Compare-Contrast It’s inevitable to never fail. Everyone will fail at some point in their lives because perfection isn’t realistic. The question is, is failure fatal or a learning experience for success? The articles “The Right to Fail” by William K Zinsser and “In Praise of the “F” Word” by Mary Sherry both explore the concepts of failure. William Zinsser’s article makes the claim that failure is the only way for people grow and should not be looked at solely as negative. Mary Sherry’s article makes the claim that failure should not be feared by teachers and students but used as motivation for success. Both authors use evidence and appeals in similar and different ways to get their claim of failure being positive across to the audience. …show more content…
For example, William Zinsser uses well known and successful people and character’s experiences with failure as evidence that failure is how people grow. Zinsser uses Thomas P.F Hoving as an example. He states that Hoving was a dropout’s dropout who must have learned from his unorthodox years because he then became the top of his profession later in life (Zinsser 7). Another example Zinsser uses is the character Holden Caulfield from “The Catcher in the Rye” who was a dropout that became one of the greatest known literary heroes (Zinsser 8). These examples support Zinsser’s claim and show the audience that the most successful people have failed and used failure as a learning experience. Similarly, Sherry’s article uses a failure to success story as evidence as well. She happens to take a different approach on doing so though. Sherry uses personal experience as her evidence. Her son was told he would be flunked if he did not start paying more attention in his English class (Sherry 1). By doing so, her son began to make English a priority and succeeded in the class. Her evidence supports her claim that failure can motivate students to succeed because her son went through failure and she watched him prosper from it when given the option
In “The Matthew Effect”, Canadian journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell claims that circumstances determine who is and isn’t successful. In “Mind-sets and Equitable Education”, Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck argues that those with growth mindsets are more eligible to obtain and experience success than those with fixed mindsets. Although these texts may seem to contradict one another, they are actually similar in many ways.Gladwell’s and Dweck’s texts may differ in the sense that one regards to the circumstances leading to success, meanwhile the other claims that believing in oneself can lead to success, but are quite similar due to the fact that circumstances could help motivate and encourage one to accomplish their goals.
Failure is not an option, this phrase rushes through everyone’s head while trying to complete a task or goal successfully. Failure is thought of a parasitic word that only successful people have not heard of. With the article “Failure is not an Option” I feel it’s very well written and I agree with much of the article when Allison Carr, the author, explains how failure can be used as a learning tool. While she also states how failure is a bad thing, or parasitic as I stated before. I really appreciated how she covered both sides of the debate. However, I think Carr should touch about grit and open mindedness. Which are the two most vital traits to have while trying to learn from your mistakes, in my opinion.
This is shown in paragraph six when William Zinsser tells his readers that “Failure isn’t fatal. Countless people have had a bout with it and come out stronger as a result.” This in particular complicates my idea of the American dream, for I was always told to never fail. To Zinsser, his belief of failure comes from the proof that biographies and “rebels” give him. He shows a great desire for challenging the ideas of those around him. In paragraph seven Zinsser wrote, “There is nothing accidental about the grip that this dropout continues to hold on the affections of an entire American generation.” William Zinsser is talking about a popular literary hero of the postwar time. The word dropout and failure is used over and over in this essay but the people who these words describe are completely far from society’s
I cannot help but believe that there are some very valid points to Professor X’s article, for example, when he states that some students are simply unfit for the academic level that college requires. The author states, “Everyone wants to triumph. But not everyone can-in fact, most can’t.” (X, par. 47) In other words, Professor X believes that some students desperately want to succeed, however, they are unable to do so regardless of the amount of help offered. Sometimes, no matter how many people are set up for success there is not anything else that can be done, but letting them down gracefully. Professor X writes about his student Ms. L, the professor expresses his frustration with this student and how he knew he would face difficulties with her. The wall had gone up, she was no longer interested in what was being said. X expresses that Ms. L is not smart nor is she a bad person, however, he does elaborate on how she was never a fit for college level academics. Professor X writes, “Ms. L had done everything that American culture asked of her. She had gone back to school to better herself, and she expected to be rewarded for it, not slapped down.” (X, par. 36) This may be exactly how Ms. L was feeling, furthermore, let’s elaborate on why Ms. L expected to be rewarded for work that did not meet the expectations of her assigned
Mary Sherry talks about students who failed or just got by in school in the article “In Praise Of the F Word”. The fear of failing will only get people as far as they are willing to go if they are truly trying to better themselves it makes sense that failing would be a motivator. On the other hand, some people don’t care at all and failing is just part of their vocabulary. Mary reflects on how “high-school graduates and drop outs pursuing graduate-equivalency certificates will learn the skills they should have learned in school”. (1) For a lot of people the realization comes after they are out of school and realize that one of the only ways to move up and make more money is more education. Failing is only as affective as someone makes it the more serious someone takes failing the higher their chances of getting higher grades.
Failure and learning have a complicated, yet important relationship with each other. In ‘A Nation of Wimps’, Hara Marano writes about through trial and error humans can become successful. An article by Robert I. Sutton of the Harvard Business Review, talks about a method of learning from failures. Dr. Everett Piper describes in the article ‘This is Not a Day Care. It’s a University!’ that students who do not repent their sins can not learn from them. In the speech ‘This is Water’, by David Wallace he explains how learning to think is in a way knowing what to think about. An article by Bob Lenz titled ‘Failure Is Essential to Learning’ addresses the notion that failure is a key importance in the process of learning. Failure is an essential and important step in the difficult process of learning.
In Through the Tunnel, Jerry, and his actions resemble the definition and characteristics of failure and/or success, as described by Zinsser in the article. During the short story, Jerry is determined to find the end of the tunnel, and swim through it, however the process is not so easy. Met with many drawbacks, and successes which will later lead to his own success, Jerry’s actions resembles Zinsser’s words in his essay, The Right to Fail. In The Right to Fail, Zinsser describes success and failure in a brand new perspective to his readers, showing their benefits, and downsides, in his own definition. Zinsser also discusses what the road to success actually looks like and relates it to to the youth generation. However, in both the short story Through the Tunnel, by Doris Lessing, and the article The Right to Fail, by William Zinsser, success and failure is met shown through Jerry’s struggles and the steps he takes in order to reach his success, and also in Zinsser’s viewpoint between the old and new generations perspective on failing and
William Zinsser’s article “The Right to Fail” discusses the unrealistic vision of success and failure that society has placed on itself. “The Right to Fail” is an excerpt from Zinsser’s book The Lunacy Boom which was published in 1970; this excerpt brings an awareness to the expectations that America places on young people and those who fail. Zinsser is speaking to a general audience of young and older people in America. The goal of this article is to change the way that society views achievements and failures. Rather than a setback, Zinsser sees failure as a way to learn and grown from the past; failure is meant to be used as tool to push society forward and improve things.
In the text “The Right To fail”, William Zinsser, American critic and writer, was born in New York and educated at Princeton, writes trying to say the fail is not bad because sometime if you fail you will learn from your mistakes. Also the successful people is not always right because sometime they make mistakes by wrong choices, so all the people have right to fail. To support this point, Zinsser makes the claim that teen who dropout from school can find the way to be success and make them stronger. He support this claim when he says,” Thomas P.F. Hoving was New York's former Parks Commissioner, but now he is director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was a dropout entering and leaving school as if they were motels, often at the request of the management, he must have learned something during those unorthodox years, for he dropped in again at the top of his
In Failure Is a Good Thing, author Jon Carroll refers to failure as a learning experience. Carroll explains that failure is needed for growth, that failure may keep a person “on their toes” so that they may never get too comfortable with what they are doing. He also goes on to state that failure is something that we should all strive for, ironically, in order to feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. Carroll refers to his family, his friends, and his own experiences with failure and how they solidify his beliefs. Jon talks about his job as a columnist and how every week someone’s column has to be the lesser column.
After reading Failure is Not an Option by Nathan Wallace, we ponder whether failure is beneficial or not. However, after reading the passage, we stumble upon a quote where Wallace says “Failure is always an option. Failure can lead to great learning and progress when a specific failure is analyzed through the lens of a growth mindset.”
In today’s society “failure” is dreaded by most people. In 2013 Oprah Winfrey deliver “The Harvard Commencement Speech” and in 2008 she spoke “The Stanford Commencement Speech,” which both spoke about overcoming failure. Throughout these speeches, the audience learns that failure is something everyone will experience. Winfrey teaches readers that failure may hurt, but failure helps everyone learn from their mistakes and allows them to become a better person. Winfrey tells readers about a time when she failed and instead of feeling sorry for herself, she allowed herself to exceed expectations and change her failure into something spectacular. Oprah Winfrey is an effective speaker because she uses rhetorical devices and
He went home, locked himself in his room and cried. But now he owns six MBA champions, and 5 MBA MVPs; that moment of getting cut from his high school basketball team become nothing. Walt Disney was fired from his first job because people said he is lacked of imagination and had no original idea; this man is now the creator of the biggest company on producing cartoon and children entertainment, Disney. This man failed in business twice and was defeated in eight elections. With all of his effort and never giving up when things get hard he became the tenth president of the United States; this name named is Abraham Lincoln. Those people are examples of overcoming failure and become successful. They did not let the pain of failure stop them from being successful. They keep fighting and thrive for victory. Those are examples of failure is only help people to reach their goal sooner or later. What matter is how hard you try and how bad you want to be success.
It doesn’t matter if they are failing or success, the only thing matter is how hard people are trying during the process. The value of success will worth and have respect after they walk through failure. It’s important on how people stand up after they failed, not how they failed, because everyone will fail at least one time on their life. A good example of people who fail but they stand up and learn from it is people who play sport. At first time of playing, no one will good at sport. Sometime they make a common mistake when they start play but if they learn from it, they won’t make that same mistake again during the game. To have that success they have to make mistake and fail during the practice so they can learn from it and practice to overcome their failure. But people who never fail when they play, they may make a common mistake on the
n life failure is synonymous with death. We do not know when failure and death will happen, how either will happen, but, death and failure will happen. This was the first thought that rushed throughout my mind when I processed the news of my dismissal from law school. My greatest accomplishment being admitted into law school. My greatest failure (was not reaching my goal and ) being dismissed from law school. I consider my first year, failure due to not academically succeeding my first year. Furthermore, I have accepted responsibility for my past academic performance and I admit it was due to my lack of effective study habits. However, with this failure, there are lessons that I’ve learned that have outweighed my failure my first year of law school. Since my dismissal from law