Read and response

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Response to Reading
Question One
To establish that there is a problem with the grading system at higher learning institutions, Primack relates his encounter with a student who felt entitled to an A grade despite not having performed well in the course. He also confirms that he awarded the student who deserved a C-plus or B-minus a generous B-plain because he didn’t want to get a complaint from the student if he awarded the grade that the student deserved as evident in the quote from the text. “At least, I wouldn’t get a complaint about this grade (Primack 2).” Primack’s approach to establishing the existence of a problem is more persuasive than Rojstaczer’s approach. This approach puts him in the position of someone with firsthand experience with the problem and grants him more authority to discuss it.
Question Two
In his discussion, Primack introduces a counter argument used by most university leaders to defend the rising grades. He uses the example of the UMass spokesman who says “Essentially, the profile of the population has changed over time so we don’t consider this to be grade inflation (Primack 2).” I am not persuaded by this argument because the said improvements in the student population profile do not reflect in their abilities once they clear their studies. If it is true that students have become smatter, then we would have smatter professionals in their various fields. However, this is not the case since more than 50% of the students who graduate with ‘A’ grades are incompetent at the jobs for which they trained (Rojstaczer 1).

Question Three
From the two arguments, I have identified two strategies of developing arguments. Primack develops his argument by relating personal experience while Jorstaczer uses statistics to develop his argument. I would apply these strategies to develop my argument.

Works Cited
Primack, Phil. “Doesn’t Anybody Get a C Anymore?.” Boston Globe 5 (2008).
Rojstaczer, Stuart. “Grade inflation gone wild.” The Christian Science Monitor (2009).