Critical Reading I

The Fine Line Between Safe Space and Segregation

The rhetorical situation of this text is a magazine article discussing various colleges approach
to segregation and diversity on campus.
The author makes many claims throughout the articles. The author claims that students thrive
when they feel like they are in a safe environment, courses tailored to certain minorities help
them to be more successful in their academic endeavors, and that while campuses are becoming
more inclusive, students often naturally segregate to certain groups.
Some keywords used in the article are safe spaces, segregation, and backgrounds.
Question to promote further inquiry: What is the historical context of this problem?
Is this problem exclusive to American colleges? What direction is this issue heading?

First Step to Fixing Gender Bias in Business School: Admit the Problem
The rhetorical situation of this text is an online magazine article discussing the Gender Bias in
college, specifically focusing on business college.
The claims made are concerning the gender equality of education systems found in
business colleges. Some claims are that implementing changes to the grading system, such as
installing scribes in classrooms, better represent the student body, and therefore women.
Some keywords used are representation, gender bias, equality, and second-
generation gender bias.
Questions to promote further discussion: What other colleges does this problem
manifest itself in?, What other methods can be used to make colleges more equal? , and Is
the proposed solutions a one size fits all solution?.

How Americas 2-Tiered Education System is Perpetuating Inequality

The rhetorical situation of this text is an online magazine article discussing problems with
Americas post-secondary education system.
The claims made are that community colleges cater to a more disadvantaged group of
individuals that universities do not want to offer their services to, and as such are creating a
divide between individuals with valuable degrees, and those without. The author claims that
universities receive too much funding relative to community colleges.
Some keywords used are subsidies, transfers, and higher education
Questions to promote further inquiry: What is the average value of a community college
degree compared to that of a university degree?, What are the statistics of who attends
community college vs. who attends university?

The Post-Lecture Classroom

The rhetorical situation of this text is an online magazine article discussing a new system
of education proposed by a professor of pharmaceuticals.
The claims made are that traditional methods of lecture, powerpoint slides and similar
templates, hit a wall in regards to the amount that students comprehend the materials. The
proposed alternative is one in which students do homework in class, and watch online lectures on
their own time.
Some keywords used are ed-tech ecosystem, flipped classroom, and flipped model
 Questions to promote further discussion: What are some other classroom models that
may have the same result?, Is there an even more efficient teaching method to be discovered?,
and How could this be implemented into different majors and areas of study?

Wasting Time on the Internet 101

The rhetorical situation of this text is an online magazine article discussing a professors
perspective on plagiarism on college campuses.
The claims made by the author are that the current system of writing and plagiarism is
outdated and very rigid. The author also claims that students today need to be educated not only
on what to include in their writing, but what to leave out.
Some keywords used are plagiarism, patchwriting, and paradigm shift
Questions to promote further inquiry: How was the internet changed writing?, Is it ethical
to have a class dedicated to not properly giving credit to authors, ie: promoting plagiarism, and
Is the concept of plagiarism as well know it, outdated?