Every writer experiences an idea which inspires them to write. They usually have a purpose whether it is a life experience, something of importance or perhaps something in need of explanation. The two selections I have chosen have both been written with the same purpose, to inform and to persuade. The first essay is by Isaac Asimov, "What is Intelligence Anyway?" the other was written by Herbert J. Gans "The Underclass".
In the first story I chose by Isaac Asimov, he goes on to describe how intelligence varies amongst different classes of people but in certain settings one type of people might have an advantage over the others depending on the topic. The author goes on to describe the time of his life when he was in the Army when, he had taken an aptitude test. He had scored better than everyone else tested. Even though an intelligence test is a good indicator of the person's capabilities, it is not necessarily an indication of the person's true intelligence level. He knows when he has car trouble he can go to his mechanic who knows all about the car. He would listen to his mechanic almost on edge. Trying to figure out how this man could figure out all of this with his low level of intelligence. The mechanic wouldn't have scored nearly as close on that same aptitude test, but when something went wrong with his car he relied on his mechanic for assistance. .
Another example that the author mentions is about a joke that the mechanic tells him. The joke begins when a "deaf-and-dumb guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together and made hammering motions with the other. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk showed some nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left." The next guy to have walked into the store was a blind man who wanted a pair of scissors. The mechanic asked the author if he knew how the blind man asked for those scissors.
