74 CHAPTER 3 | FRom IdEnTIFyIng ClAIms To AnAlyzIng ARgumEnTsWriting has evolved, and will evolve. And with it reading changes.
From clay tablets designed to record debts to bronze proclamations of
kings and emperors, from bamboo strips recording rituals to complex
philosophical arguments on paper, from paintings for the royal afterlife
to paperback novels, from stone tablets proclaiming a new moral code
to infinitesimal elements on a shiny handheld device — from its origins,
writing has transformed, and will continue to change. It is not entirely
that the medium is the message, but the medium affects the message.
Since humans are the ones doing the writing, we get the writing that
suits our purposes.
We are all getting a front-row seat to a sudden change in medium, and
therefore in writing and reading. What a quick and shocking ride this is!
Read all about it!Grade inflation Gone Wild
A former professor of geophysics at Duke University with a PhD in applied
earth sciences, Stuart Rojstaczer has written or coauthored many geo-
logical studies in his career as a scientist. He has also published a book,
Gone for Good: Tales of University Life After the Golden Age (1999), and
numer ous articles on higher education and grading. He is the creator of
gradeinflation.com, where he posts a variety of charts and graphs chron-
icling his data about grade inflation. This op-ed piece appeared in the
Christian Science Monitor on March 24, 2009.
■ ■ ■sTUarT rojsTaCzerAnalyzing and comparing Arguments
As an academic writer, you will often need to compare disparate claims
and evidence from multiple arguments addressing the same topic. Rarely,
however, will those arguments be simplistic pro/con pairs meant to rep-
resent two opposing sides to an issue. Certainly the news media thrive on
such black-and-white conflict, but academic writers seek greater com-
plexity and do not expect to find simple answers. Analyzing and compar-
ing essays on the same topic or issue will often reveal the ways writers
work with similar evidence to come up with different, and not necessarily
opposed, arguments.
The next two selections are arguments about grade inflation. Both are
brief, and we recommend you read through them quickly as a prelude to
the activity in analyzing and comparing arguments that follows them. As
you read, try to note their claims, the reasons used to support them, con-
cessions, and counterarguments.21222303_GRE_5344_Ch3_055_079.indd 74 11/19/14 11:06 AM