• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1334 0

article, chapter, or book. But one more step is necessary before we can achieve a penetrating analysis – to write an accurate summary of our understanding. This will focus our attention and permit the close evaluation of the idea. It needn't be very long. A paragraph or two will be adequate I n the great majority of cases. It should include all important assertions, with the central assertion given prominence. It should also include all the qualifying words, connections among assertions, and conditions found in the original. In short, it should be an accurate capsule version of the original. (Remember that there is no room for carelessness in quoting or paraphrasing the original: If it says something may be a certain way, it is not necessarily saying it is that way; similarly, is does not necessarily mean should be.)

RAISING QUESTIONS

After we have summarized an article or book chapter we next should examine it critically, raising all worthwhile questions. (In the case of a newspaper editorial or letter to the editor or a brief comment by a public figure or agency, we can treat the original as we do a summary.) Here is an example of such a summary, followed by the questions raised about it. For ease of reference, each sentence in the paragraph is numbered, and the questions that apply to it are numbered identically.

THE SUMMARY

One of the biggest obstacles to learning – in grade school, high school, and college – is grades.

The fear of bad grades hangs over the heads of young people from the time they are six to the time they are twenty or twenty-two.

Their anxiety to do well, to succeed, to please their parents so fills their minds that all the natural joy in learning evaporates.

As a result, conscientious students are driven to view their school work as oppressive drudgery, and marginal students are tempted to cheat and bluff their way to a degree.

For these reasons I say grades should be abolished at all levels of education.

THE QUESTIONS

Are grades an obstacle to learning? If so, are they at all three levels?

Do any young people between these ages fear bad grades? Do all of them? Is the fear a serious one (as "hangs over the head" implies)?

Is there any natural joy to begin with? For all subject? Do grades cause anxiety? If so, does the anxiety eliminate the joy? For all student?

Do any conscientious students view schoolwork as oppressive drudgery, is it grades that cause them to? Are any marginal students tempted to cheat and bluff? All of them? If some are, is it grades that tempt them to do so?

Would abolishing grades solve all these problems? Some of them? Would it create any additional problems? If so, would the resulting situation be more or less desirable? Would the effects differ at different level of education?

As the example demonstrates, taking the time to ask appropriate questions ahs several benefits. First, it gets us beyond judging on the basis of appearances. That is good, because ideas that might seem appealing to us at first glance may not remain so when we examine them more closely. Second, it protects us from our own visceral reactions, and permits us to get beyond a blanket, overall yes or no and consider the position in its various parts. Even the best thinkers, after all, are human and therefore fallible. So on a complex issue, any statement longer than a sentence or two is likely to be neither perfectly reasonable nor perfectly unreasonable but partly each. And the longer the passage, the greater the likelihood that it is flawed and that we can therefore find both things to agree with and things to disagree with, strengths and weaknesses. Finally, it suggests to us a structure around which to arrange our thoughts.

The answers we develop for the questions we raise will comprise our response to the viewpoint. If we write out our response, we may either follow the organization suggested by the order of the questions or use a different organization. The decision will depend on what order of presentation will make our ideas most coherent and provide the emphasis