Ismael Ouessiegnon
Engl 1102 Section 322–Weaver
MA3 Analysis
Date Due: Wed 3/9/2022
Iouessiegnon1@gsu.edu

Summary:
At Central Michigan University website, they show that they want students to live meaningful and productive lives with careers that they feel show what they can do for society. To do that, the people at CMU hold certain values to help foster student knowledge and education. The website uses some strategies to persuade the reader to have the confidence to either go to or recommend the university to others, but two of the strategies that will be gone over in this essay are Assumptions and Case Studies.

Analysis:
When people first come to the first page, the first assumption that Central Michigan University makes is that the student will find the field that they want to pursue. Scrolling down to the ‘Find Your Program’ section, it reads that CMU has many programs their readers can search for and that they can “find [their] perfect fit here”, showing confidence in the number of their fields and telling the reader that they’ll find something they have an interest in (CMU, home page). Another thing that reinforced the previous statement is on the about page. Upon getting onto the page, most people first see a text box titled ‘About CMU’. The text talks about the great number of programs, division teams, and campus labs at CMU, assuming that the reader is asking themselves what they can do at CMU when they should be asking what they can’t do (CMU, about page). The ideals about the student and their programs continue on their Community page. This page is brimming with reassurances about this university, “If [the student doesn’t] know what [they] want to do, that’s OK. It’s not going to stop [the student] from succeeding” (Quinton Mitchell, Our Community page). They show that they know that students might not know what they want to do or even if the student can’t be on campus, CMU is there for them. The student can still be sure that they can use CMU’s resources to succeed and become the person they want and were meant to be (CMU, Our Community page).
Maybe readers might not resonate with the assumptions that the website makes. In that situation, Central Michigan University uses many other inviting things that make a person want to choose them as their college of choice, such as a case study. A case study is a bundle of research on a certain topic, and the topic here is how CMU leads their students to success and how their students feel about CMU. They have plenty of stories about their students that make people think about their choice of if this is the right place for their audience. These stories readers can find on the first page of the CMU website titled Fired Up And Focused. The first story in the series is about a student majoring in Sports Management, Daniel Folkert. Almost done with his first semester and after his outstanding ticket sales, Daniel Folkert now has no doubts about majoring in sports management. The availability of former successful students at CMU has caused Folkert to push himself to the best of his abilities. Folkert supports this by saying, “When you’re doing group projects that you can see happening for real with an NBA, NFL or MLB team, it makes you have to be comfortable leading a team”(Folkert, Fired Up And Focused page). CMU uses this story to point out how their programs have students using real experience to support them and their passion. The second story is about a Biology student researcher named Safiyah Teran-Sari Ali. The story details how Safiyah Ali was offered a program that aids first-generation students like her in getting their Ph.D. Ali was also thankful for her professor Dr. Xantha Karp and her help with Name’s research project on genetics. At the end of the biography, Ali says that “The community here is built so you can encourage students from different backgrounds no matter their gender, race, ethnicity or sexuality”(Ali, Fired Up And Focused page). This supports that CMU is a place where many types of people can find their success no matter their identity.

Response:
Now that we discuss how CMU makes you think about its college, I wanted to discuss what I think about the college and what challenges I would have to face if I considered going to it. I think if I had the choice of going to CMU, I believe I would, provided if we don’t have extra factors to consider. It seems like a good university to go to and the campus looks nice. If I lived in Michigan, it would definitely be a good choice. But look at those extra factors, I don’t think I would want to on the basic fact alone that it’s not in Georgia. I don’t want the cost to be too much for my family and I would like to stay with them for now rather than live on campus. Speaking of costs, the tuition at CMU is more than the tuition at GSU. I already sort of worry about how I’m going to pay my debt when I graduate, I don’t want to get more worried. So based on the location and costs, I don’t think it’s realistic that I can go and I’m much more comfortable and at peace with my choice here at GSU anyway but it is a nice thought to think about.

“CMU Chippewas | Mount Pleasant, MI | Central Michigan University.” CMichSitefinity, www.cmich.edu/home. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.

This post is my profile on the student, James Swank. This profile is an account of the notes I’ve taken when interviewing Swank over the phone, and the other information I’ve gotten from documents sent to me. James is currently at this time a 2-year student attending Georgia State University at perimeter college, living with roommates in his own quarters. James chose his three words to describe his academic self as, “frustration”, “inconsistent”, and “unrewarding”, but James feels like he probably shouldn’t have chosen those exact words as he feels he should try to have a positive attitude on his academics but had sometimes felt that he wasn’t that happy with school.

James had a bit of a hard time with school during his K through 12 years. When in Kindergarten, he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a medical neurological condition where a person may have trouble focusing on a task and behaving (“What Is ADHD?”), and Dyslexia, a disorder where a person has trouble with decoding words and letters while reading (“Dyslexia – Symptoms and Causes”). There was also a lot of anxiety about succeeding in school, especially coming from standardized testing. When James was a junior in high school, taking the SAT and ACT tests were given and he struggled. There were times when it felt like an absurd amount of time was taking place and there were a lot of worries about passing. All and all, there was a lot of stress during those kinds of tests and so it made it increasingly hard to focus. It wasn’t all bad for James, as soon enough he would mature and help better his focus on his work. He also got a lot of much-needed support from his teachers and it helped with his motivation to succeed in school. Social life also would help remedy some of his troubles. James had a big group of friends, social, very athletic, and loved doing sports, it was those things that helped keep his motivation to improve in school.

When it comes to it, James is a very hard-working and diligent student. When going to campus, he goes straight to class. There, he writes down what’s taught in class in summary. After class, he reviews what they have gone over, and works on figuring out what he needs to do for the week. When focused, he would get work done and at times, he knows when to take a break to refocus on his studies. In the past, learning never came easy to James, he would oftentimes struggle a lot in subjects such as writing, reading, and especially math. Then down the road, James has gotten better and has learned a lot of things. Despite still having trouble with math, James had gained an interest in reading and writing and while his career goal is not too concrete, he has been somewhat interested in business and is thinking of doing something with training down the line. The future is uncertain for many but James wants to have a positive outlook and I believe that if he keeps that outlook and hard work into the future, then James will not only be a great student but he will also have a great career.

Work Cited
“What Is ADHD?” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26 Jan. 2021, www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/facts.html.

“Dyslexia – Symptoms and Causes.” Mayo Clinic, 22 July 2017, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dyslexia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353552#:%7E:text=Dyslexia%20is%20a%20learning%20disorder,the%20brain%20that%20process%20language.