In “With No Boys to Ogle, We Had Time to Learn”, Christine Flowers argues against the common stereotypes about single-sex schools and aims to educate the audience of the various benefits of single-sex schools. She uses her own experiences as a student of a single-sex school, Bryn Mawr College, as examples of why she believes single-sex schools are in fact better educators of students as opposed to integrated schools. The main point which she argues throughout the article is that, in the absence of the opposite sex, students are more focused on academics.
Flowers continually uses colloquial language in combination with icy irony as a persuasive technique. She begins the article with: “My father was not a braggart.” I personally found this to be a very strong opening statement. Although this really has nothing to do specifically with what the article is about, this concise, clear statement undoubtedly grabs the reader’s attention, arousing their curiosity to read on. Flowers then introduces the common stereotype which she then begins to argue against in the form of a quote she gives of one of her fathers’ co-workers, “Why do you want to send her to a girls’ school where they don’t shave their armpits and spend all their time dancing around Maypoles and chanting in Greek?” Although this quote is most likely fictional as I don’t believe a co-worker would be quite as rude, the quote ‘gets the job done’. Namely, it somewhat acts as an introduction to the thesis statement. She uses this quote as a technique to present the counter-argument. This is quite effective since, presenting the counter-argument in the form of such a rude statement from a co-worker makes the counter-argument seem merely the trivial opinion of an un-educated co-worker, persuading the reader not to take this view themselves, as no-one wants to be on the side of a rude, uneducated individual.
Moving on, Flowers then continues to clarify the life of a student at a single-sex college through her...