ENGL Svs S Richson vs Overton PDF

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Liu 1 Sophia Liu Professor Jerrett Foreman ENGL 1010 October 10, 2017

Richson vs Overton “Subject by subject” 1. Richson, Brianne. “An Obligation to Prevent Trauma on Campus.” a. Main Idea: many people have that one memory that they prefer to never bring up. Many students at colleges have created this term known as trigger warnings; they hope these trigger warnings are to be used directly in professors syllabi to help prevent PTSD from arising in students’ college experiences. b. Example used to support MI: these trigger warnings might not seem as big as a deal to other people but something small can tick off someone. Richson states that, “every kid gets a trophy” might bring up bad memories someone may have with their parents growing up. c. Example: “Is it too much to ask that a rape survivor be forewarned when a professor is about to cover material on the topic or to ask that a person who confronted with a racial slur and beaten up...” Is it really too much to ask for a professor to add these trigger warnings to their syllabi? d. Many have stated that these trigger warning can be used to be an excuse for students to copy out and not wish to engage with a diverse set of subject materials.

Liu 2 2. Overton, Jon. “Beware the Trigger Warning.” a. Main Idea : Overton may not disagree with Richson on the topic of trigger warnings but he does have something else to say. He agrees that we should be considerate to victims of PTSD but these trigger warnings run further than we think it does. There are more to it. He then compares these trigger warnings to hate-speech laws. Where is the limit? b. Example used to support MI: Overton suggest that anything can be a trigger warning, “...from hot dogs to Nazis to Mike Tyson to the color yellow…” Where is the limit, how can one professor know everything for each student. “You can’t easily predict what will set someone off…” c. Example: In Oberlin College, a “...policy was made for instructors to “remove triggering material when it does not contribute directly to the course learning goals.”” Meaning all instructors must go through their syllabus and take out what might be considered a trigger warning but then again how do we know what will trigger each student? d. Overton expresses that the effort to help minimize these trigger warnings is admirable for students but we have to think about the students themselves, if they really wanted to avoid a topic, why won't they go up to the professor themselves. They know they will discuss this topic in class. It all depends on the students at the end of the day. We as human beings do not know everything, even if we wanted to; especially with someone else’s lives.

Liu 3 Works Cited Richson, Brianne. “An Obligation to Prevent Trauma on Campus.” The Bedford Reader , 13 ed., edited by X.J. Kennedy et al., Bedford/St Martin’s, pp. 513-514. Overton, Jon. “Beware the Trigger Warning.” The Bedford Reader , 13 ed., edited by X.J. Kennedy et al., Bedford/St Martin’s, pp. 518-519....