Question 1 (20 points)

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Please read the following article and follow the instructions at the end.

Tough Competition: Why Colleges Should Eliminate Scholarships and Awards

by Anita Kohn

College students want their academic accomplishments to be appreciated and

recognized, so every year colleges celebrate the dedication and commitment of their best students by presenting them with scholarships and awards. Fanshawe College,

for example, organizes several awards ceremonies to recognize the achievements of

students from various programs. However, while scholarships and awards seem to

provide students with the encouragement and support necessary to succeed in

college, they also cause problems that students, educators, and administrators often ignore. In fact, colleges like Fanshawe would create a more positive learning environment for their students if they decided to completely eliminate scholarships and awards.

Scholarships and awards encourage competition among students-and competition makes students selfish rather than cooperative. Everyone will agree that students learn best when they work together and help each other; however, students who want to win scholarships and awards must achieve higher grades than their peers, so many students focus on completing their own work instead of sharing ideas with their classmates. Of more concern, however, is the fact that this kind of competitive learning environment causes students to cheat on tests and plagiarize assignments in order to improve their grades. In short, students become much more and awards.

Furthermore, the most deserving students do not always win scholarships and awards; in fact, many students are at an unfair disadvantage in awards competitions.

For example, some college students work at part-time jobs in order to pay for their tuition, so they have less free time for schoolwork. However, the students who do not

have to work to pay for school have more time to study--and they win more awards because they earn better grades. Although the students who need to work would

benefit more from the financial aid provided by scholarships and awards, they are unable to devote their extra time and energy to improving their chances of winning.

Finally, students who do not win scholarships and awards become discouraged, and, as a result, they often consider withdrawing from their programs. Rather than obtaining self-confidence from the knowledge they have gained and the skills they have acquired, these students focus on their lack of success and convince themselves that they are not ready for college. Unfortunately, when students withdraw from their programs, they are less likely to return to college to complete their diplomas, so they are also less likely to have rewarding and successful careers. Clearly, the failure to win awards causes students to forget why they enrolled in college in the first place.

Education should not be a contest to find out which students can achieve the highest grades and win the most awards. Because scholarships and awards create a negative learning environment for students, fail to recognize the most deserving students, and discourage the students who do not win them, they should be eliminated entirely from the college education system.

Write a multi-paragraph response to the above article. Follow the essay format: introduction, body, and conclusion.

Your response should accurately summarize the author's main argument AND critically respond to it.

You may choose to agree with the author's argument, disagree with it, or partially agree/disagree with it.

Your essay should also consider at least one objection a reader might have to your argument. You may respond to this objection in different ways; for example, you may argue against the objection, or you may acknowledge that the objection is a good point and incorporate it into your argument Paragraph.

write a 5 prompt response including thesis statement.