In Ch 01 of Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell presents the first of many claims as to how successful individuals are a product of opportunity and social adavantages that generate more success. In this claim, he applies the concept of the Matthew Effect to the junior Canadian hockey league to explain how these players become successful at playing hockey: “It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine and ten-year-olds who get the most coaching and practice. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage.” The professional hockey player starts out a little bit better than his peers. And that little difference leads to an opportunity that makes that difference a bit bigger, and that edge in turn leads o another opportunity, which makes the initially small difference bigger still—and on and on until the hockey player is a genuine outlier. But he didn’t start out an outlier. He started out just a little bit better.”
Assignment: For this essay, you will explain Gladwell’s interpretation of the Matthew Effect as an opportunity that plays a crtitial role in an individual’s success and then analyze and describe how the Matthew Effect applies to YOU. What has been your experience? Think about all the areas of life where the Matthew Effect can occur (education, socio-economic, sports) and illustrate how you have benefited from the given opportunity/advantage and been successful because of it.
Questions to consider for your essay could be:
• In what areas of life could the Matthew Effect occur? (hint: education, sports, the arts, the workplace, in a family, or some other area)
• How does Gladwell’s Matthew Effect apply to you?
• What has been your experience with this, in either a positive, negative , or mixed way?
For the essay, you will want to clearly identify and explain the Matthew Effect and give specific examples of where/how/why it applies to your life.
General Requirements:
• In your draft, you will need to explain Gladwell’s point (the Matthew Effect in his context) and then analyze and describe how it applies to you.
• Essay Length 3-4 pages
• Follow MLA format- Times New Roman 12 pt, Double-spaced, l-inch margins
• Use three academic templates from They Say I Say
• Use The Outliers and ONE other source we have used in class (the other blogs, videos or readings) to support your ideas.
• Use TWO quotes minimum and FOUR maximum.
• Complete the LAC conference sheet attached in this packet by meeting an LAC instructor
• Check the attached rubric for specific details on how you will be graded
• REMEMBER, QUALITY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN QUANTITY.
• Write as well as you can. This essay needs to have grammatical correctness, organization, and comprehensibility. Your essay needs to contain one clearly stated and well-supported main idea, which addresses this topic, and no other topic.
