howtowrite3e

EDITORIAL

Maureen Dowd is a prominent — if sometimes controversial — voice in American politics and culture. A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, she has been writing opinion columns and feature articles for the New York Times since 1995. Some of her favorites are collected in Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk (2004) and Are Men Necessary? When Sexes Collide (2005). This op-ed piece originally appeared in the New York Times in 2010.

Reading the Genre

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1. This essay about roommate selection also addresses the political climate on college campuses and in American media. What is Dowd’s point? How does she encourage readers to think beyond college relationships?

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2. What life lessons has Dowd learned from her roommates? What life lessons have you learned from the people you’ve lived with?

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3. Dowd uses puns, or plays on words, in her title and in the last line of her essay. What are they? What does clever word play add to, or take away from, the effectiveness of Dowd’s argument? (See Chapter 31, “Titles,” “Frame arguments powerfully — and not in words only”, and Part 5, “Style.”)

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4. This essay originally appeared on the “Opinion” page of the New York Times. Opinion sections of newspapers contain several short arguments, like this one, about current issues every day. How do you think the length restriction shapes the style, tone, and form of argumentation in this essay?

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5. WRITING: Think of another aspect of college existence that you have found unexpectedly challenging, such as grades, tuition, intramural sports, Greek life, finals, cafeterias, laundry, campus parking, or part-time work. Write a short opinion column for your campus newspaper about this aspect of college life: What have you learned from the challenges, and how, if at all, have such difficulties prepared you for life after graduation? What can other students learn from your experience?