ASAlochblog

 

Shevantai Gooden, Amir Arnold and Andreana Clark

Dr. Cantice Greene

English 1101

15 March 2022

Rhetorical Reading Response on “Does Going to College Mean Becoming Someone New?”

            In the personal essay “Does Going to College Mean Becoming Someone New,” written by Kevin Davis, the author investigates whether college requires you to change who are or not. Davis supports his thoughts on the subject by giving evidence. The author cited the works of researchers in order to provide the evidence needed to support his points. The intended audience of the essay are college students.

            I agree with Davis’ point that going to college does mean becoming someone new because there are certain aspects of yourself that you must change to fit into a college environment. I related to the author when he says that what was expected of him in high school was much different from what was expected from him in college. In college, we are expected to think analytically about topics and always be sure to support our ideas. Everything has to be fact based and proficient while in high school, it was much easier. The sources cited by the author were a great way to convince his audience. He cited many researches on the topic which helped me as a reader to feel confident when agreeing with his points because I know they are well supported with research.   

            In the essay, Davis argued the point that going to college was requiring him to become someone new. Evidence of this can be seen where the author says, “Right from the start, it was clear that if I was to become a member of the English- majors community, I had to do more than read and think and write; I had to turn into someone new.” Davis had love for English and this made him want to major in the subject but after seeing how different it was from high school and what was expected from him, he lost interest. The English-major would require him to think analytically, like his professors did, rather than in a personal way. He was comfortable with thinking and writing from a personal perspective and when he saw that this was not what was expected, he did not want to change. The author wants the audience to feel understood. He wants college students to know that he understands the struggle they face when transitioning from a high school mindset to a college mindset. He wants them to know that he too was once asked to change but he refused to because he said, “I found that I didn’t like the someone new I was being asked to become,” (Davis). In this essay, the author repeatedly gave evidence of researches that were conducted which support his point. The author does this to persuade his audience into agreeing with him. An example of this is shown where the author said, “Another research project, completed by Lucille McCarthy (1987), studied one student as he learned to negotiate his way through new discourse communities in several different freshman and sophomore courses.” Davis used rhetorical questions as one of his techniques in developing his essay. The author asked rhetorical questions such as, “Could individuals only join communities that endorsed their native ways of thinking?” to provoke the thoughts of his audience so that they can engage with his essay. A chronological order of development can be seen throughout this essay. The author uses this order to develop his essay so that the audience can get a clear sequence of events. This order provides clarity and allows readers to read the essay with ease.

Davis, Kevin. "Does Going to College Mean Becoming Someone New?" Connections: Guide to First Year Writing @ Clayton State University. Ed. Mary Lamb. 9th Edition. South Lake: 2019.