week 3 blogpost
Warning: Undefined variable $comments in /home/idemborg/paigemorgan.net/teaching/engl200d/wp-content/themes/inove/single.php on line 18
Leave a comment Go to comments
In Defoe’s text On Trade, the idea of merit is presented to the reader. How would your business grow if you did not have merit? Defoe considers merit to be important for your trade to be successful. You have to work hard, attend to the customers, and sell goods that are of good quality. Then will you form a good reputation with the people which will benefit you in the long run. In the future you will you be awarded with more customers and profit. Instead of those who set up a pretty shop with little goods, it is better to start with a mediocre shop and work your way up though fair and honest methods. It may be harder to do so, but the idea that you will be awarded in the future for your hard work in the present is merit. Having merit means that you have a quality that deems respect and excellence. On Trade by Defoe considers merit to be one of the building blocks of good fortune. Business nowadays are built on merit as well just as they were in Defoe’s text. Successful companies and businesses have a good reputation that satisfies the customers which brings them back to buy more goods from them. This is why most companies spend so much on making their product the best to their ability and why it had so importance back in Defoes time. Merit is in many things but it is definitely a part of trade as presented in Defoes text On Trade.
I definitely agree that Defoe points out merit to be an earned quality in shopkeeping. When we look at a businesses today, it is important that they have quality products and services in order to be successful. I think it is interesting that in today’s society many goods are not purchased directly in a physical store, but are ordered remotely by the internet or another form. This puts extra emphasis on earning one’s own merit by hard and honest work. When the customer is removed from the physical location of the business, it is more difficult to earn one’s own merit by show alone as the customer may never see the store itself. Though various forms of advertising serve the purpose of show today, we can think of some companies that earn their merit entirely through reliable and quality products.
A good start, David — but I wish you’d actually brought in specific ideas from de Botton, since he’s describing how the idea of merit changes. I’d also really like to encourage you to work hard at defining what merit means: does it mean the same thing to a shopkeeper as it does to a labourer? You write that “Having merit means that you have a quality that deems respect and excellence” — and while that’s informative, it’s also still mysterious. A quality — but what kind of quality? Do you achieve it by working hard? By being honest? By looking nice? It sounds like merit is a positive aspect of economics — but of course, de Botton’s description of how merit became important suggests that it had harmful consequences too, and I’d love to see you address those.
Peer-Review: Your writing does have a clear purpose, but there is a lot of room to dive deeper into why it matters. I would prioritize taking your evaluative points and digging deeper. Also I think your writing could benefit from a brief explanation of each text at the beginning but shifting your focus from summarizing to more detailed points or quotes; then at the end returning to summarize the connection between the authors. This blog post would be stronger if you add some about the other side of the topic, such as if merit is lacking, what other parts of trade is merit apparent, and can you be successful without merit?
Peer Review
The purpose is understood but I think, like Averi mentioned, that you could have one or two sentences that summarize the two texts. This would give readers an easier time understanding your blog post. Also, you could add quotes or phrases from both the texts to support that Defoe’s text has merit.