First Draft

Hamad Hadeed
P. Thomas
Class 1101-103
10/17/2014

Education
Education is the chord of success that everyone is seeking for. Education also is the life
that gives people opportunity to live. It is also the wheel of development that we cant
reach what we have now without its contribution. Education enhanced people in their
scholarship levels. Education generates to communities a lot of intellectual people who
can raise their nations sovereignty. The word education has a lot of senses that gives the
person who even heard it for the first time think that this word has a serious meaning.
When I heard this word for the first time, I thought meant something that is so important.
Education is an enormous word that has a lot of meanings to embody; moreover, it
represents civilization, renaissance and revolution.
There is a blog entry that appeared in the Washington Post, on April 29 on the
year 2014 is entitled, How well educated is your home county? The blog is written by
Reid Wilson who is the editor of the Washington post section called Read in .He is a
man who is confident, full of energy and enthusiasm and above all a great mind. The
writer is communicating to the American population, in a bid to show them the
importance of education by showing the relationship that exists between it and economic
development per county. To make the presentation more appealing and easy to

understand, the writer has included a map showing the counties and the percentage of the
citizens who hold a bachelors degree. The authors tone is directive throughout the blog
and his choice of words is plain, with no jargon that is characteristic of many writers.
This choice of words is very appropriate for the general audience for whom the piece is
intended. There has been no use of stylistic devices in this entry although the main
argument of the writer, which is that economic prosperity is in a way dependent on the
level of education of the public, has been well explained. In my view, the writer is trying
to encourage people to get higher education and do away with the idea that one does not
need to hold a degree for him to be successful. The writer may succeed in his motive but
there are those who will give the examples of great people who never graduated from any
college.
An article by Jim Newton on April 25 2011 in Los Angeles Times website
explores the magic of hard work in education. The article is about Elyse Colgan, a
teacher who has displayed hard work and thwarted reforms in the failing schools of
Southern California. This article is presented to the audience in the form of a narration,
with the writers tone being contemplative on the issue at hand. The writers voice is
heard in the text as one who has great interest in the improvement of the education
standards in the state. The writers choice of words is scholarly. This is displayed when
he describes Colgan as bright, articulate and effervescent. The writer has used the style of
fragmentation especially in the introductory part of his article. The writer also uses the
style of introducing direct speech in his narration. For example, Colgan is quoted as
saying, I will show up every day. This helps to avoid the monotony of indirect speech
(Colgan).

The major argument presented in the article is that hard work in education always
bears fruits. This claim is very clear, based on the story given of a woman who exhibited
resilience in her work as a teacher and in the end the results dramatically improved. The
credibility of the writer is not in doubt. As it is evidenced in the article, the writer has
great experience in writing about the same topic. He talks of having discussed about a
school district board the previous week. The appeal to the audience is that there is need to
embrace hard work in education, in order to bring in reforms. The story is geared towards
showing a real life example that can be said to be the embodiment of hard work. This
genre responds well to the rhetorical situation of the importance of hard work by showing
that without it nothing can be achieved. In comparison with the blog entry discussed
above, the article in the Los Angeles Times has expressed its argument by the illustration
of a story, giving more weight to the writers argument. This genre is organized in form
of paragraphs with a mixture both short and long sentences (Colgan, 2011).
A video accessed from you tube talks about why the speaker hates school but
loves education. It is a poem but expressed in the form of a video. The video is set in
what appears to be the entry of a lecture hall probably in a world class university. The
man reciting the poem is dressed casually. There are alternating episodes of coloured
theme and black and white. In the background, students can be seen walking up and
down the staircase. Some are headed for the lecture halls while some are leaving. They
are carrying huge books and umbrellas. Some words appear on the screen in bold letters
when the writer wants to emphasize a particular point. The video was published on 2nd
December 2012with the writer being an educated young man who believes that he now
understands that there is a difference between schooling and education. He says that he

now knows that the latter is more important and that they do not always have to go hand
in hand.
This genre is presented to the audience in the form of a poetic video, whose tone
is as condescending as it is patronizing. This tone is directed towards the society which
has failed to encourage the importance of education and has instead focussed more on
schooling. It is the view of the author that while the latter gives people information that
they are likely to forget the moment they leave school, the previous equips people with
the skills they need to be successful people. In the presentation, repetition has been
employed greatly to give weight to particular ideas. For example, the words education is
the key have been repeated twice. Allusions have also been made to great people such as
Malcolm X, who became famous for what he learned in prison and not what he was
taught at school.
The main argument in the video is that the people need to value education more
than schooling. The message has remained clear throughout the six minutes video. One
cannot question the honesty of the author since as he explains he is a young man who has
gone through the education, system and therefore understands the meaningful point of the
problem. However, anyone could argue that this is just a young man who hates school,
and is trying to use the examples of great men to justify his claim. It is the therefore left
upon the reader to decide which of the two sides appears true and appeals to their
innermost self. It is therefore my opinion that the visual genres have an edge over other
genres due to the appeal they have on their viewers.
The final genre reviewed in this essay is a peer reviewed article that serves to
explain about higher education and knowledge sharing. The article is authored by Sheryl

Buckley and was published in the University of South Africa School of computing in the
month of August 2012. It is written in the form of a report about a research that was
conducted. The voice that is heard is that of the author and other writers who have
contributed to the same topic before. The tone of the author is condescending towards
those who believe that universities have the monopoly of knowledge. The choice of
words in the text is scholarly. An example is the use of academic referencing style and
words such as intellectual development, scepticism and autonomy (Buckley 5-7).
The aspects of style used in this text include repetition and metaphors. The words
Community of Practice are repeated many times perhaps to give them more emphasis.
Ivory tower is used as a metaphorically to mean the structure of logically and reason
(Buckley 2-4). The main argument is that universities should not be treated as a
monopoly of knowledge but rather as a participant in knowledge sharing. The credibility
of the sources is undisputable since it mainly comes from scholarly articles. It is
noteworthy to say that the clarity of the main idea has been maintained throughout the
text. The writer is trying to encourage universities to participate in the sharing of
information with the community. The writer has even provided statistical data to support
his view. Compared to other genres, the peer reviewed article carries some more weight
since it is conducted in a very professional manner, and has also provided academic
sources. The sentence entity is a mixture of both long and short ones.
In conclusion, the topic of education has been well featured in the four genres
discussed above. Each of the above genres has its own share of appeals and
shortcomings. None can claim authority over the other. They have all succeeded in the
effort of bringing to the attention of readers and viewers the importance of education.

Works cited
Breaks, S. (2012, Dec 2). Why I hate School but love education: The spoken word. Boston.
Buckley, S. (2012). Higher education and knowledge sharing: from ivory tower to twenty
first century. Innovations in Education and Teaching International , 333-344.
Colgan, E. (2011, April 25). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 12, 2014
Wilson, R. (2014, April 29). www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/.../how-well-educate. Retrieved
October 12, 2014