In “Life is Not Measured by Grade-Point Averages” by H. Bruce Miller, Miller announces that a young lady named Gabrielle Napolitano was suing the University for accusing her of plagiarism in her paper. Napolitano hired a lawyer and built the case stating that the so called “plagiarism” was just a, quote “technical error” (Miller, par.2). Miller announces this problem but doesn’t get his true argument out until the last few paragraphs of his paper, stating that students need to stop worrying about their grades or grade-point averages and need to start enjoying the process of learning, to embrace the knowledge and use it without the fear of lack of money in the back of their minds. Miller uses strong terminology throughout his paper and keeps the paper at a fast-pace to retrieve the audiences full attention and to also keep it until the end, he also uses antonomasia to refer back to his university, making his style of writing very entertaining; however, Miller fails to accept Napolitano’s feelings about the problems at hand and makes a huge assumption that she is only concentrated on her grade-point average, fails to appeal to his audiences beliefs, and includes inappropriate fallacies in his paper. Even though Miller has weaknesses in his paper, he did a good job using the proper style in his paper to keep the reader’s attention and to get his argument that people need to enjoy learning and not just be in it for the money across.
The weakness of Millers paper is that he never mentioned or considered Napolitano’s feelings on the occurring problem, even though his main attention wasn’t on her feelings. Napolitano was being charged with plagiarism and the faculty-student committee from Preston University decided that her ...
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... person used to attend a school (Miller, par.1). The difference between those two statements is huge, reading the words “alma mater” is a lot more entertaining than reading the boring sentence “I used to attend this one school at this one place”, so Miller does a fine job using that antonomasia to entertain his audience.
In the end, Miller did a fine job getting his argument across and keeping his audiences attention throughout his essay but his lack of emotional appeal and his usage of fallacies made his paper weak. Miller made his paper stronger by including similes and using a fast-paced tone without confusing terms or boring wording. Finally, I believe that Miller could have included emotions to make his paper perfect but without it he only used sentence structure, a fast-paced tone and appropriate terms for his audience to make his paper intriguing.
“The plagiarists Tale” is an article about Quentin Rowan a man that went by the pen name Q. R. Markham. He wrote “assassin of secrets” a spy novel, after the publication of the novel James Bond fans found many similarities between the two. After further investigation results showed Quentin has plagiarized using many different novels as example. After word got out to the public the publishing company was infuriated and instantly took the novel off bookstore shelves. He said “I wish I could do it all over” he regretted everything he did. Quentin faced his consequences and is currently having a problem finding work.
In the article, Miller discusses the rise of McCarthyism, and how it affected the American people and him personally. Being that Miller lived in the time of McCarthyism and was interviewed by the committee in charge of “Un-American Activities”, Miller is a very credible source on the effects of mass hysteria and paranoia. The article “Are You Now or Were You Ever” can be used as a source when discussing McCarthyism and its effects, and other studies of the era. This article is a valuable resource for studies of The Crucible and studies of Arthur Miller
At first I thought this was an essay trying to inform us on the issue of college students. As I have read deeper into it I have thought it out to be more of a persuasive essay. The whole essay examples are given in which students and parents whine for better grades. There were five or ten situations brought up where someone would get a B but thought they worked hard enough. By repeatedly giving us visualizations of this she is trying to get a point across. She makes this the main argument in the essay. She is trying to get the point across that kids are ridiculous to ask for a better grade. If the teacher gives them a grade of a B, she clearly means it. Then to add on to that the teachers give in to the child. The main part of school is to learn. If
The case under review occurred in the city of Newton against a backdrop of economic decline, political disenchantment, and a widening racial divide. A Newton High School senior,Sheila Allison, is accused by her teacher of plagiarizing a book review. Mrs. Durnitz, the teacher, reported to the school principal that Sheila admitted to taking material from the web but claimed she did not know that doing so constituted plagiarism. The district’s policy states that students found guilty of plagiarism must receive a failing grade and repeat the course. Mrs. Durnitz feels that Sheila, having a copy of the student handbook in which plagiarism is discussed, should have known that what she did violated the policy. The teacher also believes that the policy, drafted by the teachers who teach honors classes and approved by the administration, must be followed to the letter despite any extenuating circumstances.
In portraying Hale as a naïve outsider, Miller uses the four methods of characterization to describe him as a misled str...
However, such accusations such as laziness and entitlement, although common, have been prevalent amongst those of college age as proven in “A’s for Everyone.” Shepard had investigated the cause behind this and had put the blame on grade inflation in the years prior to entering college, the pressure to get superb grades due to high tuition costs, and most importantly the belief that “effort” constitutes a grade bonus. However, if one has entered the school system in America, one could see the relative ease in which one could improve their grades through inordinate amounts of extra credit. Multiple students have heard and even seen fellow students ask their parents to even come in for meetings of which equate to blaming their child’s poor grades on the teacher and harassing said teacher to allow their child, soon to be a hardworking, productive citizen of society, to get the “grade they
Miller’s life paralleled The Crucible in many ways. The characters in the play had many traits that resembled his. He and the people of Salem were censored by the frenzy of the times they were living in. The hysteria and the mob mentality exacerbated the anticommunists’ and the witch-hunters’ philosophies. The Red Scare affected Miller in the same way the witch hunts affected the people of Salem. As long as there are people with authority in the world, there will be challengers of authority. Censorship will always be used to make others conform. A majority of the public is and always will be easily influenced by hysteria and the mob mentality. Miller used his own experiences to write The Crucible, a play that describes universal behavior and the human condition.
During Author Miller’s era of the 1950’s, the ‘cold war’ was happening. Senetor Joeseph McCarthy was completely against communism and began to arrest the communists and people assosiating with them. Those arrested were forced to either name names to identify those who were communists or thought to be, or else they would remain in jail. This was callef McCarthyism For many, being prisioned was a terrible frightening thought so they would name names including any that they could think of that could be innocent. Author Miller was arrested for associating with communists and refused to identify others, and wrote The Crucible, using it as an allegory to identify the problems of society and it’s flaws of the corrupt government.
from history to try to portray the way of life in this era. Miller has
Nine critical approaches are utilized when analyzing a piece of literature in order to appeal to a variety of critics. Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible can be interpreted from numerous approaches, but one lens that is unmistakable throughout is the psychological criticism. From a psychological standpoint, one gains access to the mindset of both the author and the characters within. In addition to this, the reader also acquires a greater understanding of the motivations, behaviors, and mental state that each character possesses. Through psychological criticism, one can obtain information on a character’s motivation, the likelihood of their actions, and which behaviors are consciously made.
Vogel, Steven “Grades and Money” Dissent Fall 1997: 102-04 in Mary Lynch Kennedy and Haley M. Smith. Reading and writing tin the Academic Community. 2nd ed, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall 2001. 337-340.
Writers may use literature as a vehicle of social criticism. In which ways does Arthur Miller criticize society?
Florio, Thomas A., ed. “Miller’s Tales.” The New Yorker. 70 (1994): 35-36. Martin, Robert A., ed., pp.
Arthur Miller is an interesting author in the sense that many of his plays reflect or are a product of events in his life. He was born in 1915 in New York City and was the son of a successful businessman, up until the Great Depression when his father lost most of his wealth. This greatly impacts Miller's life, and influences the themes for many of his future writings. To make ends meet at home, Miller worked as a truck driver, a warehouse clerk, and a cargo-mover; consequently, these odd jobs bring him close to the working-class type people that will later be the basis of many characters in his plays. It is while he is involving himself in these jobs that Miller forms his love for literature; he is greatly impressed by Fyodor Dostoevski's The Brothers Karamazov because it questions the unspoken rules of society, a concept he often wondered about, especially after the Great Depression. He believes that American society needed to be made over; for this reason, many of his earlier plays show sympathetic portrayals and compassionate characterizations of his characters. In 1956, Miller marries the eminent Marilyn Monroe. This event significantly affects his writing in that he focuses on female characters more than he had formerly. He also looked back at his prefigured themes in past stories and expanded or reconsidered them (Martin, 1336-7). Clearly, the roots of his works are the result of important events from his past experiences.
As previously discussed, Miller's view of the uncanny seems to run parallel with Jentsch's notions of intellectual uncertainty, straying from Freud's various understandings of the source of the uncanny; however, had Miller utilized repetition compulsion as a main facet of his argument, his integration of Freud's variation of the uncanny would have been justified in some respect. In his essay, Freud outright states that "repetition [produces] a sense of the uncanny by reproducing a circumstance, or a feeling, that recalls the helplessness we experience…" (Freud 144). While Miller may not explicitly share Freud's psychoanalytical outlook, there is some merit to repetition's ability to produce a feeling of anxiety and helplessness in constructing