Ong 1

Keane Ong
Stacc English 100
Professor Gabrielsson
September 16, 2014
RR #1: Stress
The metaphor tells us about how a university is more like a mall. Due to the variety of
classes the student can pick compared to when the author was in college and was given a specific
class without any choices, but sometimes we are not allowed to get certain classes due to too
many students already in the class so unlike a mall we are not allowed to buy whatever we
wanted to. Having more choices leads to students deciding if they should take the class or wait
for next semester as well as all the variety of teachers we are allowed to choose from causes a lot
of stress leading to a decrease in well-being. The school should train its entire staff so that they
will all teach the same thing the same way as every other teacher so that the only difference
would be their personalities. Schwartz does not mention students taking the same class until the
2nd to last paragraph just to prove a point. Yes, I believe Schwartz would recommend it, but the
problem is the students willing to do it or not. I have no argument, because I side with Schwartz
on this topic due to the stress I went through trying to pick classes. The only reason to keep the
university like a shopping mall is the fact that we are all adults. We need to pick for ourselves.
(235)
RR #2: Proofs

Ong 2
Schwartz uses a multitude of evidence in his story, but to make his point he used the
percentage of Americans that were happy compared to those who are very happy today. That
tells us that most people are not happy and that is leading to depression. Another example was of
students with 30 topics to choose from for extra credit compared to those with a fifth of their
choices. His study showed that the students with 30 topics were less likely to do the extra credit
assignment than those with 6 topics. The proof is only there to show the readers the problems of
how the population is feeling. The evidence of our country becoming less happy is the one that is
most convincing, because of all the people working in dead end jobs and those barely making a
living for themselves and their family. He tells us it at that certain spot to prove that his points
were on target, because it happens to everyone since they will choose wrong whenever there is
expectation. (175)