"Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?" by Mark Edmundson

"Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?" is an essay about using one's education to its fullest potential. It is definitely intended for college students or students about to enter college. Mark Edmundson, the author, starts by congratulating the reader on getting to the first day of college, and then announces that, if the reader wants a good education, he or she is going to have to fight for it. He goes on to describe how colleges have become institutions where you create your social life and pay for your degree, and where everyone, faculty, administration, and students, no longer seems to care about the courses themselves. Mark Edmundson is a professor at the University of Virginia and is the author of seven books. In this essay, he presents a small narrative of a conversation he had with his dad before he went off to college. In this conversation, Edmundson's dad, barely a high school graduate, told him he had better study what interested him and not what he thought would make him money. This begins his discussion about the importance of doing something for the fulfillment it offers instead of for the money or success it will earn. Edmundson references great authors as he writes about how the importance of reading their works is to examine and redefine one's self and adopt the ideas that one finds are truths. The essay appeals to the readers emotions; it starts out sounding rather pessimistic and makes the reader feel deprived and even guilty because of the way society has forgotten education. However, the essay is also inspirational and uplifting in its encouragement to take advantage of education. Edmundson's purpose is to remind the reader that education is learning about the world and one's self and to inspire the reader to use his or her opportunities to do what fulfills them, not necessarily what is considered successful. These ideas are connected to the reader by Edmundson's use of second person; he writes directly to the audience. Also, with his combination of narration and allusion, Edmundson succeeds in calling his readers to change their mindset and be more active in their education.

YOU! Mark Edmundson is able to better achieve his purpose by writing directly to the reader. (Image from commons.wikimedia.org)