Portfolio

Reflective Letter


Brennan Doyle
Professor Bieber
English 115 Honors
8 December 2015
Reflective Letter
By taking English 115 Honors, my writing ability has increased significantly. Over the course of the semester, Professor Bieber taught my classmates and I several skills that not only only made me better at writing essays, but they also helped with other skills outside of English class. I improved at proofreading my writing, because sometimes spell-check does not always pick everything up. I learned how to introduce credible sources and incorporate my research into the writing so that it seamlessly flows into my opinion. I became much better at forming an argument using the three rhetorical devices: ethos, pathos, and logos. I also improved on acknowledging a counterargument and rebutting it to increase my credibility. I am more aware of my audience and genre, so I know what type of tone to use in my essays. Before taking this class, most of my essays were only about two pages long. Now, I am able to expand on a single topic for up to six pages.
This course did not only help to improve my writing, though. It has also vastly enhanced my critical reading, which had not been one of my strong suits before. I used to be a slow reader, but now I can scan a piece of text and get all of the main points. I better understand how to do my research to find credible sources with lots of useful information and become a “mini-expert” on a topic, instead of just finding the shortest article on Google and grabbing a single quote from it. I am able to identify an author’s use of rhetorical devices, which helps me keep my stance on a topic when the author only appeals to emotion and creates logical fallacies, rather than showing evidence to back up his/her claims. I can understand and respect someone else’s point of view while I differentiate it from my own and not let it persuade me.
The skills I have taken from this class have proven themselves useful for other classes as well. I have found that I am better at note-taking because I can read the information on a slide and write down the most important points in my own words. Forming my own strong opinions on certain subjects has helped me contribute to class discussions with logical arguments, and see when others make fallacious claims.
There are some things that Professor Bieber taught us that I still need to work on. The biggest one that I had the least improvement on would be time management. For each of my three essays, almost all of the writing was done the night before it was due. I rarely ever revised my essays past spell-check and grammar before turning them in. Luckily I was already an above average writer, so I could often get away with this pretty easily. However, this did not go as well with my second essay. I was writing basically the entire thing the night before, but with a little more procrastination than usual. When the time had finally caught up to me and I realized how little I had done, I decided that I needed to just get my all main points onto the page and finish it because I was not going to turn in an incomplete paper. I ended up writing less than three pages when I was assigned five to six. Surprisingly, my professor gave me a better score than I was expecting, and she told me that it had a very interesting topic, but she just could not give me an A for a three-page paper.
Overall, I would say that I am proud of my work in English 115 Honors. I hope to use more of the skills I have learned both in my future classes and in the real world.

Best Summary


Brennan Doyle
Professor Bieber
English 115 Honors
3 November 2015
Article Summary: Race and the Safe Hollywood Bet
In the article, “Race and the Safe Hollywood Bet,” Brooks Barnes, a media journalist for the New York Times, reports that many all-black cast movies tend to fail at the box office, and he claims that the two most successful African American actors, Will Smith and Denzel Washington, made that list because they acted in roles that could have been played by white men. To give credibility to his argument, Brooks used statistics such as the box office revenue numbers from specific movies and quotes from an interview with the executive director of the NAACP’s Hollywood Bureau. I find this article to closely resemble my opinion of African American representation and reception in movies.

Barnes, Brooks. "Race and the Safe Hollywood Bet." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Oct. 2008. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.

Essay #3 Final Draft


Brennan Doyle
Professor Bieber
English 115 Honors
19 November 2015
Minority Report: Hollywood’s Catch-22
When you go to the movies, have you ever noticed the preponderance of white actors cast in roles that can easily be played by people of color? According to a study conducted by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, across 100 top-grossing movies in 2012, 76.3% of speaking characters were white, while 10.8% were black, 4.2% Hispanic, 5% Asian, and 3.6% from other ethnicities (Smith et al, 1). People of different ethnicities are extremely underrepresented in Hollywood’s TV and movie industries. This is problematic because many non-white actors have less opportunity and recognition than Caucasian actors, which can give TV and movie viewers a misconception of how many people of color actually exist in the real world.
In many movies and TV shows, actors that are not white are often cast for racially specific characters, whereas Caucasian actors are cast in roles whose ethnicity is not stated in the script. For example, historical movies like 12 Years a Slave and biographical movies like Ray are typecast, and would require actors of a certain race—in these cases, African-Americans—to fill the role. Others are not as fortunate; several non-white actors are cast as racial stereotypes like “Thug #2” and cannot get their acting career off the ground as well as a white actor can. While movies like these certainly do help minority actors and actresses get work, the overwhelming majority of film and TV characters are still white. Believe it or not, Tyler Perry’s all-black movies are not necessarily fixing the issue. In order to work toward solving this imbalance, casting directors need to pay attention to characters whose race is not given or implied, audition actors of several different ethnicities, and make an attempt to closely reflect the diversity of the population of the area in which the movie or show takes place.
In addition to this unfair representation in casting, ethnic actors have received far less recognition for their work than their white counterparts. So far there have been fourteen African-American actors (seven men and seven women), five Latino (three men and two women), and four Asian (three men and one woman) that have won an Academy Award. This accounts for 14.8% of the 155 Oscar-winners in the Best Actor/Actress and Best Supporting Actor/Actress categories. This shows almost a nine percent difference from the proportion of non-white characters in movies from the USC study, so this inequity cannot be just from the amount of actors of color in films. In the article "Oscars 2015: So Hollywood Is Still Racist (and Sexist), Now What?," A. B. Wilkinson, an assistant professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, states that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the organization that votes for the Oscars, is 94% white, with African-American members at 2% and less than 2% Hispanic. This astounding disparity may be why the Oscar ceremony is so biased toward Caucasian actors. Wilkinson also mentions that the president of AMPAS, Cheryl Boone Isaac, has said that the Academy is making efforts to become more diverse, but with a membership pool of over 6,000 and growing, a realistic proportion of ethnicities is not going to happen any time soon.
However, actors and Academy members are not the only ones facing discrimination in Hollywood. Minorities who work behind the scenes, such as directors and writers, are also often not hired as often as their white counterparts in many film and TV projects. In fact, there are many movies and shows that are centered around people of a certain ethnic group that do not have a single person of that ethnicity directing or writing for it. John Singleton, an African-American director who directed Boyz n the Hood and 2 Fast 2 Furious, argues in his article “Can a White Director Make a Great Black Movie?” that white directors can make and have made excellent movies about black people (e.g. 42 and The Help)—however, he believes that in order to make a successful and accurate film of that kind, there has to be some creative input from a black person. Singleton insists that this is absolutely necessary because “the rhythm and cadence in which we [African-Americans] carry ourselves among one another is totally alien to most non-blacks.” In spite of this, some would argue that with the proper amount of research, anyone could understand the lifestyle of any ethnic group. I feel, however, that even if one studied all the history and culture there is to learn about a specific group, he or she would not fully comprehend what goes on in their minds unless he or she were in their shoes experiencing what they go through firsthand. When a movie is written in the absence of someone in those shoes, the story and characters become less realistic and wholehearted, and more of an educated, yet stereotypical guess.
It may be the case that some of these white directors to not feel the need to hire or cast people of color for their movies because they believe racism in U.S. has declined enough. In the article “Hollywood’s Whiteout,”  Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott, two film critics for the New York Times, claim that recent racial breakthroughs, particularly the election of the first black president, has made many directors revert back to casting mainly all white actors for their movies and TV shows. Dargis and Scott call 2010 “the whitest year for Hollywood since the post-Richard Pryor, pre-Spike Lee 1980s,” and rightfully so. The three most popular films of that year—Inception, The Social Network, and Alice in Wonderland—were nearly all white-cast. John Singleton also claims in his article that Obama’s presidency is one of the reasons why some directors are not hiring minorities for their writers team. Why should anyone think that they should stop trying as hard to be progressive when someone else steps up to the plate? The first black President of the United States is certainly a big step in the right direction, but that does not mean that racism has been eradicated. Going back to the way things use to be is exactly the wrong thing to do when a significant societal improvement like this is made. We cannot just pack our bags and relieve our duties as human beings to look out for one another.
The imbalance of ethnic characters in movies and TV is not just a problem within the industry; it directly affects viewers as well. When people go to the cinema or turn on the TV, and they see only white actors on screen, they might start to believe that the real world is just as white, when in fact it is definitely not. White people constitute about 65% of the U.S. population, a sizeable majority, but a lot smaller than the USC survey’s percentage. This oversaturation helps to cause some white people to feel superior to other ethnicities without even knowing it. In some instances, movies that do not have a white male lead role can spark racist ideologies in people and make them angry for no good reason. Take the new Star Wars movie for example: since the two lead characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens are a woman and a black man, people are boycotting the film for being “anti-white propaganda promoting #whitegenocide”(End Cultural Marxism). Even if this was a case of internet trolling, it still gained a massive following from people who actually believed that the movie was attacking white people. It just goes to show how messed up a world we live in: one where people who have one skin color think they have the right to get mad when they are reminded that people of other skin colors exist. In A. B. Wilkinson’s article, he discusses the impact Hollywood underrepresentation has on children. He states that kids of minority groups have very few role models to look up to because they do not see many actors of their ethnicity on the big or small screen, and a lot of the ones they do see are portraying harmful stereotypes that only bring them shame (Wilkinson). Meanwhile, little Caucasian boys and girls have almost every superhero and princess to look up to, and they see so many white actors winning awards that many of them want to become actors as well. Thus, Wilkinson claims, a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs and white people are encouraged to join the industry, while people of color are shown to believe they have virtually no chance in making it big in Hollywood.
The film and television industries have a long way to go before all of these problems can be solved, but that does not mean they should not try their hardest to fix them. As it currently stands, the world of cinema and TV is controlled by the white man, and it is harming the opportunity of minority actors, and the minds of viewers. This essay is in no way meant to disparage any actors of European descent, but rather to inform readers that the amount of people of color that get as much screen time as the average white actor is far too low to be considered fair representation. Moreover, aspiring actors of different ethnicities should not be discouraged by their lack of role models on camera, because they will be the ones that can really make a difference in this ongoing issue if they succeed in their careers. And lastly, if any frequent movie-goer or binge-watcher finds a film or show that has very little to no minorities in front and behind the camera, perhaps they should consider whether they want to devote their time and money to watch it.
Works Cited
Dargis, Manohla, and A. O. Scott. "Hollywood’s Whiteout." The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Feb. 2011. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.
End Cultural Marxism (genophilia). #BoycottStarWarsVII because it is anti-white propaganda promoting #whitegenocide.” 19 October 2015, 4:35 a.m. Tweet.
Singleton, John. "John Singleton: Can a White Director Make a Great Black Movie? (Guest Column)." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Sept. 2013. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.
Smith, Stacy L., Mark Choueiti, and Katherine Pieper. "Race/Ethnicity in 500 Popular Films: Is the Key to Diversifying Cinematic Content Held in the Hand of the Black Director?" USC Annenberg. Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
Wilkinson, A. B. "Oscars 2015: So Hollywood Is Still Racist (and Sexist), Now What?" The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 29 Mar. 2015. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

Essay #3 Second Draft


Brennan Doyle
Professor Bieber
English 115 Honors
19 November 2015
Minority Report: Hollywood’s Catch-22
When you go to the movies, have you ever noticed the amount of white people on screen compared to everyone else? According to a study conducted by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, across 100 top-grossing movies in 2012, 76.3% of speaking characters were white, while 10.8% were black, 4.2% Hispanic, 5% Asian, and 3.6% from other ethnicities (Smith et al, 1). People of different ethnicities are extremely underrepresented in American movies and TV shows. This is problematic because many non-white actors have less opportunity and recognition than Caucasian actors, which can give TV and movie viewers a misconception of how many people of color actually exist in the real world.
In many movies and TV shows, actors that are not white are cast for racially specific characters, whereas Caucasian actors are often given roles that could be of any ethnicity. For example, historical movies like 12 Years a Slave and biographical movies like Ray are typecast, and would require actors of a certain race—in these cases, African American—to fill the role. Others are not as fortunate; several non-white actors are cast as racial stereotypes like “Thug #2” and cannot get their acting career off the ground as well as a white actor can. While movies like these certainly do help minority actors and actresses get work, the overwhelming majority of film and TV characters are still white. Believe it or not, Tyler Perry isn’t necessarily fixing the issue. In order to work toward solving this imbalance, casting directors need to pay attention to characters whose race is not given or implied, audition actors of several different ethnicities, and make an attempt to closely reflect the diversity of the population of the area in which the movie or show takes place.
In addition to this unfair representation in casting, ethnic actors have received far less recognition for their work than their white counterparts. So far there have been fourteen African American actors (seven men and seven women), five Latino (three men and two women), and four Asian (three men and one woman) that have won an Academy Award. Out of all of them, only two have received more than one (Denzel Washington and Anthony Quinn). This accounts for 14.8% of the 155 Oscar-winners in the Best Actor/Actress and Best Supporting Actor/Actress categories. This shows almost a nine percent difference from the proportion of non-white characters in movies from the USC study, so this inequity cannot be just from the amount of actors of color in films. In the article "Oscars 2015: So Hollywood Is Still Racist (and Sexist), Now What?," A. B. Wilkinson, an assistant professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, states that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the organization that votes for the Oscars, is 94% white, with African American members at 2% and less than 2% Hispanic. This astounding disparity may be why the Oscar ceremony is so biased toward Caucasian actors. Wilkinson also mentions that the president of AMPAS, Cheryl Boone Isaac, has said that the Academy is making efforts to become more diverse, but with a membership pool of over 6,000 and growing, a realistic proportion of ethnicities is not going to happen any time soon.
However, Actors and Academy members are not the only ones facing inequality in Hollywood. Minorities who work behind the scenes, such as directors and writers, are also often left out of work in many film and TV projects. In fact, there are many movies and shows that are centered around people of a certain ethnic group that do not have a single person of that ethnicity directing or writing for it. John Singleton, an African American director who directed Boyz n the Hood and 2 Fast 2 Furious, argues in his article “Can a White Director Make a Great Black Movie?” that white directors can make and have made excellent movies about black people (e.g. 42 and The Help); however, he believes that in order to make a successful and accurate film of that kind, there has to be some creative input from a black person. Singleton insists that this is absolutely necessary because “the rhythm and cadence in which we [African Americans] carry ourselves among one another is totally alien to most non-blacks.” In spite of this, some would argue that with the proper amount of research, anyone could understand the lifestyle of any ethnic group. I feel, however, that even if one studied all the history and culture there is to learn about a specific group, he or she would not fully comprehend what goes on in those people’s minds unless he or she were in their shoes experiencing what they go through firsthand. When a movie is written in the absence of someone in those shoes, the story and characters become less realistic and wholehearted, and more of an educated, yet stereotypical guess.
It may be the case that some of these white directors to not feel the need to hire or cast people of color for their movies because they believe racism in U.S. has declined enough. In the article “Hollywood’s Whiteout,”  Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott, two film critics for the New York Times, claim that recent racial breakthroughs, particularly the election of the first black president, has made many directors revert back to casting mainly all white actors for their movies and TV shows. Dargis and Scott call 2010 “the whitest year for Hollywood since the post-Richard Pryor, pre-Spike Lee 1980s,” and rightfully so. The three most popular films of that year—Inception, The Social Network, and Alice in Wonderland—were nearly all white-cast. John Singleton also claims in his article that Obama’s presidency is one of the reasons why some directors are not hiring minorities for their writers team. Why should anyone think that they should stop trying as hard to be progressive when someone else steps up to the plate? The first black President of the United States is certainly a big step in the right direction, but that does not mean that racism is going to go away any time soon. Going back to the way things use to be is exactly the wrong thing to do when a significant societal improvement like this is made. We cannot just pack our bags and relieve our duties as human beings to look out for one another.
The imbalance of ethnic characters in movies and TV is not just a problem within the industry; it directly affects viewers as well. When people go to the cinema or turn on the TV, and they see Caucasian after Caucasian on screen, they might start to believe that the real world is just as white, when in fact it is definitely not. White people take up about 65% of the U.S. population, a good majority, but not a 76.3% majority. This oversaturation helps to cause white people to feel superior to other ethnicities without even knowing it. In some instances, movies that do not have a white male lead role can make people angry. Take the new Star Wars movie for example: since the two lead characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens are a woman and a black man, people are boycotting the film for being “anti-white propaganda promoting #whitegenocide”(End Cultural Marxism). This is indeed a very extreme instance, and fortunately most people in the comments told this person off, but that did not stop the movement #BoycottStarWarsVII from gaining a following. Even if this was a case of internet trolling, it just goes to show how messed up a world we live in: one where people who have one skin color think they have the right to get mad when they are reminded that people of other skin colors exist. In A. B. Wilkinson’s article, he discusses the impact Hollywood underrepresentation has on children. He states that kids of minority groups have very few role models to look up to because they do not see many actors of their ethnicity on the big or small screen, and a lot of the ones they do see are portraying harmful stereotypes that only bring them shame. (Wilkinson). Meanwhile, little Caucasian boys and girls have almost every superhero and princess to look up to, and they see so many white actors winning awards that many of them want to become actors as well. Thus, Wilkinson claims, a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs and white people are encouraged to join the industry, while people of color are shown to believe they have virtually no chance in making it big in Hollywood.
The film and television industries have a long way to go before all of these problems can be solved, but that does not mean they should not try their hardest to fix them. As it currently stands, the world of cinema and TV is controlled by the white man, and it is harming the opportunity of minority actors, and the minds of viewers. This essay is in no way meant to disparage any actors of European descent, but rather to inform readers that the amount of people of color that get as much screen time as the average white actor is far too low to be considered fair representation. Moreover, aspiring actors of different ethnicities should not be discouraged by their lack of role models on camera, because they will be the ones that can really make a difference in this ongoing issue if they succeed in their careers. And lastly, if any frequent moviegoer or bingewatcher finds a film or show that is all-white cast and written, perhaps they should consider whether they want to devote their time and money to watch it.
Works Cited
Dargis, Manohla, and A. O. Scott. "Hollywood’s Whiteout." The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Feb. 2011. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.
End Cultural Marxism (genophilia). #BoycottStarWarsVII because it is anti-white propaganda promoting #whitegenocide.” 19 October 2015, 4:35 a.m. Tweet.
Singleton, John. "John Singleton: Can a White Director Make a Great Black Movie? (Guest Column)." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Sept. 2013. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.
Smith, Stacy L., Mark Choueiti, and Katherine Pieper. "Race/Ethnicity in 500 Popular Films: Is the Key to Diversifying Cinematic Content Held in the Hand of the Black Director?" USC Annenberg. Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
Wilkinson, A. B. "Oscars 2015: So Hollywood Is Still Racist (and Sexist), Now What?" The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 29 Mar. 2015. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

Essay #3 First Draft


Brennan Doyle
Professor Bieber
English 115 Honors
12 November 2015
Essay 3 Outline
Specific Purpose Statement: To inform readers about the unequal representation and opportunity of people of different ethnicities in Hollywood.
Audience: Educated people; not racists
Working Thesis Statement: The inaccurate representation of non-white actors in movies and television is problematic because those actors have less opportunity and recognition, and it gives viewers a misconception of how many people of color there are in the real world.
Introduction:
  1. When you go to the movies, have you ever noticed the amount of white people compared to everyone else?
  2. A vast majority of characters in movies and television are white, while there are very few African American, Hispanic, or Asian actors characters.
  3. This inaccurate representation of non-white actors is problematic because those actors have less opportunity and recognition, and it gives viewers a misconception of how many people of color there are in the real world.
Transition:
Body 1:
  1. Actors that are not white are often cast when their ethnicity is specific to their character, whereas Caucasian actors take up roles that could have any race.
    1. Examples of movies with typecast roles (historical periods, biopics, Tyler Perry movies, etc.)
    2. This puts many actors out of work just because of their ethnicity.
    3. People of color should be cast in more non-race specific roles.
Transition: As a result, minority actors receive much less recognition than white actors.
  1. Ethnic actors have far fewer awards for their work than their white counterparts.
    1. List the few African American men and women that have won Oscars
    2. The vast majority of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is white
      1. They are trying to be more diverse, but the academy is so large that adding hundreds of non-white members would not do much.
Transition: However, actors are not the only ones facing discrimination in Hollywood.
  1. Minorities who work behind the scenes, such as directors and writers, are also often left out of work in many film and TV projects.
    1. There are several movies about black people that have a white director and do not have a single African American on the writing team.
      1. Doing this makes the movie lose a sense of character, because there are certain aspects about African American life that black people would understand better than others.
Transition: It may be the case that these white directors do not think casting minorities is necessary because they feel that racism in the U.S. has declined enough.
  1. Sometimes, Hollywood directors see the world as “less racist” than before, so they do not make as much of an effort to cast non-white actors.
    1. After Barack Obama was elected, movies in 2010 had barely any African American actors.
      1. People need to understand that racism is not going to go away any time soon.
    2. More and more TV shows with non-white lead roles are emerging, but they still do not reflect the proportion of minorities in the U.S.
Transition: These problems do not only exist within the industry, but they directly affect viewers as well.
  1. Since the amount of white people in film and television is disproportionate to the real population, people will believe that the world is substantially more white than it actually is.
    1. This blindside encourages a bias toward white people, A.K.A. racism.
      1. People want to boycott the new Star Wars movie because the lead characters are a woman and a black man.
    2. Children of minority groups do not have many role models in movies and TV shows, white white children have just about every superhero, secret agent, and soldier to look up to.
Transition:
Conclusion:
  1. The film and television industries have a long way to go before all these problems can be solved, but that does not mean they should not try their hardest to fix them.
  2. As it currently stands, the world of cinema and TV is controlled by the white man, and it is harming the opportunity of minority actors, and the minds of viewers.
  3. The next time you see a trailer for a movie that intentionally has little to no minorities working in front and behind the camera, maybe you should consider whether you want to spend your money to see it.

Essay #1 Final Draft


Brennan Doyle
Professor Bieber
English 115 Honors
8 December 2015
The Optimum College Education
These days, everyone seems to agree that college is very important. In fact, so important that people spend the first 18 years of their lives preparing for college. When they get there, however, many students cannot decide on a major, go into financial debt, or even drop out. Then those who do graduate after four years often cannot find a job and have to spend the next twenty to thirty years of their lives paying off their student loans. If it were up to me, I would create a college that could provide students with the guidance to ensure a successful career and transition to adulthood. To achieve this goal, my college curriculum would focus on a generalized education rather than one focused on specialization, provide students with hands-on work experience, teach real-life skills to prepare students for adult responsibilities, and help students to become moral, respectful individuals.
In my college, students will have to broaden their studies throughout their four years instead of only focusing on classes that relate to their major. Having a wide spectrum of classes can help students develop many skills that their major otherwise might not, which will help them become well-rounded individuals. For example, in a literature class one can learn how to create a well-developed argument in writing as well as speaking. In a  theater class, students can gain the ability to present and speak to a large group of people with confidence. Having these types of skills is imperative in the world beyond college because  mastering these skills prepares a student  for almost any situation that may arise in one’s personal life, career, etc. There is one important skill, however, that is crucial to a good college education: critical thinking. In the article, “Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters,” Vedika Khemani, a Ph.D. candidate in theoretical physics at Princeton University, explains why critical thinking is a crucial skill in the real world, and is learned mainly from humanities courses. Khemani defines critical thinking as “the logical result of being able to simultaneously synthesize multiple ideas in one’s mind.” This is such an important ability to have in the real world because it allows one to assess situations and solve problems much quicker than someone with limited critical thinking abilities.
As well as learning new skills to help students succeed, broadening their studies could possibly help students find their passion. If students experiment with classes they know little to nothing about, it could turn out that they especially enjoy a particular class and decide to change their major to that subject. Thus, just by trying out a multitude of classes and finding something that interests them more than their original major, they may pursue a career that could make their life completely different and perhaps better than how it would have been with their first major. In some cases, nonetheless, what someone majors in may not necessarily be that important to their career later in life. To paraphrase the article, “No, It Doesn’t Matter What You Majored In,” Carlo Rotella, a college professor at Boston College and writer for The Boston Globe, found that many employers are more interested in how well students did in college and the fact that they stuck it out for four years without giving up, than the subject they majored in. There is a plethora of jobs that do not require the certain kind of specialization that is achieved from a college degree. Chances are your boss will not care whether you studied Moroccan Literature or Neurobiology. But what he/she will pay attention to is that you enrolled in a variety of classes and gained many abilities because of that.
Becoming a well-rounded individual from taking a myriad of classes is very helpful to one’s chances of getting a job, but it does not help in making students any more experienced in the workplace. To fully prepare college students for having a career, they need to be provided with first-hand job experience throughout their four-year education. In my college, students should be required to participate in an internship for at least a semester, and attend workshops that teach them how to build a résumé and have an impressive interview, as well as proper work ethic and customer service. Having this knowledge will be very helpful in finding a job after graduation. Employers will want to hire these students because they will simply have more knowledge and experience in the working environment, but also because they seized the opportunity to go to a college that actually teaches them this information.
Along with providing students with the aforementioned skills, my college would also teach students the life skills and responsibilities that come with being successful adults. As a child, there are so many things that you do not have to worry about, but as an adult, you have to incorporate these things into your daily life. Since college is meant to be the transition from adolescence to adulthood, it seems like college is the perfect place to develop these abilities. In a single course, a Life Skills GE, if you will, the majority of the skills taught would be about financial duties, such as doing taxes, maintaining a checkbook, and budgeting, but there would also be other lessons about staying healthy, simple vehicle repairs, and computer coding. Learning these skills will give students a jumpstart in students’ lives and careers, and they will be a lot better off than those who have to figure everything out on their own.
The final and arguably the most important takeaway from my college will be building students’ characters. S. Georgia Nugent, president of The College of Wooster and former president of Kenyon College, states in her article, “College Makeover,” that “the aim of education is to teach reading, writing, and the moral development of character.” So what exactly is moral development? As I see it, moral development is the process of becoming more aware, tolerant, and respectful of other people’s backgrounds, beliefs, religions, and cultures. This is a critical principle to achieve before emerging into adulthood because there are going to be so many people that you have to come into contact with in your lifetime that there is no way that they all have the same set of beliefs that you do. Learning to become socially aware and tolerant is crucial to earning other people’s respect, because they will want yours in return. How can moral development be achieved? A normal university would expect its students to learn this skill just by being around other people on a vastly diverse campus. It is true that this has a significant effect on people’s acceptance of others, but in my opinion it is not enough. My college will require students to take a class that studies a group or groups of people that are different from themselves, whether it be ethnicity, race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Understanding the values and the struggles of these groups will help students become more open-minded and empathetic towards everyone, regardless of their differences.
Too many colleges today are throwing their graduates into their adulthood, empty-pocketed and lacking the skills and knowledge needed to get a job. If I had my own college, I would recognize that every student needs all the help they can get, and that they need to be pointed in the right direction before they can face the real world. I realize that, being a film major, I will most likely not be establishing a university to my name at any time in the future, but I would advise any college freshman who is reading this to take every opportunity they can to follow the guidelines I have stated above. Four years is not a very long time at all, considering that you are supposed to learn how to live the rest of your life in that time. And once college is over, you are on your own out there. Good luck.
Works Cited
Khemani, Vedika. "Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters." New York Times. New York Times, 1 Feb. 2012. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.
Nugent, S. Georgia. "How to Reinvent Higher Education." Slate Magazine. Slate Magazine, 22 Nov. 2005. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.
Rotella, Carlo. "No, It Doesn’t Matter What You Majored in." The Boston Globe. The Boston Globe, 24 Dec. 2011. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

Essay #1 Second Draft


Brennan Doyle
Professor Bieber
English 115 Honors
22 September 2015
The Optimum College Education
These days, everyone seems to agree that college is very important. People spend the first 18 years of their lives preparing for it. When they get there, however, many students cannot decide on a major, go into financial debt, or even drop out. Then those who do graduate after four years often cannot find a job and have to spend the next twenty to thirty years of their lives paying off their student loans. If it were up to me, I would create a college that could provide students with the guidance to ensure a successful career and transition to adulthood. To achieve this goal, my college curriculum would focus on a generalized education rather than one focused on specialization, provide students with hands-on work experience, teach real-life skills to prepare students for adult responsibilities, and help students to become moral, respectful individuals.
In my college, students will have to broaden their studies throughout their four years instead of only focusing on classes that relate to their major. Having a wide spectrum of classes can help students develop many skills that their major otherwise might not, which will help them become well-rounded individuals. For example, in a literature class one can learn how to create a well-developed argument, not just in writing but in speaking as well. In a performing-arts class such as theatre, students can gain the ability to present and speak to a large group of people with confidence. Having these types of skills is imperative in the world beyond college because they can prepare you for almost any situation that may arise in your personal life, your career, or anywhere else for that matter. There is one important skill, however, that is crucial: critical thinking. In the article, “Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters,” Vedika Khemani, a Ph.D. candidate in theoretical physics at Princeton University, explains why critical thinking, amongst other things, is a crucial skill in the real world, and is learned mainly from humanities courses. Khemani defines critical thinking as “the logical result of being able to simultaneously synthesize multiple ideas in one’s mind”. This is such an important ability to have in the real world because it allows one to assess situations and solve problems much quicker than someone with limited critical thinking abilities.
As well as learning new skills to help students succeed in life, broadening their studies could possibly help them find their true passion. If students experiment with classes they know little to nothing about, it could turn out that they especially enjoy a particular class and decide to change their major to that subject. Thus, just by trying out a multitude of classes and finding something that interests them more than their original major, they may pursue a career that could make their life completely different and perhaps better than how it would have been, had they stuck with their first major. In some cases, nonetheless, what someone majors in may not necessarily be that important to their career later in life. To paraphrase the article, “No, It Doesn’t Matter What You Majored In,” Carlo Rotella, a college professor at Boston College and writer for The Boston Globe, explains how employers are more interested in how well you did in college and the fact that you stuck it out for four years without giving up, than the subject you majored in. So it can’t hurt to change your major here and there, because your future boss may not care. But what he/she will pay attention to is that you enrolled in a variety of classes and gained many abilities because of that.
Becoming a well-rounded individual from taking a myriad of classes is very helpful to one’s chances of getting a job, but it does not help in making students any more experienced in the workplace. To fully prepare college students for having a career, they need to be provided with firsthand job experience throughout their four-year education. In my college, students should be required to participate in an internship for at least a semester, and attend workshops that teach them how to build a résumé and have an impressive interview, as well as proper work ethic and customer service. Having this knowledge at hand will be very helpful in finding a job before and after graduation. Employers will want to hire the people that took these courses because they will simply have more knowledge and experience in the working environment, but also because of the fact that they seized the opportunity to go to a college that actually teaches them this information.
Along with providing students with the aforementioned skills, my college would also teach them the life skills and responsibilities that come with being successful adults. There are so many things that, as a child, you do not have to worry about, but as an adult, you have to incorporate into your daily life. Since college is meant to be the transition from adolescence to adulthood, it seems like the perfect place to develop these abilities. In a single course, a Life Skills GE, if you will, the majority of the skills taught would be about financial duties, such as doing taxes, maintaining a checkbook, and budgeting, but there would also be other lessons, to name a few, about staying healthy, simple vehicle repairs, and computer coding. Learning these skills will give students a jumpstart in students’ lives and careers, and they will be a lot better off than those who have to figure everything out on their own.
The final and arguably the most important takeaway from my college will be building students’ characters. S. Georgia Nugent, president of The College of Wooster and former president of Kenyon College, states in her article, “College Makeover,” that “the aim of education is to teach reading, writing, and the moral development of character.” So what exactly is moral development? As I see it, moral development is the process of becoming more aware, tolerant, and respectful of other people’s backgrounds, beliefs, religions, and cultures. This is a critical principle to achieve before emerging into adulthood because there are going to be so many people that you have to come into contact with in your lifetime that there is no way that they all have the same set of beliefs that you do. Learning to become socially aware and tolerant is crucial to earning other people’s respect, because they will want yours in return. Now, how can moral development be achieved? A normal university would expect its students to learn this skill just by being around other people on a vastly diverse campus. It is true that this has a significant effect on people’s acceptance of others, but in my opinion it is not enough. My college will require students to take a class that studies a group or groups of people that are different from themselves, whether it be ethnicity, race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Understanding the values and the struggles of these groups will help students become more open-minded and empathetic towards everyone regardless of their dissimilarity.
Too many colleges today are throwing their graduates into their adulthood, empty-pocketed and lacking the skills and knowledge needed to get a job. If I had my own college, I would recognize that every student needs all the help they can get, and that they need to be pointed in the right direction before they can face the real world. I realize that, being a film major, I will most likely not be establishing a university to my name at any time in the future, but I would advise any college freshman who is reading this to take every opportunity they can to follow the guidelines I have stated above. Four years is not a very long time at all, considering that you are supposed to learn how to live the rest of your life in that time. And once college is over, you are on your own out there. Good luck.
Works Cited
Khemani, Vedika. "Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters." New York Times. New York Times, 1 Feb. 2012. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.
Nugent, S. Georgia. "How to Reinvent Higher Education." Slate Magazine. Slate Magazine, 22 Nov. 2005. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.
Rotella, Carlo. "No, It Doesn’t Matter What You Majored in." The Boston Globe. The Boston Globe, 24 Dec. 2011. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

Essay #1 First Draft


Brennan Doyle
Professor Bieber
English 115 Honors
17 September 2015
The Optimum College Education
These days, everyone seems to agree that college is very important. People spend the first 18 years of their lives preparing for it. When they get there, however, many students cannot decide on a major, go into financial debt, or even drop out. Then those who do graduate after four years often cannot find a job and have to spend the next twenty to thirty years of their lives paying off their student loans. If it were up to me, I would create a college that could guarantee any student the right guidance into a steady career and successful adulthood. To achieve this goal, my college curriculum would focus on generalization of class rather than specialization, provide students with hand-son work experience, teach real-life skills to prepare students for adult responsibilities, and help students to become moral, respectful individuals.
In my college, students will be encouraged to broaden their studies instead of only focusing on classes that relate to their major. Having a wide spectrum of classes can help students develop many skills that their major otherwise might not and become a well-rounded individual. For example, in a literature class, one can learn how to create a well-developed argument, not just in writing but in speaking as well. In a performing-arts class such as theatre, students gain the ability to present and speak to a large group of people with confidence. There is one important skill, however, that outshines any other ability: critical thinking. In the article, “Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters,” writer Vedika Khemani explains why critical thinking, amongst other things, is a crucial skill in the real world, and is learned mainly from humanities courses. Khemani defines critical thinking as “the logical result of being able to simultaneously synthesize multiple ideas in one’s mind”(Khemani). This is such an important ability to have in the real world because it allows one to assess situations and solve problems much quicker than someone with fewer critical thinking abilities.
As well as learning new skills to help students succeed in life, broadening their studies could possibly change their whole future. If students experiment with classes they know little to nothing about, it could turn out that they really like a particular class and decide to change their major to that subject. Thus, just by trying out a multitude of classes and finding something that interests them more than their original major, they will go on to pursue a career that could make their life completely different from how it would be had they stuck with their major.
Being a well-rounded individual from taking a myriad of classes is very helpful to
one’s chances of getting a job, but it does not help in making students any more experienced in the workplace. To fully prepare college students for having a career, they need to be provided with first-hand job experience throughout their four-year education. Students should be required to participate in a work study program for at least a semester, and attend workshops that teach them how to build a résumé, how to succeed in an interview, proper work ethic, and customer service. Having this knowledge at hand will be very helpful in finding a job before and after graduation. Employers will want to hire the people that took these courses because they will simply have more knowledge and experience in the working environment, but also because the fact that they are learning these skills in workshops shows that they took the initiative to learn something outside of their curriculum.
Along with learning how to get a job, students should learn the life skills and responsibilities that come with being an adult. There are so many things that, as a child, you do not have to worry about, but as an adult, you have to incorporate into your daily life. Since college is meant to be the transition from adolescence to adulthood, it seems like the perfect place to learn all of these abilities. The majority of the skills taught would be about financial duties, such as doing taxes, maintaining a checkbook, and budgeting, but there would also be other lessons, to name a few, about staying healthy, simple vehicle repairs, and computer coding. Learning these skills will give students a jumpstart in their lives and careers, and they will be a lot better off than those who have to figure everything out on their own.
Works Cited
Khemani, Vedika. "Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters." New York Times . New York Times, 1 Feb. 2012. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

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