Mackenzie Goss
WRT 150
Professor Rinke
10-24-11
Dave Eggers discusses in the article, “Serve or Fail,” that all college students in a four-year university should be required to fulfill community service hours. He believes strongly in community service. He also discusses how college students have a lot more time on their hands then they did when they were in high school and feels that the extra time should be used doing community service. His last main point in the article states that community service transforms a person. The person will most likely walk away changed and willing to volunteer in the future.
The thesis or summary of the article would be that college students should volunteer because it is a life long lesson. If every college students had to volunteer, the thousands of towns and cities could be helped out a lot because of the volunteers. I feel that Dave Eggers shows his opinion and bias in this article. He did a lot of community service while he was in college and feels that he transformed because of it. He truly believes in community service and feels like everyone should be required to do it.
The editorial, “Service Learning More than a Fad”, discusses many reasons why Minnesota’s colleges should be apart of service learning. This service learning could include students and faculty, leaving campus to tutor or mentor younger students, deliver meals to the homebound or coach would-be entrepreneurs. One of the main points to this article is that students learn better when they are learning through real-world activities. The last thing that the article argues is that people have lost the sense that everyone can contribute and help out around the community.
The summary or thesis from this article is that service learning is important. It helps people learn through hands on experiences and gives people the opportunity to make a difference and be involved with the community. The author uses persuasive techniques in their writing by pathos. She makes the reader feel like it is their duty to contribute to the community and get involved.
In the third article, “How to reduce student dropout rates: link volunteering to studies”, by the Monitor's Editorial Board says that volunteering can decrease student dropout rates. The second point made in this article is that service learning is linked with academic instruction and students can reflect on a certain project. The final point made in the article is that service learning can help students relate their schoolwork to the real world and will keep students wanting to go to school.
The summary or thesis of this article is that service learning can ultimately decrease dropout rates by keeping the students engaged with learning and their schoolwork. The author uses logos to persuade the audience. The author uses a ton of statistics that could get the reader thinking about how well service learning works and how it decreases drop out rates.
If the authors of each article came together the main thesis would be that volunteering could potentially benefit the person and the community. They may also agree that service learning directly relates learning with real world experiences. Lastly, they may agree that volunteering/service learning should be required for all students. I agree with the fact that volunteering could change a person. People who do not experience volunteering may not understand what it is like to help out a community or people in bad situations. I do not agree that students should be required to complete community service hours. No matter if someone is a high school student or a college student, everyone has their own schedules and most people are busy. They should not have to take time off of work, sports, or other activities to volunteer.
I would have to say that the authors talk about basically the same topics. They all discuss how it is beneficial for students to be involved in service learning or volunteering. They may disagree on the age that students should be required to start service learning or volunteering because two articles talk about it being required in college and the other article thinks its beneficial at an even early age such as high school.
