Title: Reading: (CU3 M3) Becoming Educated
Course: SkillsCom WR 121 16.0 > Section: Credit Unit 3 Module 3

All of the instruction and guidance offered in Credit Unit 3 is designed to help you write stronger, more persuasive essays. The first essay you will be reading in Module 3 is called “On Becoming Educated” (Webpage) by Joy Castro. Read pages 93 to 101.

If prompted, your login information is:

- Username: iLearn
- Password: 2015

Let’s do some thinking about this essay before you begin reading. The title would lead you to believe this essay might be a simple discourse (Webpage) on what it means to become an educated person. In some sense, that meaning can be discovered if one were to analyze this essay thoroughly. Joy’s purpose in this essay is not only to discuss what it means to become educated, but to challenge her audience to ponder some questions: Who do we believe should be invited to become educated?  Who are we actually (as exhibited in our policies and behavior) inviting?

Joy Castro is not shy about being persuasive in this essay. Your job, if you want your time in the Self-check to go smoothly, is to read this essay closely enough that you understand who the members of Castro’s audience are and what she is hoping to persuade them to think or do. She may have multiple audiences and certainly different people will be moved by her essay in different ways, but notice what groups she identifies herself as being aligned with and you will have an easier time answering questions about her purpose here. Who is she trying to persuade?  What is she trying to persuade them to think or do?

As you read, you may well run into language that you have never heard before. You are encouraged to use a dictionary to look up any words with which you are unfamiliar, or you can use this dictionary by opening it up in another window as you work:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page (Webpage)