Response to Articles #2

After reading more of the New York Times articles two of them stuck out to me. They both touched upon the same idea, tips and hints as to how to get through college. The first one, “The Hunt for a Good Teacher” gave two tips. The first was to find good teachers, this is crucial to me because I usually need to be able to talk to my professors. I once got a D in a class and had to switch down to an easier level , not because I wasn’t smart enough, but because whenever I would try to talk to my teacher he would completely ignore me. It began to be so frustrating that I just gave up completely. This wasn’t the best way of dealing with the situation. The other advice in the article was that I should take a writing course.  I think at Southern we have to take writing classes as curriculum but the author advised it even if we don’t have to.  I found the last line of the text kind of funny. I think that the author put this in to lighten the mood. Usually when you’re a freshman you’re really excited but also nervous for classes. This line was especially needed after the authors line about not being able to do anything if you can’t write a good English sentence. This is a little bit drastic considering your born and able to breathe and not able to write a sentence. I get what the author means however, the standard English sentence is a major building block in being able to do many things. The other article that I read has more to do with the other side of college, the social one. In “Off-Campus Life” the author discusses how reading a newspaper can teach you lots of things about the word but what I found to be most interesting is how it can teach you how to write also. I never really thought of a newspaper as a writing tool but it makes sense. People say all the time that reading books can make you smarter and especially increase your vocabulary. Another thing that the author mentioned was that we should meet teachers outside of class to build a connection with the real world not just class. Making a connection with teachers outside of class is really important. I know in high school I was close with a few teachers and it became really helpful because I was able to turn to them if I needed help. These two articles together show how college is about more than academics it’s about being connected and social also.