Sarah Butch

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D. Borowiak
English 111
21 September 2014
John Taggs Why Learn
John Taggs Why Learn? forces educators to ask themselves the question, Are we
teaching our students to grub for grades or how to learn in deep and lasting ways? Throughout
this article Tagg argues that students reap what they sow, meaning that students get out of
education what they put into it. Tagg compares and contrasts different forms of learning
throughout the article using specific examples from real life, students, and professors.
John Tagg is Professor of Art History and Comparative Literature at Binghamton
University. This gives him his credentials in this piece. It is easy for readers to believe what
Tagg says because of his status in the workforce. Tagg, being an educator, means that he has
experience with students and recognizes they ways in which they learn.
Tagg begins his article by putting the reader in the position of being an educator who is
faced with a dilemma. He uses two students as examples in this piece. Jill, who after failing your
class, ended up further pursuing her interest in the material. And Jack, who passed your class
with an A, but didnt deeply understand the material. Tagg asks the reader which student gave
them the most satisfaction. This technique establishes he point Tagg is trying to get across
throughout the article. Do students really learn the material or are they just memorizing it until
they don't need it anymore? He asks which student confirms that you have achieve what you
wanted as a teacher? This is what

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the article is about and what Tagg is trying to get the reader to question. The purpose of this
article is very clear. Tagg repetitively asks questions concerning who is the better student. Using
the two students as examples helps the reader to understand the exact circumstances that made
Tagg question the ways in which students learn.
It is clear that educators and students are the audience in this piece. Tagg directly asks the
reader to imagine they are a college educator. This indicates that this piece involves education.
Tagg asks what should our students value?, what do we want?. This shows that educators
and students should have these questions in mind. Since he talks about the importance of
students putting forth the effort to deeply understand the school work, and teachers teaching in a
way that helps students learn better, it is obvious that Tagg is trying to get students and teachers
to be aware and take consideration of the point he is trying to get across.
Tagg uses examples from other college professors, physicists, psychologists, and
scholars. This increases his credibility to the reader. Knowing that Tagg got information from
respected resources gives the reader reassurance the the information is valid. He incorporated
information from Ference Marton and Roger Slj, two Swedish scholars. These scholars
explored the same problem Tagg was trying to solve. They attempted to differentiate the two
different forms of learning: qualitatively and quantitively. Qualitative, meaning a deep
understanding of the material, and qualitative, meaning converting knowledge into numbers. Jill
is a quantitative learning while Jack is quantitative. Using Marton and Sljs ideas, Tagg helped
the reader to better understand the idea of his article. This helped the reader decide who was a
better student. Also, having quotes from students helped the reader get an idea of how
quantitative students learn. On page five of the article, Tagg inserts quotes from Marton and

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Sljs interviews with students. These quotes ranged from students like Jack, to students like
Jill. This showed the reader real-life instances of qualitative versus quantitative learning.
Taggs tone throughout the article was one of great concern. He portrayed the issue of
enriching the student learning learning experience in a way that seemed very important to him. In
the beginning of the article where Tagg is describing the dilemma concerning the two students,
he explained how much it bothered him that one student passed but learned nothing and how the
other student flunked but continued to learn and deeply understand the material. This put the
reader in the mind of the professor. Using this technique, Tagg engaged the reader and
emotionally invested them into the topic. This was a great use of pathos.
While asking the question of who the better student is, Tagg takes both sides of the
argument. He takes Jills side, implying that Jill is the better student. He supports this by saying
The learning experience Jill had in your class continued after the class was over, changed her
understanding, affected her decisions, her ideas, and her behavior, and continued to do so a year
later. Jill carried the learning away with her and made other own. Jack, from what little evidence
you have, left it behind. He takes her side multiple times throughout the article. He also, though,
takes Jacks side and writes, As you made your way across the quad after your two chance
encounters you had reflected on the paradox that, from the point of view of the institution where
you work, Jack is the better students. Although its the institutions point of view, Tagg
acknowledges that Jacks way of learning is common and acceptable in the college world. Tagg
did a adequate job in acknowledging different point of views this article would bring up.
The word choice Tagg uses in the article gives the reader insight on the specific ways that
certain students learn. Using terms such as qualitative, quantitative, incremental theorists, and
entity theorists opens up the readers mind to ideas that they might have never heard of. Tagg

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provided lots of information in the article from other sources to further help the reader grasp the
purpose of the article.
Tagg did an exceptional job getting the reader to consider the question asking, Are we
teaching our students to grub for grades or how to learn in deep and lasting ways?. Using real
life examples, and examples from other educators gave the reader more insight on the topic. It
was very clear that students and educators were the audience because of the topic Tagg chose to
write about. His word choice helped support the point he was trying to get across to students and
educators. I believe Tagg did a remarkable job in getting the reader to question the way students
learn in todays world. His topic was backed up by quality information that gave the reader a
complete understanding of the issue.