While studying hard and pursuing academic challenges are great, people who commit themselves to the field of knowledge are sometimes referred to as nerds and geeks. These derogatory terms are many times used to make fun of people who are intellectually serious, and these terms often include the social perspective about those people. The author in the passage uses the examples by showing specific cases that America has with the intellectually curious people, asks a rhetorical question by pointing out America’s status in the world, and utilizes logos by logically explaining the reason people should respect the intellectual people to claim that America should stop disregarding “nerds” since academically serious people are crucial in the society.
Firstly, the author’s usage of examples effectively contributes to his claim. The author firstly talks about the situation at Harvard in order to show how the culture of America makes people difficult to accept their intellectual activity. The author claims that “Anti-intellectualism is rampant” because many students are not willing to admit that they are studying. This shows that the current culture makes intellectual people difficult to further carry out their study, and thus effectively builds up his argument about how they should culturally stop disregarding intellectually curious people. The author also claims that America’s elementary and high school students who prefer to study instead of doing active sports become social outcasts. This also shows how people are disregarding “nerds” even from a young age, and shows the seriousness of the problem in current American society. Therefore, this effectively supports the author’s claim.
Secondly, the author’s usage of a rhetorical question also effectively supports his claim. To be specific, the author’s second to the last paragraph is all consisted of rhetorical questions. By questioning how America could be the leading country in means of technology when people disregard intellectually curious people, the author builds up his argument of how those people are crucial in society. This rhetorical question directly compares America to other countries such as Europe and mentions about the possibility of America being less powerful than other countries in the fields of technological development, and therefore effectively builds up his claim about how they are crucial in society. Moreover, in the last paragraph, the author directly uses the word “world-class power” to question the possibility of America becoming great without intellectual people. Thus, this rhetorical question also supports his claim of how it’s important to keep supporting those people. This was effectively done by overall questioning America’s power in the international society.
Thirdly, the author uses logos to logically explain why America should stop disregarding the intellectual people. The author talks about the definition of “geek” in order to logically show why those words shouldn’t be used frequently in the society. Moreover, the author logically compares the situation that students face in countries of East Asia, and America. The author mentions how the students in East Asia are upheld when they study hard, while students in America are upheld when they play professional sports. While this compares countries’ situations and shows that America is not taking a usual route in treating intellectual people, it doesn’t effectively support his claim. This logical comparison shows the countries’ differences, not superiority. If the author has talked about how those East Asian countries became economically superior with more intellectual people, it would have been a better example.
Overall, the author’s usage of examples by showing specific cases that America has with the intellectually curious people, rhetorical question by pointing out America’s status in the world, logos by logically explaining the reason people should respect the intellectual people contributes to his claim: America should stop disregarding “nerds” since academically serious people are crucial in the society. However, he could have been more precise in giving out his evidence so that the reader could directly see America’s cultural and social situation in international society.
Works Cited
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/11/opinion/voices-of-the-new-generation-america-needs-its-nerds.html
Writer: Jessy Kim
