Pre-writing for essay 2

1. Introduce and summarize the article you have chosen to respond to:

“From the Daily: Rising expectations” by The Michigan Daily

Tuition increases every year, which causes reasonable concern from students how their tuition is spent. While considerable amount of tuition is spent by yearly salary for University employee, tuition should be used to provide better education and direct benefit for the students. Salary increase is necessary to retain the best faculty and staff; however as the government funding sharply decreased, a large portion of faculty’s salaries come from the students’ tuition. The University needs to ensure the tuition spending should be necessary and in students’ best interest.

2. Isolate the different elements of the article:

a. What is the issue?

-The effective and proper use of students’ tuition.

b. What is the author’s opinion on this issue? Do they have one?

-Tuition fee should be directly used for students to provide the best education quality. University should ensure all types of spending increase are in students’ best interest.

c. What kind of information does the author use to advance their point? Does the author cite factual information? Or rely primarily on anecdotal evidence?

- Salary increase of executive officers shows that the tuition is ineffectively used. Although faculty and staff members received lower salary increase than last year, executive officers received higher salary increase than last year. Mary Sue Coleman, the president of the University of Michigan, sent letter to President Obama insisting affordable higher education; however salary increase of executive officers contradicts her assertion.

The author does not mention where he/she got the information. But the author presents the factual information to advocate his/her view.

3. Your opinion: Based on your research, how do you feel about the issue?

a. Do you agree or disagree with the author?

- I strongly agree with the author; the tuition must be used in students’ best interest. The tuition cost for higher education is extremely high, which hinders some students from attending or even applying for the school. Thus, the university should take a responsibility for spending the tuition to provide the best quality education for students.

b. What kinds of information inform your opinion?

-Since I am triplet from international country, my parents should pay incredible amount of tuition fee for the university education. We barely pay the tuition fee and experienced a hardship for paying the massive tuition fee. And if the university spends the tuition fee not for the students, it would be incredibly disappointing. Of course the salary is necessary for maintaining faculty and staff members, but when faculty and staff members sacrifice their financial benefits for students, the executive officers should also share the sacrifice, not increasing their financial benefit.

c. What do you hope to communicate in your letter to the editor?

-I hope the author should make more thorough assertion through well-supported evidences and deeper analysis. Although I strongly agree with the author’s assertion, the author should strongly delve into the issue. For example, when the author states the salary increase of faculty & staff members and executive officers, the author should state the source to make it more reliable. Moreover, other issues concerning the tuition cost of higher education give the university heavier responsibility of spending the tuition.

4. What kinds of evidence will you use to support your points?

-I will incorporate factual, opinion-based, and scholarly articles to support my view. Factual article will provide me with factual information to thoroughly gain the understanding of the issue without any biased perspective. On the other hand, opinion-based articles will provide me with the various perspectives toward the issue. Opinion-based articles can provide me with open-perspective toward the issue and also the critical perspective toward the issue. The scholarly journal gives combined information; factual information with biased perspective. It supports its claim with factual study it has conducted.