The “trophy Kids” Go to Work

Han Deng

Laura Waiss

ESL1070

10/01/2015

The “Trophy Kids” Go to Work

            Ron Alsop, in his article “The ‘Trophy Kids’ Go to Work,” which was published in the book Introduction of English Composition for International Students, described how kids of millennial generation, which are the “Trophy Kids,” perceive jobs and how they act in the job market. The author quoted quite a few people's words to show that the millennial generation has a strong sense of entitlement, which means always have high expectations and demands. The high expectations mainly come from feelings of superiority, and as a result they want their job to adjust to their life rather than have to adjust their life to their job. Also claims that these feelings mainly come from doting parents, teachers and coaches who always lavishly praised the millennial generation when they were young. Millennials  also want a lot of attention and guidance, but cannot bear much critique. In addition, they do not show much loyalty to their company and will easily change their job if there is a better offer. In Alsop’s effective article, he used a reasonable genre, purpose, audience, constraint, and a techniques exigence, all of these strong contents made up a convincing essay.

The author chose an appropriate genre, which is informative article. The author cited some accurate survey results and also quoted both employer’s and employee's sayings to support his viewpoint. For example, Alsop cited a survey claiming that “More than 85% of hiring managers and human-resource executives said they feel that millennials have a stronger sense of entitlement than older workers(161)”. The survey results prove the point that the millennial generation is viewed as entitled in employers’ eyes. The author's main aim is to express the viewpoint that the millennial generation, which are called “Trophy Kids,” have a strong sense of entitlement, thus the informative article was a good choice as a genre for his article. Look through of the sentences of Alsop’s article, this article is definitely a convincing style as strong article, includes the paragraphs, writing styles, and the length. But the image in this article seems like no any obvious relation with the contents.

             The purpose of his article is to inform readers of the viewpoint  that the generation of millennials are like “Trophy Kids” and have high expectations, such as like getting promotions,  but do not want to sacrifice much, including family time and leisure time. According to  “Millennials want loads of attention and guidance from employers”(Alsop162) that Alsop wants to inform the reader that millennials need attention and guidance to obtain “affirmation and positive reinforcement” from their employers. Ron Alsop also commented “although millennials have high expectations about what their employers should provide them, companies shouldn't expect much loyalty in return”(163), which suggests that the author pointed out the loyalty issue of the millenial generation to inform the reader that unless they are provided with better pay and positions. These sentences are important in helping the author show his purpose and state his point effectively.