write 2 peer evaluation each for 200 words

Keith Nowicki

PAGE 2

Bluffed my Way Through College

Writing to describe, summarize and respond to the article How I Bluffed My Way Through College to my professor and classmates is definitely something that feels unnatural for a 1st year English class in 2015 at Ivy Tech. It feels unnatural because of the context within the article. The writer is telling her story of educational days starting in middle school and working her way all the way through college and graduating with an English major. Sounds like a normal story right? You would think so but she is constantly telling us about how she chose not to work hard or stay dedicated to her work and yet in the end she graduates and feels as accomplished as the other student in her class, she describes her lack of effort and attempts to justify it by saying “I knew how thrilling books could be, and I was appalled by the notion that the most ostensibly worthwhile readying – i.e., the kind we were assigned – should feel like eating literary vegetables.

The author continues to describe different areas of her schooling and how she felt about the assignments and readings based on her own interests rather than by trying to be successful in the task at hand. She describes this by saying “I wasn’t anti-assignment when the books on the syllabus felt relevant and vital to me.” I truly believe that this author must have been truly gifted to be able to take such a terrible attitude toward the education system and still graduate. It is truly sad when you think about all of the things she likely could have accomplished on an academic and professional level if she had the drive and determination to be successful instead of only working when she wanted.

The author describes some of the hard times when this method of not putting in the effort to be successful but rather to barely get by finally caught up with her. This is mentioned by the author who was very excited to call her mom when she was overseas instead of having a happy conversations about how the trip was going and the sights she may have seen mom was only interested in why she was on academic probation. Her mom is so furious she doesn’t even acknowledge that she is in a foreign land and may need someone to talk to because she is blinded by trying to get what’s best for her daughter. In the end the girl talks about graduation day and how she had finally made it to the great equalizer where her lack of effort would pay off by being on the same level. She then mentions her GPA being a 1.56 and I quickly realized she must not realize GPA is always going to be looked at when entering the workforce so she was still not equal to those who had put in the effort.

My reaction to this article is that I am appalled by the attitude that the writer displays and it really makes you realize what is wrong with some people. They cannot be motivated by anything they choose to not be interested in. The author was very close on multiple occasions to flunking out of school and ruining her future because she seems to think of herself as too good for the school work. If you learn to put in the effort to be successful you will quickly find that this is much more rewarding than the free time you may gain by blowing it off. I don’t think this is an appropriate article to have freshmen students reading as it is extremely un-motivational.