Arguing Academic Merit: Meritocracy and the Rhetoric of the Personal Statement.
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Author(s): Alvarez, Steven
This article presents a pedagogical model for a sequence of first-year composition (FYC) assignments that encourages students' first-hand interpretations as insiders into the workings of educational meritocracy. I focus on how students negotiate the personal statement, an institutionally privileged genre for the discovery and definition of individual differences, characteristics, and aptitudes. I offer a Bourdiesian model of analysis of the rhetorical tactics students use to legitimate their cultural capital as academic merit. The tactics students enact become topoi for their own rhetorical analyses and arguments, which prove significant when competing for institutional resources.
ERIC Descriptors: Governance; Intelligence; Ability; Social Systems; College Freshmen; Writing (Composition); Personal Narratives; Ethnography; Writing Assignments; Essays; Reflection; Planning; Portfolios (Background Materials); Rhetoric; Discourse Modes
Publisher: Kingsborough Community College City University of New York. Available from: Boyd Printing Company, Inc. 49 Sheridan Avenue, Albany, NY 12210. Tel: 800-877-2693; Tel: 518-436-9686; e-mail: info@boydprinting.com; Web site: http://www.boydprinting.com
Source: Journal of Basic Writing
ERIC Citation: v31 n2 p32-56 Fall 2012
ERIC Number: EJ1053237
Peer reviewed
Record Type: Journal
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISSN: ISSN-0147-1635
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
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Author: | Alvarez, Steven |
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Publication: | Journal of Basic Writing |
Article Type: | Report |
Geographic Code: | 1USA |
Date: | Sep 22, 2012 |
Words: | 292 |
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