pertain to an academic perspective and to an ethical perspective. Individuals who have received some sort of post-secondary education are more recognized and accepted by society as whole. This is not to say that those without post-secondary education are not accepted by society, but simply that they may not be as aware of ethical issues or understand certain societal values because of their lack of education. When a person is enrolled in some sort of post-secondary education, they learn more than the required work for their field of work. They learn to conform to the values of society and learn to differentiate between right and wrong. Post-secondary education puts more perspective into the lives of individuals that are enrolled, which allows them to open their mind and to be able to think outside of the box. This is what separates those with post-secondary education from those without—the ability to interpret anything life gives you and possibly change or apply it to a greater cause. More and more people are enrolling themselves into some sort of post-secondary education as they realize that without it, they are being deprived of an institution that can make them into a better and smarter person. Having been enrolled in a post-secondary school for almost two years now, I can without a doubt say that my school has made me a more intellectually superior person and has taught me the fundamental functions of society and how to function in society.

 

This is Anonymous sign off.

Biasness

I will be focusing on the question entitled “My question would be why does a post-secondary education mean that a person is smart?”

1. Explanation

This question has potential biasness written all over it. The question itself, the way it is constructed already has a bias intended. When one is interpreting such a question, one would already be under the impression that having a post-secondary education does validate your intellectual superiority over someone who does not, but simply poses the question “why?”

Besides the actual format of the question, those who are to consider answering such a question can only answer from two perspectives, those who have or are in the process of completing a post-secondary education, and those who do not have a post-secondary education. Whichever perspective is incorporated into your life, will generally play a significant role determining your perspective on the issue, and therefore determines your biasness. This then comes down to a mental battle between those who spent tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours studying for a post-secondary education, and those who did not. The primary reason for anyone wanting to pursue a post-secondary education is to get a better understanding in the field of work they are interested in, and to inevitably make them a more ideal candidate for future job positions—therefore ultimately building on their intellectual mind. This is the primary causation for bias in regards to this question, because it would be hard for someone who has invested so much time and money into their education to admit that there may be a possibility that someone who has no post-secondary education could be intellectually superior to themselves.

2. Structure

This ultimately comes down to one’s own perspective on the issue. Does one believe that education is the sole determiner of one’s intellectual abilities? One’s own personal education could play a significant role when determining which perspective they want to answer the question from. All three logical fallacies learned in one of my classes could be applied to this question when considering what else could impact one’s perspective. One could believe that since the vast majority of geniuses, such as Albert Einstein, have an in-depth history of education, that all geniuses must have some sort of post-secondary education. One could also make the correlation that since people like Albert Einstein have been praised as intellectual geniuses, that their education is what caused such brilliance to develop. This could also be applied to education being a necessity for any type of genius to occur, and that without education, it would be possible to be considered “smart.” These are some of the many assumptions and definitions people make when considering what makes an individual smart. It has come to point where if you don’t have any post-secondary education, you cannot and will not be considered smart. Even though ‘smartness’ is in the eye of the beholder; the majority of people will associate intelligence with education. This is what their attention is focused on, and anything else besides education is within their inattention.

3. Agenda

The way my structure paragraph is constructed shows that the purpose of it is to convince the reader that ultimately education equals to intelligence. It is a compelling way to answer the question because it focuses on societies’ predominant values. Education is at the top of societies’ values, and as a child you are brought up with the idea that without education you will not be considered smart and therefore will not be successful in life.  My ultimate agenda for this question is that education is power, and education determines intelligence. It could be argued that there are some exceptions to this, but the overwhelming majority of the time, education determines whether you are considered smart or not. My structure supports this agenda because the only focus is education and its relativity to intelligence. My agenda’s purpose is to convince the few who believe that education in no way determines one’s intelligence, and to make them see the issue from my perspective.

Malcolm Gladwell’s Troublemakers

When reviewing Malcolm Gladwell’s Troublemakers, it was very clear as to what cultural tendency Gladwell was referring too. He targets how society often tends to make overgeneralizations about an issue that has affected their society, often as safety precautions to ensure such issues don’t occur again. The specific issue that Gladwell targets in this piece of writing is the legislation that was passed against pit bulls. This legislation specified that pit bulls be banned from the province of Ontario as well as the ownership of any pit bulls. This legislation came to pass after a group of pit bulls attacked a boy and his family, leaving many of the people involved in the scuffle hospitalized. Gladwell believes that these types of overgeneralizations are also forms of stereotyping, and stereotyping is not something that society as a whole openly supports.

He approaches this idea of overgeneralization by making references to the racial profiling used in both anti-terrorism and law enforcement measures—an unconscious cultural relationship if you will. An example of the anti-terrorism racial profiling Gladwell mentions is the profiling of people of the Islamic religion. The point Gladwell was trying to get across is that Islam is a international religion that expands over many countries, and that not all of them are terrorists or that they even have a Middle Eastern background.

Gladwell uses these examples of overgeneralization and applies it to the legislation passed against pit bulls, pointing out the problems with overgeneralizing among the breeds of dogs and in general. Gladwell argues that making an overgeneralization of a dog’s breed and labelling them as “dangerous” is not a fair representation. Gladwell suggests that not all pit bulls will bite a human and that the vast majority of them who are well bred have excellent obedience.

I personally have a question and suggestion to the overgeneralization in regards to any issue. Is racial profiling the best form of preventing unwanted issues, or would focusing on other factors besides race play a more significant role? I believe that you must not make overgeneralizations based on racial profiling but on the other factors that contribute to such issues occurring. For example in this essay Gladwell argues that dogs who are chained up in the backyard are more likely to be aggressive then dogs who aren’t. This type of generalization is much more valid and could be applied to other situations. If we continue to make racial overgeneralizations, the people responsible for preventing terrorism will be most focused on the racial aspect of it and instead may not notice those who are actual threats that may not fall into the same racial category that they are overgeneralizing.

 

My beautiful Whiskers

Whiskers is my beautiful gray Persian cat. He walks with pride and grace, performing a dance of disdain as he slowly lifts and lowers each paw with the delicacy of a ballet dancer. His pride, however, does not extend to his appearance, for he spends most of his time indoors watching television and growing plump. He enjoys TV commercials, especially those for Iams, Purina and other cat centered advertisements. His familiarity with cat food commercials has led him to reject generic brands of cat food in favour of only the most expensive brands. Whiskers is as finicky about visitors as he is about what he eats, befriending some and repelling others. He may snuggle up against your ankle, begging to be petted, or he may imitate a skunk and stain your favourite trousers. Whiskers does not do this to establish his territory, as many cat experts think, but to humiliate me because he is jealous of my friends. After my guests have fled, I look at the old fleabag snoozing and smiling to himself in front of the television set, and I instantly forgive him for his obnoxious, but endearing, habits. I’ve had whiskers ever since I was a toddler, and he has always been there for me, through all the joyous moments, and all the heartbreaks, through the good times and the bad. I can always come home exhausted and still know that there will always be someone waiting for me by my window, ready to curl up against my ankles as I walk through that door. Oh how I love my Whiskers, with the sound of a gentle purr, he can transform the most dreadful days into a delightful evening. Some may think that the love one has for their cat is limited, but mine is truly limitless.

A very random day…

I never thought that I would have ever seen something like that. But then again, I wasn’t even sure what I seen that day. It all started one night while I was at work, my manager had asked me to work late that day and I couldn’t refuse because I needed the money. This wasn’t my first time working late, so I was pretty comfortable and familiar with my surroundings.

It was basically a normal day with the only difference being that the sky seemed a bit darker that night, and it looked as if it were going to rain or something, but still nothing too scary right? So a few hours pass and I’m just minding my own business, you know just trying to stay focused so I could leave as soon as my shift was over, when all of a sudden I look out of the building and see a gigantic dog like creature outside. It looked like it was straight out of a horror movie because I could only see its silhouette, but don’t you worry, it was enormous and would have scared the pants off anyone. In fact, I seen two people walk by the beast and then just simply walk away as quickly as they could with horrified looks on their faces. I wasn’t able to make out the colour of the ferocious animal, but from my point of view it seemed like it was either a brown or grey coloured creature.

I kept watching the animal the whole time, never once taking my eyes off it, because I was of course worried about the safety of my co-workers. But then, magically the beast simply disappears into the night and I wasn’t even sure which direction it took off. It was almost as if it vanished into thin air, leaving no trace of its existence behind. After my shift, I bravely volunteered to walk with my co-workers as they were going home because I was afraid that the beast might return and attack them. Poor fools, that night was probably the most terrifying experiences of their lives.

A day I was not accustom to.

We all have our odd day’s right? My meaning of odd is a day where things that usually wouldn’t happen in your everyday life, unexpectedly happen on a random day when you least expect it. Some people prefer the same routine every day because it is something they are familiar with and they feel they have a certain control over their lives. I could describe myself as one of those people for the same reasons mentioned. However, one morning I woke up but I had no idea what was in store for me. It all started on a Friday morning, and like most people, Friday is my favourite day of the week. With that being said, I woke up that faithful Friday morning, feeling pretty good about my day and got ready for school. Like many university students I commute from my home to my school. However, I don’t think I can call it commuting when I get a ride every morning from a friend of mine but I guess it would still be defined as commuting. My friends name is, well let’s just call him John Smith because I’m sure he wouldn’t be too thrilled about me giving out his actual name. Anyways, my good friend John picks me up every day for school from my house and is usually a very punctual man. However, on that Friday morning I was running late and by the time I finally got outside my house John still hadn’t arrived. As I have mentioned John is a very punctual guy and it wasn’t like him to be this late. I decided to give John a call, because frankly I was a bit worried. To my surprise it was John’s mother who picked up his phone. At first I couldn’t recognize her voice because there was a sense of urgency when she spoke and only after asking who I was speaking to did I know for sure that it was John’s mother. I asked her where John was and if everything was okay, she told me John had left their house approximately a half hour ago and that he left his phone behind. Normally, I wouldn’t expect John to leave his phone behind because he was one of those kids who didn’t want his parents snooping through his phone. I tried my best to calm John’s mother down by telling her that everything was okay and that the only reason why he left his phone behind was because he was probably in a rush to get to my house and that he is probably just stuck in traffic right now. After trying my best to convince her that there was a rational explanation as to why he was late, she hesitantly got off the phone. Meanwhile, in my mind I also thought something strange was happening and decided to go looking for John in direction that he would usually come to pick me up. Approximately after fifteen minutes of running around looking for John, I see his car parked in the middle of the road. At this point I start to get really worried because this was abnormal behaviour for John. Likely his car was in a secluded area and there weren’t any other cars there. When I got closer to his car, I noticed he wasn’t in it and that the emergency lights were on. At this point I didn’t know what to think, in my mind I thought the worse and that maybe he was kidnapped, so I was on high alert. After about 15 minutes of waiting by his car, debating whether or not to get the police involved, I see John walking out from a small forest that was located just left of where his car was. This forest was known for having some wildlife and was a well-known forest in my neighbourhood. John was surprised to see me there and asked me what was going on. I couldn’t believe how calm because I was a worried mess at the time. Due to the state of mind I was in I reacted by yelling at him and he told me to calm down because I was overreacting and that the only reason he got out of his car was because he saw a mother duck and her ducklings enter the forest and decided to go in after them to make sure they were okay. This type of behaviour did not surprise me at all because anyone who knew John knows that he was always fascinated by nature and often loses track of the time when observing nature. So everything turned out to be fine and we eventually got to school, a little later than usual. Days like this hardly ever occur in my life and when they do they affect me greatly because I am not used to being in unfamiliar situations. May seem like a boring day to you, but for me it was one I will never forget.

A weird day…

Have you ever just got up from bed one day, and knew that it was just going to be one of those days? Well I remember one day like that, the only difference was I felt that it was going to be a normal day but little did I know I was wrong. I know we’ve all had our odd days, especially you and that is exactly why I felt the need to share this story with you, because you probably wouldn’t even believe it yourself. The day started out just like every typical Friday morning, I wake up and I am a bit more excited about the day, you know how I get on Fridays. After my doing all my morning rituals, I am now ready for school and is waiting for Ryan to come pick me up from my house. The same Ryan that went to high school with us in case you’re wondering which one I’m talking about. Usually he’s in front of my house by the time I get out but today I got ready a bit late and he still wasn’t outside yet. At this point I’m a bit worried because it’s not like Ryan to be this late and who knows what could have happened. So I decide to give the man a call, just to check on him. When I called, it wasn’t Ryan who picked up, it was a strange yet familiar womanly voice that answered the phone. It was actually Ryan’s mom, and from listening to her voice I knew something wasn’t right. I asked her where Ryan was and if everything was okay, she told me Ryan had left the house around a half hour ago and that he left his phone behind, which was not like Ryan at all. I try my best to tell her that was everything was okay and that he probably just forgot about his phone because he was in a rush to get to my house and is probably stuck in traffic right now. As Ryan’s mom hangs up the phone, I start walking towards the path that Ryan usually takes when he comes to pick me up. As you may have guessed by now, at this point I am hysterically panicking but I try my best to keep cool. After about 15 minutes of running around looking for Ryan, I see his car in the distance parked in the middle of the road. This was around Harvest Moon so his car parked in the middle of the road didn’t create a commotion. When I got closer to his car, I noticed he wasn’t in it and that the emergency lights were on. At this point I didn’t know what to think, maybe he was kidnapped or worse, either way I was on high alert. You wouldn’t believe what happens next, after about 15 minutes of waiting by his car and debating whether or not to call the police, Ryan walks out from the small forest. He was surprised to see me there and asked me what was going on. I grabbed him by his collar, shook him a bit and yelled at him because I was the one who was supposed to be asking that. Typical Ryan tells me to calm down because apparently I was overreacting and that the only reason he got out of his car was because he saw a mother duck and her ducklings enter the forest and decided to go in after them to make sure they were okay. He said he got a bit carried away because he was interested in how much the family of ducks loved one another, especially the mother. So there you have it, what a big rip off huh? I know you were expecting something crazy to happen, but hey this was pretty crazy for me personally and was defiantly not just a normal day.

Week 1, Writing Assignment

Hello everyone, I would just like to take the time to thank you for taking the time to read my blog and to say that I am looking forward to reading all yours. This is my first blog and I would like to discuss my personal views on writing and to discuss how much writing has influenced my life.

I view writing as a way to escape from the reality of life. I often use writing as a way to express certain thoughts and ideas that are bottled up within my mind that does not reach the exterior world. I also find that reading a good piece of writing, fictional or not, is a great way to momentarily escape from the stress filled lives that we live in. Whenever I need to get something off my chest I refer to my journal to write down whatever it is that is bothering me. However, I personally have many different types of writing, a certain type for a certain circumstance.  For example, when I am texting a person my writing is not as meaningful or personal as it is when I am entering a log in my journal. This is because my type of writing depends on my mood at the time the writing takes place and on the activity that I am doing. I believe this also plays a role in determining how I feel about myself as a writer overall. When considering how I rank as a writer I do not believe that I am an exceptional writer. In fact, I would have to say that my abilities as a professional writer are below that of an average university student. My main weakness in professional writing is getting my grammar to be perfect. That has been an issue with me since I first began writing as a child. I believe my strength as a writer is my ability to appeal to the emotion through my writing. As I have mentioned I am a long time journal keeper, and the majority of my entries have deep personal meanings and experiences linked with them. So when I go back and re-read my journal entries I feel that I have done a good job expressing my emotions and I feel that if I were to allow anyone to read any of my entries they too could feel exactly what I was feeling at the time I wrote it down. I believe my keen interest in expressing my emotions in the form of a journal show that I prefer writing that appeals to the emotion over any other type. Usually anything that has to do with family and the sentiments and emotions surrounding a family will attract my attention. Writing plays a huge role in my life not only because I turn to writing as a way to relieve stress but also because it has a lot to do with my future goals in life. I plan on going to law school after completing my undergraduate degree and I am well aware of the countless amounts of essay papers that will be required of me during my time there. I am highly motivated to improve my writing skills so I could eventually become a decent writer and use my writing skills to help me in my career path.

So this pretty much sums up my first blog entry, and I have to say, it was really enjoyable. I just hope all this talking about me didn’t bore you too much. Until next time, take care.