TOW #19 Does The Best New Artist Grammy Curse Exist? by Monique Melendez

Article 

This article was about the urban legend of a "Best New Artist Grammy Curse." It's audience was clearly people who are familiar with both the Grammys, an award show, and past winners of the Grammys, like the ones cited like Milli Vanilli and the Beatles. These kind of people would probably young, but not as young as to not remember the people. So people in their twenties to forties who keep up with pop culture is the most likely audience that the author was aiming for. Does The Best New Artist Grammy Curse Exist? by Monique Melendez is an in depth exploration of this myth of the Grammy curse, and how it relates to what is happening today, what artists have faded away and which ones have not. The first half of the article is giving evidence of why the curse may be real, but the second half tries to disprove this. Melendez makes use of many rhetoric devices like using direct quotes from experts and rhetoric questions. Some of the direct quotes she uses is from past winners of the Best New Artist Grammy, like Taffy Danoff and Colin Hay, who both felt like they were victims of this curse. These direct quotations added weight to her argument because it was from people who could explain how this "curse" worked, and why it happened, as they had drawn the short straw themselves. Melendez's rhetoric questioning was also very effective in the second part of the essay where she was trying to prove that there wasn't a curse. She used the questioning to offer up new scenarios of why winners might face an unlucky streak after winning. In conclusion, I believe that Melendez was very convincing because in the first half she made me believe that their might be a curse but in the second half she flipped that on its head and showed why it wasn't true.

IRB Intro Post #3 Bossypants by Tina Fey

For my third IRB book, I choose Bossypants by Tina Fey. I choose this book because a friend recommended it highly and I had read the book of Tina Fey's fellow comedian Amy Poehler. Bossypants is basically a retelling of Tina Fey's life, in obviously a humorous way because she is a comedian. I am excited to read this book and laugh at its many jokes.

Tow #17 (IRB) The Psychopath Test Pt. 2

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, by Jon Ronson was a better book than I thought it was going to be. It first intrigued me because I had heard people talk about it, both my friends and other famous people like Vine stars (which, looking back, I now realize was very good product placement), but I didn't think it was going to amaze me or tell me something I didn't know. I just wanted to find out if I was a psychopath or not. In this way, the book has a great hook, which is the title. "The Psychopath Test" just screams exciting and pulls people in, especially when it is from a fairly well-known author and got fantastic reviews from reputable sources like newspapers and tv shows. Ronson had started the book out with a story, and that was how he continued the book, weaving information in through seemingly unrelated mini stories that all came together in the end. I found it very interesting how he wrote from first person as well using words such as "I" and "me." This was a little off putting as first, as the book is not a story, it is actually a recount, or a telling. And it does seem like he's there in the room telling you his story of delving into the world of psychopaths. As he goes into the world of psychopaths, he also reveals his flaws, the amounts of crazy in himself, and it makes this book a book of psychopaths yes but also how 'normal' people are all a little bit crazy too. I thought this was a very interesting read, however, I never got a definite answer on if I'm a psychopath or not so that was a little distressing but I recommend this book to everyone 

Tow #16 (Visual) Teen Court Flowchart

This is the Teen Court Law Process flow chart intended for jury members, judges, and teenagers on trial to use. It was part of a bigger article about Teen Court. This is a very informative flowchart, but there is not much style to it. It simply states the rules and how the court works but doesn't do much to do the audience's attention. However, it isn't for a matter that should be taken lightly so in this case in might actually work. Because there isn't much picture and imagery and has simple colors and a simple font, it makes it seem more important. And in something the adults might scoff at, like Teen Court, this is very important because they want to be taken seriously. The wording and the diction of this flowchart is also very serious, somber, and no slang or regular language. It uses words such as "respondent" and "qualifying" and "referred" to create a sense of authority and seriousness. This is clearly supposed to be taken seriously by the audience, and since the audience might be mostly teenagers, the language and the imagery provokes the serious tones. The purpose of the teen court flowchart was to inform people about the workings of teen court, not to pull people in, or entertain them in any way. And I think it was very effective in doing this because of the simplistic design and font, and because of the diction throughout the piece.

Tow #15 Paris attacks: Millions rally for unity in France

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30765824

This article is about the attacks in France and how they have affected the people living in Paris, people travelling to Paris, or even just people all around the world. There was a rally supporting the the deceased people who were shot by the terrorists and governments reported that it was by far the biggest rally for a singular event that France as a whole has ever held.  More than 40 world leaders joined in the march and it was a real show of solidarity and strength in this time of great hardship for France. People all over the world are tuned into this horrible event and news stories have been covering it for over a week. It shocked the western world so much because it was literally in the heart of Paris, one of the most modern, and the safest cities in the world. This article assumed that the reader would know what it was talking about and dove right into the topic, which I thought was very effective because there was no meandering around the subject and the article got right to the point. Although, it did add some extra information, mentioning that the walk was not just for the victims of the Charles Hebo attacks on the cartoonist newspaper, but also in the kosher market where more were killed. The picture were also a powerful part of this article, as they showed the scale and the importance of the millions of people that showed up for the rally. There was one picture with a woman holding a sign that said "Who is Charlie?" and then everyone behind her holding one up saying "We are all Charlie." This is building on the show of solidarity that the French, and the world is showing for the victims of the attack. This article was very in depth and laid out everything we knew about the attacks, so the common man could understand what happened. Through the use of the pictures, the minute-to-minute scenario, and the powerful emotion-evoking writing I thought this piece was very effective. 

TOW #14 Justine Sacco Says She “Really Suffered” After Tweeting AIDS Joke

This article is about a woman named Justine Sacco who was publicly shamed last year through Twitter. She tweeted a joke making fun of AIDS and it blew up on twitter with people shaming her for the joke with the hashtag #HasJustineLanded. The tweet was, "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!" Which was seen as very offensive by many people in the twitter community. Justine Sacco was a public relations executive but lost her job because of the tweet and hasn't made progress in her career. She is in the news again because it is the first time she is speaking out about in in a new book called So You've Been Publicly Shamed, a book about people who have been famous shamees, shamers, and bystanders who have been affected. I was especially intrested in this because the man who wrote this book is Jon Ronson, who also wrote the book I am reading for my IRB right now. This is also interesting because after people have been "publicly shamed" on twitter, or tumblr, or facebook, you don't generally hear about them and what happened to them and even if you do there's no sympathy for the woman who is making fun of AIDS. There's no forgiveness and I think that's what the book is really going to be about, forgiving these people who yes made mistakes but have learned from them and are trying to rebuild their lives. The book talks a lot about how the internet created this fake persona of Justine Sacco that was a racist, loud, clearly evil woman and that was not the true Justine Sacco. It was interesting to see how this one tweet destroyed a woman's life and if she had just thought about this crass and inappropriate joke a little longer she would still be a successful executive. 

TOW #13 Can The Next Generation Of Morticians Breathe Life Into The Death Industry? by Katie Heaney

Article Here

Can The Next Generation Of Morticians Breathe Life Into The Death Industry? by Katie Heaney is the article I read for my thirteenth TOW. This article is about the lives of morticians students, and studying to become a mortician. It also tackles larger issues that realte not only to morticians, but to everyone, topics like life and death, how the dead should be treated, who should deal with the dead, and other big ideas with the morbid thoughts that come along with interview and stepping in the lives of young students choosing the life of death. The author, Katie Heaney, asks at the beginning, "The young, close-knit, predominantly female students in SUNY Canton’s mortuary school are fascinated with our most difficult, yet unavoidable, subject. But when it comes to changing attitudes about death and grieving, are educational programs like the one they’re in part of the problem?" Throughout the piece, Heaney gives fascinating commentary on the lives of these students and why they picked their area of study, but also questions their lives, questions the things they are doing and if they make sense. For example, she questions their air of superiority because they think they are the only ones that can deal with death when in fact, they aren't special they're just better equipped. One of the students tells the story of after a close friend died, everyone in her hometown came to her for help because she was the death expert but she had no idea how to help them, or help herself in her own grieving process because how to help the living isn't taught in mortiary school. The author challenges the belief that in mortuary school, all they should be taught is how to embalm. She believes they should be able to cremate, bury, other forms of honoring the dead, and bein gthere for the emotional support of loved ones. This was very effective for this piece because the audience were questioning youth and she is one of her audience, the questioning youth that find that there is something wrong with the world and want to change it.