Marks of an Educated Man by Nicholas Murray Butler

Marks of an Educated Man

• Nicholas Murray Butler, the author of “Marks of an Educated Man”, was born on April 2, 1862, and was a middle-class man.
• He served as the President of Columbia University from 1902 to 1945 and was an advisor to several international presidents.
• He received the Nobel Prize.
• The essay, published in 1931 by the New York Times, explores the characteristics of an educated man.
• It highlights the importance of education in developing habits and traits that define an educated individual.
• Butler emphasizes the need for correctness and precision in language use, stating that an educated man is strongly attached to his origin and heritage.

Refined and Gentle Manners

• Butler argues that manners are a reflection of one's fixed habits of thought and action, shaped over time through experiences and situations.
• He emphasizes that an educated man knows how to conduct himself, even in uncomfortable situations.

Power and Habit of Reflection

• Butler believes that most people live on the surface of life, failing to delve deeper or consider the future beyond the immediate moment.
• An educated man, he suggests, has the ability to think deeply and reflect on things, reading classic works like prose and poetry.

Elements of Persuasion

• Ethos refers to establishing credibility and gaining the trust of the audience through ethics.
• Pathos involves appealing to the audience's emotions and getting them to feel or relate to the speaker's message.
• Logos relies on logic and reason, presenting arguments based on facts and evidence.

Modals

• Modals are auxiliary verbs like will, would, can, could, must, should, may, might, shall, have to, need to, and need not.
• They are used to express possibility, necessity, prediction, and future tense.

Thesis Statement

• A thesis statement typically includes a limited subject, a modal, a stance, followed by reasons or evidence.
• For example: "500 Days of Summer should be recognized as a relatable cinematic experience because it candidly explores the complexities of modern relationships, illustrates the struggles of unrequited love, and emphasizes the journey of self-discovery that many individuals face in their romantic lives."

Summary & Paraphrase

• A summary condenses a text, highlighting the main points for better understanding.
• A paraphrase rephrases information using your own words, retaining all details and data from the original text.

Citation

• Citations are used to give credit to sources of information and make your work credible.
• The two major formats are APA (American Psychological Association) and MLA (Modern Language Association).

Pronoun Antecedent

• An antecedent is the noun that a pronoun replaces in a sentence.
• For example, "The cat chased its tail."
  • "Cat" is the antecedent of "its."

IF by Rudyard Kipling

• Rudyard Kipling, known for his works like "The Jungle Book" and "White Man's Burden," was an English short-story writer born in Bombay, India.
• "If" is a poem filled with hypothetical scenarios about navigating life.
• It explores themes of manhood, resilience, and personal integrity, offering advice from a father to his son.
• The poem highlights qualities like self-control, courage, perseverance, integrity, humility, wisdom, adaptation, adaptability, and empathy.

Literary Theory

• Literary theories provide frameworks for understanding and analyzing literature, showing how literature interacts with life.

Formalism

• Formalism focuses on the text itself, exploring elements like structure, patterns, sound (e.g., rhyming), sense (meaning), and how the text communicates emotions.

Reader Response

• Reader-response theory centers on the reader's experience and interpretation of a text, focusing on emotions, connections, and understanding.

Professions for Women

• Feminism advocates for gender equality, aiming to eliminate discrimination and inequality.
• Virginia Woolf, an English writer born in 1882, explored the challenges women face in professional careers, drawing from her own experiences as a writer.
• She used the "stream of consciousness" technique, mimicking the character's thoughts and feelings to create a realistic and relatable narrative.

Key Challenges Women Face

• The Angel in the House: This metaphorical figure represents the expectation that women should be self-sacrificing and devoted to pleasing others.
• Patriarchal Opposition: Even when women enter professional fields, they often encounter prejudice and limitations that hinder their ambition and expression.

Killing the Angel in the House

• Woolf describes "killing" the angel as rejecting the idealized image of women, allowing her to express her thoughts and feelings freely in her writing.
• She uses the metaphor of a fisherman to represent women's struggle to find their own truth and experiences in a society that often restricts their access to opportunities.