Introductory Reading Assignment

Reading this excerpt reminded me of the saying that children tend to loser their curiosity as they go through school. We stop questioning “how” and “why” things work, and instead come to accept them as pieces of information we need to memorize—whether for school, life, or any other situations that may arise. For this reason, I believe it’s important for a person like me, who studies memorization-heavy material, to have to look beyond what has been placed in front of me and think even in an even broader and more critical manner. It is essential for any student to be able to make connections across many different fields so that we may look beyond what information has been given to us and create new ideas to better our understanding in many ways. These are the “shared horizons” that we must find; two different things that are connected by the same link. When we simply accept fact as fact, we risk overlooking any effects that may arise in a place where we are not looking. As the New Humanities Reader puts it, “The risk of knowledge in depth is that we lose our sense of the larger world… The more we treat an area of knowledge as a reality in itself, the less we may be able to understand and use what we have supposedly learned” (xxvii).

In this way, I believe Exposition and Argument is a key factor in expanding our thinking beyond what we think we have to know for a test or a job. It can allow us to raise innovative questions and forge connections that may have otherwise gone overlooked. I could say that English is not very important for a career like pharmacy, where science is the main focus. However, being able to make connections and express them through a medium that allows us to express ourselves in a way different from any other form of art. I find myself becoming more thoughtful and structuring my words more eloquently when I write, often generating ideas that I would have otherwise overlooked. Writing is important and will continue to be important in my life, and I look forward to how my skills with making connections and looking beyond just the facts will grow this year.