Presentation Transcript

1. Don’t listen to those scary tales of student loan woeBy Christopher Shea

   Ariana Parrish FaruzBilochenko Stefano Dicenso SheshnaVinay
2. Vocab Condemned: To express strong disapproval of. Consumer Reports: American magazine that publishes reviews and comparisons of consumer products and services. Newsweek: American weekly news magazine since 1933. Anecdote: A short account of a particular incident or event, especially of an interesting or amusing nature. Dire: Causing or involving great fear or suffering; dreadful. Assets: A useful and desirable thing or quality. Item having exchange value.
3. Vocab Cont. Recession: A period of an economic contraction, sometimes limited in a scope of duration. Conspicuously: Easily seen or noticed. Refutes: To prove to be false or erroneous, as an option or change. Prevailing: Predominant, having superior power. Woe: An affliction. Christopher Avery: Harvard professor of Public Policy including microeconomics. Sarah Turner: An economist and professor at the University f Virginia.
4. Vocab Cont. Journal of Economic Perspective: Economic journal published by the American Economic Association. Two-pronged: Having two prongs. In context 2 pronged being his approach has two parts to it. Pew Research Center: American “think tank” based in Washington D.C. that provides success shaping the U.S. Skewed: A sudden change in direction. Amassed: Gather together or accumulate.
5. Vocab Cont. Median: Denoting or relating to a value or quantity lying at the midpoint of a frequency distribution of observed values or quantities, such that there is an equal probability of falling above or below it. Goucher College:  a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Townson  in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland. Townson: Towson is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, U.S. Yale University: An ivy league university in Connecticut Scrutiny: Critical observation or examination.
6. Vocab Cont. Outlier: A person or thing situated away or denoted from the main body or system. Undue: Unwarranted or inappropriate because excessive or disproportionate. Grant: To give; bestow. Potent: Powerful Justin Wolfers: A professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan. Recession Proof: Not susceptible to an economic recession. Bureau of Labor Statistics: A government agency that produces economic data the reflects the state of the U.S. economy. Frugality: The quality of being economical with money; thriftiness.
7. Structure of Argument Organized into two parts: Appeal to emotions, conversational, informal at first Turns into formal and laden with statistics until the end Explicit Thesis Near the end of the article “Wouldn’t you consider taking out a $20,000 or $30,000 loan- the cost of a Honda Accord with a few options- for that kind of return [$600,000 more in a lifetime compared to high school graduates]” “One in six at four-year schools who qualify for student loans do not take them out…but many of those students rack up high-interest credit card debt Structure: First part designed to appeal to the audience’s opinions and emotions to get them hooked and interested Second part designed to convince the reader of the author’s opinion with the facts and statistics
8. Diction & Tone Well educated, Conversational register for the first half Formal register for the second half Tone: informative, straight-forward, unambiguous, disapproving Repetition: “college”, “loans”, “debt” Tone shift: seventh paragraph, “Among households with college debt…” Shifts from conversational and sympathetic to factual
9. PAPA Analysis Persona: Writer for the Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, Chronicle of Higher Education, disagrees with the for-profit colleges, pro-higher education, middle-high class. Evidence: “with monthly payments of $210 or so-without undue strain” “all the dire talk about debt overload can scare off young people for whom education debt can have huge long-term payoffs”
10. PAPA Analysis Cont. Audience: Students about to go to college, students hesitant about college, low-middle class students, parents, students considering taking out a loan for college. Evidence: “many middle-class or poorer kids get grants” “tales of…loan payments for decades to come” “but research economists refutes the prevailing tales of woe” “debts are lower than the average prospective student has been led to believe”
11. PAPA Analysis Cont. Purpose: to convince people that going to college is the right decision, even if it means taking out a loan. Evidence: “Wouldn’t you consider taking out a loan…for that kind of return?” “’not only does a college degree give you a higher stream of income, but it’s more recession-proof’”
12. PAPA Analysis Cont. Argument: going to college is always the best option, and prepares you better for the future and leaves you with a better life Evidence: “it’s almost always well worth what it does cost…[and if you] study something that actually helps lead to a job” “college needn’t come with mounds of debt” “for men who graduated in 2008, the lifetime earnings advantage…ballooned to $600,000 [compared to those with only a high school diploma]”
13. Syntax & Overall Structure Syntax: Use of dashes in place of parentheses to add more conversational anecdotes Most sentences are same length Differences in paragraph length Shortest: one sentence Longest: five Overall structure: First six paragraphs conversational, introducing the idea of college and college debt to appeal to the reader, which leaves room for interpretation of the facts and opinions Last twelve paragraphs extremely opinionated, informational, and with the use of the statistics, does not leave the reader much room for another opinion besides the author’s
14. Discussion Questions 1. How deeply has the idea of accumulating debt in order to go to college become engrained in our society? Do you think if a solution was offered that the American people would readily adopt this plan, or that since they are so entrenched in the idea of college, being paired to debt that the idea would be pushed aside and nothing would change? Based on your answers what do you think is most valued when it comes to a college education? 2. Does article7 or article 8 have a more convincing argument? And which course of action seems, in your opinion, most sensible?
15. Discussion Questions Cont. 3. Heuvel's argument on the nature of student loan debt in paragraph four of article 7 is nearly the opposite of Shea's claims in paragraph 5 of article 8 which says that "Research by Economists refutes the prevailing tales of woe." Which of the two most accurately represents the loan debt issue in your opinion and why do you think we can trust that article? Can we trust either?