Analytical Comparison Essay.
Introduction.
We don’t need more humanities, majors, an article written by Edward Conrad on July 30th 2013, argues that people with degrees in technical fields are in a better position of growing the economy than those with humanity degrees. Research has proven that innovation has a very positive impact on America’s economic growth, but has only two major factors affecting the growth. He further argues that growth in the US is mostly driven by successful high technology startups such as Apple Google and Microsoft, which have resulted in the growth of other industries around them. Edward goes further and quotes UC-Berkeley, an economics professor Enrico Moretti who had estimated that for each additional high technology job, nearly five jobs are created in the local economy more than any other industry.
In contrast to Edwards claims and arguments, Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel B. Rasmussen who are senior partners at ReD Associates, a consulting firm that uses social science tools to explain how people experience their realities, on July 30, 2013, argued that people with degrees in humanities could be invaluable in solving business problems because they can understand the customer. They, therefore, argued that we need more humanities, majors, more than before to competition leading to improvement of products.
Analysis and argumentative strategies in the Article “We Don’t Need More Humanities Majors:
Edward Conrad tries to argue that since other courses like humanities are important, they should not be the main focus. Other courses like Mathematics, Sciences and Engineering are weighty and play an important role in economic growth and development since they can keep minds at work resulting in innovations and inventions, which lead to employment creation. He clearly explains that one invention from the STEM courses leads to at least the creation of five job opportunities and development of other industries as a result of this one innovation.
His argument is mainly based on the fact that humanities courses do not at any time create jobs or lead to employment other than maybe improving or making better the already existent opportunities which do not put any country at a better place in terms 0f GDP or economic growth. Conrad further argues that Europe has plenty of small families owned businesses limiting its rapid growth, unlike the U.S whose growth is rapid due existence of successful high businesses such as Apple, Microsoft and Google. It is hard to believe humanities degrees are the most appropriate ways in training talented students in America. He believes the talented students should be taught in Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering to help them jog their minds and expand their thinking to help them put into practice the talents they have together with the knowledge acquired from school to come up with innovative tech industries which will create employment and also promote economic growth and development at the same time.
Analysis and argumentative strategies in the Article” We need more humanities, majors:
This article argues that people with degrees in humanities can be invaluable in solving problems related to business because of their outstanding ability to understand the customers. Humanities revolve around human relations how people relate with each other, their environment and even animals. This makes those who study Humanities in a better position to understand their behaviour and underlying reasons pushing them to behave how they do. This makes them not to be in a good or better position to solve business problems since they tend to be on the consumer’s side and by that they cannot solve many business-related problems.
Christian and Mikkel further argue that candidates demonstrated the capacity to have critical thinking, proper and effective communication skills, and problem-solving tactics is more important compared to what they have majored in. The above-mentioned skills are highly emphasized and taught at very high levels in the humanities. Another valid point of argument that they brought out is that companies and organizations are now laying more emphasis on customer-based marketing and emphasizing on deep customer understanding to understand their clients more and target their products and services to the needs and demands of the customers. Such skills are not possessed by engineers and designers who don’t have humanities major but those who majored in humanities, thus making the title of the article, “We need more humanities, majors.”
Comparing and Contrasting.
There are no notable similarities between the two articles, so we will major on the differences starting with Edward Conrad article, which emphasizes the importance of STEM courses linking them to promoting high rates of economic growth by reducing unemployment. On the other hand, Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel. B argued that humanities are essential since in the present world knowledge of humanities is very relevant. The first article argues that small, family-owned businesses do not play a big role in economic growth. Still, high tech firms like Google are the ones with high levels of economic growth while the second one lays emphasis on businesses no matter how small but the strategy is to make the business customer-centred. In the first article, Conrad emphasizes on talents and how majoring in sciences engineering and mathematics will help nurture and put the existing talents to better use. On the 0ther hand, the second article has no mention of talents but knowledge gained from getting a humanity degree or major that’s useful in the current world. The first article has no mention of critical thinking and problem solving but the second article emphasizes the importance of critical and creative thinking together with problem-solving skills that are taught in humanities as very important in the job market and very marketable to employers.
Summary.
In summary, both the two articles are education centred only that one is about STEM courses, and the other is about humanities. The other similarity is that both articles discuss the relevance of courses is subject to the existing job market. Conrad elaborately explains the importance of mathematics, sciences and engineering in coming up with high tech firms which create employment. At the same time, Christian and Mikkel emphasized the importance of humanities in the current job market.
Strengths and Weaknesses.
In Christians article, she gains confidence and builds the strength of her argument from the great people in society who have humanity degrees. In the fourth paragraph of her article, she cites examples of great politicians, business people and many others who hold humanities degrees and are in the category of those who have made it. Another strength is driven from the fact that all people try to understand nature, and it’s what predicts best what the future holds. In this case, even science and technology need knowledge about the past to be able to predict future events. Thus all those in the science filed need the humanities knowledge too, and thus a need for more humanities major is created—technology bases on design and production. Humanities, on the other hand, bases on knowing what the people want. This evident enough that the two subject areas are interdependent and that more of the humanities major is needed. On the other hand, in Conrad’s article, the strength as to why humanity majors are not needed is because of the trend that the world has taken. Everyone is concerned about science and not humanities. Therefore, in his view, for one to fit in, they got to move with what the current trends dictate. Creativity and innovation need less of human knowledge and more of Scientific knowledge and principles.
Both arguments as to whether or not humanities majors are necessary or not have weaknesses. The first argument by Conrad is weak because there has never been useless knowledge. All knowledge is worthwhile, and all that matters is how it is applied. On the other hand, Christian and Mikkel’s argument is weak because things and times changes and that are worth appreciating. Since the trend is leaning more on science and technology, it’s worthy and wise to follow the trend and do as per what science dictates to keep up the pace.
Conclusion.
In conclusion, both arguments as to whether humanities are necessary or not are valid. This is because they are an expression of opinion which then leaves the reader to choose as to what suits them best. In my view, Conrad’s argument that we don’t need more humanities majors hold more water. This is because the world has gone hi-tech, and things have changed so much. Humanities are relevant, yes, but not needed so much the way some people perceive it.