REAding As A WRiTER: AnAlyzing A TExT RHEToRiCAlly 37to think about an issue, to change our opinions? Does the writer want to
make us aware of a problem that we may not have recognized? Does the
writer advocate for some type of change? Or is some combination of all
three at work?
Hirsch’s main purpose is to promote educational reforms that will
produce a higher degree of literacy for all citizens. He begins his argument
with a broad statement about the importance of cultural literacy: “Cul -
tural literacy constitutes the only sure avenue of opportunity for disadvan-
taged children, the only reliable way of combating the social determinism
that now condemns them to remain in the same social and educational
condition as their parents” (para. 1). As his argument unfolds, his purpose
continues to unfold as well. He identifies the schools as a source of the
problem and suggests how they must change to promote literacy:
Some say that our schools by themselves are powerless to change the cycle of
poverty and illiteracy. I do not agree. They can break the cycle, but only if they
themselves break fundamentally with some of the theories and practices that
education professors and school administrators have followed over the past
fifty years. (para. 1)
The “educational goal,” Hirsch declares at the end of paragraph 2, is
“mature literacy for all our citizens.” To reach that goal, he insists, educa-
tion must break with the past. In paragraphs 5 through 11, he cites the
influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey, and Plato, tracing what
he sees as the educational legacies of the past. Finally, in the last paragraph
of the excerpt, Hirsch describes an “anthropological view,... the universal
fact that a human group must have effective communications to function
effectively, that effective communications require shared culture, and that
shared culture requires transmission of specific information to children.”
It is here, Hirsch argues, in the “transmission of specific information to
children,” that schools must do a better job.■ (^) identify the Writer’s claims
Claims are assertions that authors must justify and support with evidence
and good reasons. The thesis, or main claim, is the controlling idea that
crystallizes a writer’s main point, helping readers track the idea as it devel-
ops throughout the essay. A writer’s purpose clearly influences the way he
or she crafts the main claim of an argument, the way he or she presents all
assertions and evidence.
Hirsch’s main claim is that “cultural literacy constitutes the only sure
avenue of opportunity for disadvantaged children, the only reliable way
of combating the social determinism that now condemns them to remain
in the same social and educational condition as their parents” (para. 1).
Notice that his thesis also points to a solution: making cultural literacy the
core of public school curricula. Here we distinguish the main claim, or the-
sis, from the other claims or assertions that Hirsch makes. For example, at
the very outset, Hirsch states that “to be culturally literate is to possess the
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