TOW #27- Hypocrites by George Saunders (written text)

In George Saunders’ essay, “Hypocrites,” Saunders attempts to portray the hypocritical nature of mankind particularly through his personal experiences and irony. Saunders starts out the essay with a particular instance of when he saw Father X and Sister Y breaking the rules of the church. This shocking, yet incredibly interesting, anecdote helps draw the reader in to the essay, as well as to help remain as a basis upon which many of the other important, ironic points of the essay can be drawn upon. For example, Saunders ends with a shocking anecdote about how he was fired from being a reader of the Bible for his church because Father X did not approve of his long-ish hair. The irony in this was that long hair was a far less punishable crime than Father X’s religious crime with Sister Y. However, Father X was condemning Saunders so ruthlessly (Saunders was not even giving the warning to cut his hair) for such a miniscule, subjective detail, while Father X was getting away with a much greater crime. This double standard within the church helped to nicely summarize Saunders’ point that humans are hypocritical. In doing this, Saunders is able to analyze well the humanness of all people and that despite whatever power people may have, all people have their flaws. This epiphany helped Saunders to better understand the human race, and he was able to feel better connected to Jesus. Saunders is able to portray this epiphany throughout his essay by using the example of Father X and Sister Y, and then, after analyzing this encounter, mentioning how he was fired from his reading job for hair that was too long. By doing this, Saunders is able to effectively accomplish his purpose of explaining the nature of mankind through the use of personal anecdotes and irony.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/09/hypocrites?printable=true&currentPage=all

TOW #26- Reveal Your Inner Athlete by Rademar (visual text)

This advertisement for Rademar sports store is most effective because of it’s shocking initial appearance. For example, if you were to come across this advertisement in the real world, at first glance, it appears as though the person is pulling the skin off of their foot in order to reveal the normal insides of a person (like blood, muscles, etc.), which can be displayed through the red color of the shoe. This plays on humans’ natural instincts of curiosity to further investigate situations that disturb them. After the viewer looks closer into the picture (despite any initial shock, grossness, or fright), they see that the “insides” of the person are actually just an athletic shoe, and the bandaid on the leg says, “Reveal your inner athlete” in an attempt to encourage more people to exercise, even if they believe that they are not athletic. However, the size of the font is not very effective for the advertisement. Even though the main attention-grabbing part of the advertisement is the foot with the skin and shoe, it is very difficult to find out what the advertisement is actually advertising unless you look very close in the lower right hand corner, when you see that this advertisement is for an athletic store. However, the initial response to this advertisement is that it is for encouraging people to buy the certain brand of sneakers, perhaps because they work naturally like the inside of your foot, yet upon closer inspection, you can see that it is advertising that you find your inner athlete, and if you look even closer, you can find the name of the store that produced this advertisement. This advertisement would be very effective for something like advertising a certain brand of sneakers, however, it is not very effective for advertising the sports store. If the store were to continue using this advertisement, they should at least increase the size of the font in order to more clearly portray what they are advertising.

TOW #25- After Life by Joan Didion (written text)

Joan Didion’s heartwrenching essay, “After Life,” clearly portrays her experience of life after her husband died. Cleverly titled “After Life,” Didion’s play on words contributes to her explanation of her own experiences of life without her husband, while at the same time demonstrating the idea of death (which is usually the connotation of “afterlife” spelled as one word). Didion’s essay is organized into five parts, like mini chapters. This helps to break up the essay and keep it engaging, as opposed to creating a ranting-like organization that seems to simply drone on. Didion’s hook is also very effective. She begins with a short poem-like collection of words that she had originally written after her husband’s death. What made these words significant was that Didion had previously been a writer (and her husband had been a writer as well) and these were the first words she had written after his death. These words follow a simple sentence structure, and although they are also simple words, when strung together, they have a deep meaning that connects to every possible audience member (because life can change at an instant for anybody). This deep meaning draws the audience in because they want to read an explanation of what these words mean and why she wrote them. The audience is the general public, however, geared more specifically towards adults who more frequently face similar instances of experiencing great losses in an instant, although it can be written for anybody since anybody can be affected by an instantaneous loss.  Additionally, Didion alludes to the events of 9/11, among other events, in an attempt to portray how losses like she faced are instantaneous and occur at the most “ordinary” of moments. The purpose of Didion’s essay is to explain a time in her life where she experienced this instantaneous loss, and through a well-organized essay and a compelling story of her experiences, Didion is able to connect to others who may have experienced a similar loss, or prepare others who are yet to experience a loss.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/magazine/25didion.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

TOW #24- Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (IRB post 2)

Laura Hillenbrand supports her story well in the book Unbroken with primary source quotes and research. By doing this, Hillenbrand is able to appeal to ethos well and make the story more believable, as well as familiarize readers on the details of war with which they might not be familiar (assuming they are not World War II historians). This helps the reader better understand the story, and Hillenbrand is able to accomplish her purpose. Hillenbrand’s purpose is to inform the reader of the miraculous life events of Louis Zamperini, from his incredible Olympic journal to his ability to beat all the odds in surviving the war, from surviving a plane crash to surviving a prisoner of war camp. Since Hillenbrand’s book is based on a true story, she must provide this extensive research for her audience to help solidify the validity of her writing. For example, when explaining the troubles faced by B-24 planes landing on small islands, Hillenbrand writes, “For loaded B-24s, which needed well over four thousand feet for takeoff, the cropped island runways, often abutted by towering palm trees, were a challenge, ‘The takeoff proved exciting,’ wrote Sergeant Frank Rosynek of one overloaded departure” (82). In this quote, Hillenbrand is able to give background information to the reader about some of the difficulties faced by planes liked Zamperini’s as well as provide a primary source quotation to help give the reader a more well-rounded opinion of the time period. Also, in addition to simply citing facts of the time period, Hillenbrand is able to use primary source quotations to help set the tone and provide the emotions of the soldiers for the readers. For example, Hillenbrand writes, “‘There was a SWOOSH and pieces of palm fronds suddenly appeared jammed in the cracks, on both sides!...Only the laundry knew how scared I was’”(82). The story is more believable and intriguing with Hillenbrand’s provided primary sources, which helps her complete her purpose well and write a thoroughly interesting and informative book.

TOW #23- How to speak so that people want to listen by Julian Treasure (written text)

Julian Treasure studies sound and then advises people on how to use it. He is the chair of the Sound Agency, which advises businesses on how to use sound. This background in studying sound provides Treasure with the automatic ethos he needs in order to make an effective speech about sound. Although Treasure has made a total of five TED Talk speeches on different aspects of sound, this TED Talk, “How to speak so that people want to listen,” focuses on the production of sound from the individual, while other speeches of his focus more on listening, etc. Treasure has an effective introduction in this speech, connecting with his audience before explaining to them how to speak well. He begins by stating a fact that connects everyone to him (saying that the human voice is an instrument we all play) while using the first person pronoun of “we” to show that what he is saying applies to him as well, which helps his appeal to ethos. He then immediately provides examples of using the voice that also connect to the audience while proving his point that the voice is a powerful tool (such as when he explains using the voice to say “I love you”). The organization of Treasure’s speech is also very effective. He begins by listing all of the mistakes people make when speaking and then he goes on to correct these mistakes by explaining how to talk correctly. He uses verbal numbered lists that also appear sequentially on his power point to help with the organization of his ideas. Since his purpose is to explain how to speak well, following this structure allows him to explain this in a clear, direct way that allows for easy visualization since this was intended to be an oral speech. Using all of these strategies, Treasure’s purpose of explaining how to speak well is accomplished.

https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_how_to_speak_so_that_people_want_to_listen/transcript?language=en

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIho2S0ZahI

TOW #22- #DearMe by YouTube (visual text)

YouTube’s #DearMe campaign seeks to inspire young girls to not be afraid of being themselves. In an attempt to accomplish this, YouTube must gear the advertisement towards the audience of the young girls. YouTube does this by compiling the videos of many different girls from different ages, races, personalities, etc. This provides the advertisement with automatic ethos since the young girls are bound to listen to at least one of the girls who connects to them the most. Additionally, since the advertisement is compiled of real life videos that average people (not paid actors, etc.) made in honor of the campaign, the young girls are more likely to listen to and believe the older girls. Finally, since the advertisement is created by YouTube, a well-known, popular Internet site, the advertisement has automatic ethos since it is sponsored by such a reputable source. While most of the girls have relatively serious things to say, a couple of the girls make humorous remarks, which helps appeal to the pathos of the ad. By doing this, the advertisement makes an appeal to the emotions of the young girls, which helps them believe the advertisement more (which is the purpose of it). Additionally, the music in the background helps set the inspirational tone. The organization of the advertisement begins by the older girls saying “Dear [specific name].” This makes these girls seem more real and helps the younger girls connect to them more easily. The girls in the advertisement then go on to discuss some of the things that they felt insecure about when they were younger, which helps the younger girls who might be experiencing similar things connect to these older girls and want to listen to the advice the older girls are giving towards the end. The advertisement also creates one letter by picking and choosing certain phrases from many girls’ letters, which helps portray the universal message, as well as make the advertisement exciting as opposed to one person just giving a speech. By doing all of these things, the advertisement seems to be successful in attempting to accomplish young girls to not be insecure about themselves. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/YouTube?feature=inp-gh-ydr-us 

TOW #21- A Modest Proposal to Convert Shopping Malls into Prisons by Dan Geddes (written text)

The article, “A Modest Proposal to Convert Shopping Malls into Prisons” by Dan Geddes, is a satirical article from The Satirist. The explicit purpose is to argue that shopping malls should be turned into prisons. However, the implicit purpose is to comment on the behaviors of society, such as the tendencies to work hard to buy cheaply made goods or to eat oneself to death by eating over-priced, unhealthy foods. The title of the article is an allusion to “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift. By doing this, Geddes is able to demonstrate that his article will follow a similar style to Swift’s: heavily satirical, but still making a valid statement about something that needs to be fixed (in Swift’s case, it is about the Irish famine, while in Geddes’ case, it is about the negative tendencies of society). Geddes also uses many of the elements in Swift’s essay in his own as well. For example, both authors go through the math of why their proposals are the best solution to the given problem, which helps appeal to the logos of the argument, making it more believable. Additionally, Geddes article uses humor in an attempt to appeal to pathos. For example, Geddes comments on the traffic light situation of shopping malls, how the lights seem to be always green on the way into the mall, but seem to be always red on the way out. While he comments on this situation in the context of preventing inmates from escaping, this is humorous to the audience who may have experienced a similar occurrence with the traffic lights when just completing “normal” shopping (as opposed to being in mall prison). The intended audience is the members of society who are guilty of committing the things to which Geddes refers. For example, Geddes talks about people being glued to their couches when watching TV or using the Internet, as well as the negative eating and shopping habits of people. Geddes is attempting to open their eyes to the negative effects of their ways but using what they do on a daily basis as parts of his prison. He is able to negatively comment on their actions without offending them too much since it is written in a satirical way and Geddes is not directly criticizing people for doing these things, rather, he suggests making them part of a prison. Geddes ends with a clincher, saying, “And from that, we all benefit” (27). By saying this, Geddes uses irony, since it is ironic that the things done on a regular basis by the general population would be enough of a punishment to prisoners to benefit society on a whole.

http://www.thesatirist.com/satires/PoliticalSatire/mall_prisons.html