TOW #4 Scotland vote: For the Queen, it's personal by Max Foster

Link to Article

Max Fosters, a journalist for CNN, wrote a piece on an important event unfolding in the world right now. Scotland is having a vote to decide whether to split from England and become an independent country, or to stay in the United Kingdom. This article was mainly about what the head of England, the Queen, believes. The Queen is supposedly neutral and is not supposed to speak out to the public as it may get in the way of democracy, but she has been cited with saying that Scots should "think very carefully about the future." Fosters goes in depth about why the Queen most definitely is not impartial and why this is a personal topic for her. The audience for the article was people in Scotland and the United Kingdom that are facing this huge decision. The Queen may need to stay impartial but the author's purpose was to sway the audience to the side of voting no to independence. He attempts to achieve this purpose by using diction to evoke emotion and make the the Queen seem sympathetic. Some of the words he uses to do this is "the Queen felt a great deal of concern" and "The Queen is above politics." His purpose was to portray the Queen as a concerned parent that just wants the best for her child. Another way he uses pathos is emphasizing how important and beloved Scotland is. He writes, "Scotland isn't some breakaway outpost of the British Empire; it's home turf which has remained uncontested since the Renaissance." This sways the leader into thinking that Scotland is just like Alaska for the USA and furthers the message that Scotland should not break away. I think he was mildly effective because as an American reading this, I began to feel like Scotland should not break away. However, maybe if a Scot were to read this, they wouldn't be as persuaded and they are the primary audience.

TOW #3 Best Recording Artist by Tom Stiglich

Tom Stiglich is a political cartoonist who had drawn for dozens of well known magazines, newspapers, and books such as The New York Times, TIME magazine, The Washington Post, and many others. His political cartoons are based on events happening in the world, mostly America, and he attempts to satirize the events. This political cartoon shows the NSA being awarded a Grammy for the best recording artist of the year. During the time this cartoon was put out, the NSA scandal of the government listening in on everyone's phone conversations and looking at everyone's emails had just broke. People were outraged and shocked that the government was violating their personal conversations and many felt like some of their constitutional rights had been breached. This cartoon's audience is the American public because the Grammys are a big thing in America and most people would at least know what it is and this breach of privacy was also a very big thing in America. Stiglich wanted to make light of this event, while still making a statement and his cartoon did accomplish this. He used humor to start a discussion on a topic which the American public was already incensed by. The shameful look on the personification of the NSA's face also serves to show how the NSA thought they were being covert. I believe Stiglich accomplish his goal because while this cartoon is humorous, it also makes a statement and shows a belief. In this case, Stiglich's belief was that the NSA was wrong for recording Americans' conversations and his cartoon shows that. The message of the cartoon is supplemented by the humor to get Stiglich's point across. I also think it is effective because it mixed a positive--winning a Grammy--with a negative--recording private conversations. The play on words is part of the humorous elements, drawing the audience in. This is a very effective political cartoon because it gets the artist's point, that the NSA was wrong in recording conversations, across in a funny and relevant way.

(IRB Intro) I am America (And So Can You!)

The book I am going to read is I am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert. This is a humorous book that satirizes American politics. Colbert is known for parodying conservative politicians on his television show and this book should be a funny read.

TOW #1 How To Say Nothing in 500 Words by Paul Roberts (Written)

Paul Roberts, author of How to Say Nothing in 500 Words, has had an accomplished career writing English books, making him qualified to lecture students about their dismal essays. How to Say Nothing in 500 Words is an analysis on what makes student essays boring and repetitive, and how to change that in our own writing. He uses example of a standard essay about college football, a topic beat to earth by countless years of students. Roberts points out all the things the hypothetical student did wrong, mostly that they were just trying to make the 500 word minimum, and then he gives examples of how to spice it up, not make it so monotonous. He clearly wrote this essay for students, to help them write better essays and stand out from the crowd instead of just blending into the background with basic writing. The way Roberts achieves this purpose is by using a specific, yet hypothetical scenario that is probably familiar to all students. He wrote an essay in his essay and gave it a background, a story that the audience could connect to. He compared the first essay, boring and lazy, to the second essay, which was on the same topic, but written with all the suggestions that Roberts had given to make it better. The contrast between the two clearly showed how much better the second essay really was. Roberts knew his audience well and used that to his advantage by creating a hypothetical scenario akin to one his audience might be in. By doing this, he made sure the audience would be engaged in his writing and be paying attention to what he was saying. Roberts' purpose was to educated students on how to better their papers, and I believe he did that well. Using his scenario and example made sure the audience was engaged and contrasting the first essay to the second highlighted how important it was to have good, interesting papers.

Pamplona in July by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway is a familiar name to many Americans because of his many novels, stories and collections that are American classics. He won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for his work, as well as influencing future writing styles for years to come. Pamplona in July is a glamorous narrative about the Pamplona Bull Run, an event every year in July. During the Bull Run, bulls run through the city enclosed in pens early in the morning. Men try to run in front of the bulls without getting hurt and in the end, the matadors fight the bulls. Hemingway describes the excitement in the atmosphere using many rhetorical devices, such as diction. He chooses exciting words, word that evoke movement and drama like "pounding and throbbing," or, "swirling and whishing," or, "snapping and whirling." These words make his writing seem more thrilling and flashy. He also uses a lot of imagery to set the scene in Pamplona, like when he first sees the bulls, "Eight bulls galloping along, full tilt, heavy set, black, glistening, sinister, their horns bare, tossing their heads." Hemingway describes the bulls so deeply so his audience can almost see the bulls, can feel the excitement in the air. He uses these rhetorical devices to clearly show the excitement of Pamplona, and show how different it is from America. He does this because his audience was most likely Americans who had never heard of the Pamplona Bull Run. Hemingway wanted to show this extravagant display of culture that most Americans probably weren't familiar with and I think he did achieve his purpose. He masterfully captured the excitement and turmoil of the event and made it accessible for the average American who was reading his work. He didn't use overtly extravagant language so it was easy to read as well. Overall, this is definitely not a dull essay and would have been a pleasurable read for Hemingway's audience.

Running of the Bulls, The Telegraph