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Some Lessons From The Assembly Line

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Some Lessons From The Assembly Line. Authors: Braaksma, Andrew Source: Newsweek. 9/12/2005, Vol. 146 Issue 11, p17-17. 1p. 1 Color Photograph. Document Type: Article Subjects: COLLEGE students INDUSTRIAL workers APPRENTICES OCCUPATIONS COLLEGE environment Geographic Terms: UNITED States Abstract: Describes the author's experiences with summer jobs and the differences with college life. Comparison of the difficulties of working 12-hour days in a factory with leisurely college life; Lessons learned about the value of education; How the author applies his factory work lessons to his college studies; Why the author chooses to work in a factory and live at home during the summer; Discussion of the value of his work experiences. Sweating away my summers as a factory worker makes me more than happy to hit the books. Last June, as I stood behind the bright orange guard door of the machine, listening to the crackling hiss of the automatic welders, I thought about how different my life had been just a few weeks earlier. Then, I was writing an essay about French literature to complete my last exam of the spring semester at college. Now I stood in an automotive plant in southwest Michigan, making subassemblies for a car manufacturer. I have worked as a temp in the factories surrounding my hometown every summer since I graduated from high school, but making the transition between school and full-time blue-collar work during the break never gets any easier. For a student like me who considers any class before noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by 6 o'clock each morning, where rows of hulking, spark-showering machines have replaced the lush campus and cavernous lecture halls of college life, is torture. There my time is spent stamping, cutting, welding, moving or assembling parts, the rigid work schedules and quotas of the plant making days spent studying and watching "SportsCenter" seem like a million years ago. I chose to do this work, rather than bus tables or fold sweatshirts at the Gap, for the overtime pay and because living at home is infinitely cheaper than living on campus for the summer. My friends who take easier, part-time jobs never seem to understand why I'm so relieved to be back at school in the fall or that my summer vacation has been anything but a vacation. There are few things as cocksure as a college student who has never been out in the real world, and people my age always seem to overestimate the value of their time and knowledge. After a particularly exhausting string of 12-hour days at a plastics factory, I remember being shocked at how small my check seemed. I couldn't believe how little I was taking home after all the hours I spent on the sweltering production floor. And all the classes in the world could not have prepared me for my battles with the machine I ran in the plant, which would jam whenever I absent-mindedly put in a part backward or upside down. As frustrating as the work can be, the most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing and overseas relocation had always seemed distant to me until my co-workers at one factory told me that the unit I was working in would be shut down within six months and moved to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents an hour. Factory life has shown me what my future might have been like had I never gone to college in the first place. For me, and probably many of my fellow students, higher education always seemed like a foregone conclusion: I never questioned if I was going to college, just where. No other options ever occurred to me. After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other options have become brutally clear. When I'm back at the university, skipping classes and turning in lazy re-writes seems like a cop-out after seeing what I would be doing without school. All the advice and public-service announcements about the value of an education that used to sound trite now ring true. These lessons I am learning, however valuable, are always tinged with a sense of guilt. Many people pass their lives in the places I briefly work, spending 30 years where I spend only two months at a time. When fall comes around, I get to go back to a sunny and beautiful campus, while work in the factories continues. At times I feel almost voyeuristic, like a tourist dropping in where other people make their livelihoods. My lessons about education are learned at the expense of those who weren't fortunate enough to receive one. "This job pays well, but it's hell on the body," said one co-worker. "Study hard and keep reading," she added, nodding at the copy of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" I had wedged into the space next to my machine so I could read discreetly when the line went down. My experiences will stay with me long after I head back to school and spend my wages on books and beer. The things that factory work has taught me--how lucky I am to get an education, how to work hard, how easy it is to lose that work once you have it--are by no means earth-shattering. Everyone has to come to grips with them at some point. How and when I learned these lessons, however, has inspired me to make the most of my college years before I enter the real world for good. Until then, the summer months I spend in the factories will be long, tiring and every bit as educational as a French-lit class. PHOTO (COLOR): Is that all? After an exhausting string of 12-hour days, I remember being shocked at how small my check seemed ~~~~~~~~ By Andrew Braaksma Braaksma, a junior at the University of Michigan, wrote the winning essay in our "Back To School" contest. ENG 122 Writing Notes Guidelines and Rubric Overview: In this assignment, you'll do a literal reading of the reading you selected in the quiz in this module. This will be the first step of the critical analysis essay you will complete this term. Prompt: Now that you have read your piece and taken some notes, the following critical elements must be addressed. Write at least three sentences in response to questions 2–4. 1. What article did you select for your critical analysis project? List the title and author here. 2. An author's purpose or goal is their reason for writing a work. Based on a literal reading of your selected article, what do you believe is the author's purpose? How did you arrive at that decision? 3. Key points are pieces of evidence that support the author's purpose. In your selected article, what are three key points that support the author's purpose that you identified in this reading? How do those key points support it? 4. An author's audience is the group (or groups) of people being addressed in the reading. What audience do you believe the author is writing for in your selected article? What potential challenges does the author face when addressing their purpose with this audience? Rubric Guidelines for Submission: Save your work in a Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. Then, check your writing for errors. Once you have proofread your document, submit it via the Assignment: Writing Notes link in Brightspace. Critical Elements Proficient (100%) Name Names the article and author of the article Author’s Purpose Determines a purpose to be addressed in analysis essay, and purpose is derived from one of the provided articles Author’s Key Points Determines key points and rationale Needs Improvement (75%) Not Evident (0%) Value Does not name the article or author of the article 10 Determines a purpose to be addressed in analysis essay, but purpose is not derived from one of the provided articles Does not determine a purpose to be addressed in analysis essay 25 Determines key points and rationale, but they are cursory or inaccurate Does not determine key points and rationale 25 Does not identify audience 25 Author’s Audience Identifies audience and determines Identifies audience but does not potential challenges determine potential challenges Critical Elements Articulation of Response Proficient (100%) Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization Needs Improvement (75%) Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas Not Evident (0%) Value Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas 15 Total 100% QUESTIONS NEED ANSWERS. 1. What article did you select for your term-long critical analysis project? List the title and author here. 2. An author's purpose or goal is their reason for writing a work. Based on a literal reading of your selected article, what do you believe is the author's purpose? How did you arrive at that decision? 3. Key points* are pieces of evidence that support the author's purpose. In your selected article, what are three key points that support the author's purpose that you identified in Question 2? How do those key points support it? 4. An author's audience is the group or groups of people who are being addressed in the reading. What audience do you believe the author is writing for in your selected article? What potential challenges does the author face when addressing their purpose with this audience?
 

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