Worst Place to Study

On Reading Day, I probably picked the worst place to study. I figured that Torgersen Bridge and the Newman would be insanely crowded so I thought that my dorm room would suffice. I am rewarded with trucks outside backing up to the loading bay, people in my hall taking apart their lofts while yelling to each other and the floor above me moving furniture around. Three finals in the next two days. Not smart.

My Brain Hurts

Every couple of months, I will have a bout of insomnia that keeps me from sleeping for a few days. It just so happens that it is happening now. I tried to read to fall asleep. My bedtime reading last night of a paper for sociology concerning crime, rape and homicides. Tonight it will most likely be the monetary policy of the Fed, with some partial derivatives in there to mix it up.
The lack of sleep may be caused by the Vermonster my friends and I ate last night to celebrate a friend's birthday. Twenty scoops of ice cream, four bananas, four ounces of hot fudge and caramel, several toppings and whipped cream to top the monstrous vat of dairy off. I already couldn't sleep before attempting that though. Besides the lack of sleep and large work load (three exams next week), it has been a good week thus far. I feel happy. Maybe it's because the weather is changing for the better, or because participating in the Big Event made me feel somewhat accomplished or because I have Relay for Life to look forward to this weekend. Just a few more weeks left.

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

With two exams to take this week, I've been inside all day despite the beautiful weather outside. While poring over the details of how the money markets work for my economics class, it has been silent for the most part so I can commit the points to memory. Recently however, someone has been playing the piano in the crossover, which I can hear from my room. Whoever he or she is, they are amazing. The pieces they play are complicated and dramatic - it almost feels like there should be an urgency to my studying (and yes, there is). I admire them. Though I may never meet them, I'm aware of how much skill is needed to make beautiful music; I used to play the piano when I was little. Along with the violin, I felt like I was musically inclined. I wished that I had had enough commitment at the time to continue so that I could sound like this person. Simply amazing.

They Say, I Say: Ch. 5, Ex. 1

To introduce her topic, Julie Charlip quotes Marx and Engels, saying that they wrote such and such. She sets it up so that immediately following that quote, she can begin with "but" to state her opinion. She continues to do this by saying "I find..." Charlip does the essentially the same thing again, introducing a sociologist with a quote that she had garnered from him. She then states, "His definition: [...]" which allows she to go on to question the finer intricacies of the living styles between classes. Another instance where she cites a differing opinion is when she writes that "the average American will tell you he or she is 'middle class.'" Following after, she writes "but" to again state her stance.

They Say, I Say: Ch. 4, Ex. 1

Like the exercise first states, Jean Anyon first summarizes the main points of authors Bowles and Gintis, who argue that students who come from different backgrounds are rewarded for different behaviors. She then goes on to summarize the points of Berstein, Bourdieu, and Apple, who all believe that a different set of knowledge and skills are only available to certain social classes. Anyon seems to agree with both points, as she sets out to “offer tentative empirical support (and qualification) of the above arguments.” Though she says she has tentative, or uncertain, evidence of this, the purpose of the article that she is writing seems to be to prove that they are, in fact, true. Anyon hopes to accomplish this by “providing illustrative examples of student work. […] in contrasting social class communities.” From this, I concluded that she agrees with the arguments given and plans to discuss how different social class does affect students in terms of showing what they accomplish as a result of this social class dichotomy.

Exercise 7j - What Difference Does Design Make

Cassidy Trom's paper most resembles a magazine article in terms of layout and design. It is written as a sort of expose on Generation X and what is often associated with their time of youth. Like a magazine article, it incorporates pictures dispersed throughout for visual interest. Trom also captions the pictures and appropriately credits the sources. She also uses larger and a different style of font both in her title, which adorns every page, and to emphasize certain aspects of the topic and accent her paper, again adding visual interest. For instance, she explains how "artists used their popularity as a stage for their unruly behavior" and the difference in its style from the body text makes the reader stop and look at it for a second longer.

Because it looks like a magazine article, one might have more inclination to read it. Magazines typically cater to specific audiences, in that, they spend money on observing the type of people that buy their magazine so thus, the article must at least have something in it that concerns them. With an essay, the typical reader is more likely to shrug it off as something that was just assigned and written because it had to be.

I feel that because it is laid out in a more appealing way than the ordinary english paper, it would be more likely to be read by someone other than a teacher. Flipping through it, I was glad that it was five pages of text (in differing fonts) and pictures, rather than a straitlaced times new roman five paragraph essay. If reformatted to look more like a typical paper, I think it would lose that initial appeal. It would still be a well written, interesting essay but it would lose that hook of visual appeal that attracts and keeps many readers.

Back In The Daily Routine

Waking up early isn't really a problem for me. With the hum of the heater ever present and the creaks of closets making themselves heard, falling asleep was the problem. Still, after a four hour long bus ride, I was exhausted. After attempting to unsuccessfully finish my accounting homework, I moved onto art, which acts as a stress reliever for me. Currently, it is an abstract mess of scribbles, a change from my organized calendar of events. Over the next five weeks, I have seven exams.

I also have to see the bone doctor tomorrow for my fractured finger, which kept me from playing on an intramural wallyball team. I find that it only aches when the weather is like this. Otherwise, I don't have to worry about it though I think that if I hadn't tripped up the stairs at home and broken my fall with my hands, maybe it also wouldn't hurt so much sometimes. We'll see. Spring Break was the rest I needed but there is so much to do.

Personal Post

The last few days have not been great. I did terribly on one of my exams and still have two more to take this week. I have also been getting annoying headaches. Not the greatest condition to be in when tests are session. Still, there are little things that made my week enjoyable; the weekly ice cream sundae I treat myself to on Fridays and read a letter from a friend. I love sending letters to people. Though only a few respond, I find that hearing back from them, that the stories I share with them make them smile, makes me feel a little accomplished inside.
Perhaps my favorite part of the week was seeing the tricycle parked outside my building actually being ridden around. I was walking behind the person pedaling away, the plastic tires scratching as they picked up speed. Everyone who saw him either smiled, laughed or looked on in disbelief. Though the rest of my week was terrible, every time I thought of that little tricycle being ridden by a guy at least my age, I just couldn't help but appreciate how something so simple could make me smile so much.

Persepolis Revised Movie Review

While settling into a chair to watch a movie, many will comment on how unrealistic the story is, or how people in “real life” would never act like that. Still, the heart pumping fight scenes of the must-see blockbuster typically draw people in droves as they escape normalcy to live vicariously through the characters. However, the less celebrated ones that feature a coming-of-age story are the ones that many want to relate to. They can say that they have, at one point, gone through what the protagonist has experienced. Persepolis is no different, though the circumstances of her politically deteriorating country showcases more then what is pictured as black and white.

In the style of the graphic novels it was based on, Marjane Satrapi’s life plays out in animated form. As a warning, it may underwhelm those expecting the bells and whistles of today’s modern animated pictures. Jack Matthews of the New York Daily Times calls the animation “Saturday-morning cartoon quality at best.” Despite this, Matthews also says that if the film were done differently, “it would distract from its marvel of a story.” The simplicity of style should not fool anyone into thinking that this is a children’s movie; her story has many shades of grey. Fellow film critic Roger Ebert comments on the style as well, calling it “deliberately two dimensional, avoiding the illusion of depth in current animation.“

Beginning in color and returning to black and white, Satrapi delves into her memories when she cannot board a plane to return to Iran. Satrapi’s story certainly calls for attention to detail. Part of a middle class family in Iran, Satrapi is fumbling with the heavier consequences of the revolution around her. Iran is soon plunged into war with Iraq and the gravity of reality sets in for Satrapi. Fearing for her safety, her parents send her to Austria for schooling and freedom from the oppressive regime. There she finds broken promises of a better life. She returns to her roots eventually, only to depart from it again in the end as more complications arise.

Though one can expect the graphic novels to be more in depth, the film captured the essential details of Satrapi’s story. She herself helped write the screenplay, keeping the adaption true to her memories. Dialogue was an integral part of the movie and was spoken with such earnest in emotion that you almost forget that the film is in French. Though for English speakers subtitles are required, it is tolerable to enjoy such a movie. This means however, that we are robbed of our other senses while focusing on the words. I did not notice any memorable instrumentals during the film until it was brought to my attention later. Then again, that adds some realism to the film – I don’t walk around to a full orchestra playing in the background.

The pacing of the film matched the circumstances of the story as it progressed, making it almost feel like two movies in one. The visual style of the film sets it apart from other animated movies. It lacks such colorful, 3-D characters like Shrek or the cute animals from Over The Hedge, both wildly popular (and heavily marketed) animated films. A more obscure film, it is not a movie that one would choose just for a few laughs. There are some parts that seem to inject comedy into the movie, but for the most part, it is a serious film, heavy with internal and external conflict.

Persepolis focuses heavily on characterization, especially that of Satrapi. Ebert writes that “it is infinitely more interesting than the witless coming-of-age Western girls we meet in animated films.” Faced with the notion of growing up, Satrapi’s pull from her own history gives her story a dynamic, grittily realistic feel, unlike many of today’s modern stories that focus more on laughs and superficial beauty of the characters. Still, like any ordinary person lost in their daydreams, we see her fantasizing, floating out in space lost in her thoughts, until she is shocked out of that state when bombs drop around her. Packaged in an initially deceiving fashion, Persepolis delivers a mature, engaging story of a misunderstood population.

Draft of Movie Review for Persepolis

While settling into a chair to watch a movie, many will comment on how unrealistic the story is, or how people in “real life” would never act like that. Still, the heart pumping fight scenes of the must-see blockbuster typically draw people in droves as they escape normalcy to live vicariously through the characters. However, the less celebrated ones that feature a coming-of-age story are the ones that many want to relate to. They can say that they have, at one point, gone through what the protagonist has experienced. Persepolis is no different, though the circumstances of her politically deteriorating country showcases more then what is pictured as black and white.

In the style of the graphic novels it was based on, Marjane Satrapi’s life plays out in animated form. Beginning in color and returning to black and white, Satrapi delves into her memories when she cannot board a place to return to Iran. The simplicity of style should not fool anyone into thinking that this is a children’s movie; her story has many shades of grey. Part of a middle class family, Satrapi is fumbling with the heavier consequences of the changing society around her; while her parents protest against the Shah, she dreams of being a prophet. She grows to idolize her uncle Anoosh, a political prisoner having been arrested for ideas of communism. Though the Shah is eventually overturned, Islamic Fundamentalists soon force the rest of the population into their definition of freedom, which for the women meant veils.

Iran is soon plunged into war with Iraq and the gravity of reality sets in for Satrapi. Anoosh is rearrested. Authorities corner her and her family. Having spoken against the teacher in school, Satrapi is sent away by her parents to Austria for safety. Unfortunately, there she finds lackluster friendship, love and shame. Though she returns to Iran, she doesn’t seem to belong.
Though one can expect the graphic novels to be more in depth, the film did capture the essential details of Satrapi’s story. She helped write the screenplay as well, keeping the adaption true to her memories. The pacing of the film matched the circumstances of the story as it progressed; with her childhood memories, events seemed more sporadic and disjointed, though all interconnected at the same time. The visual style of the film sets it apart from other animated movies; though black and white, I could relate to the clear-cut characters. Their voices were earnest in emotion and though for English speakers that means having to read subtitles, it does not take away from the movie.

For those with casual knowledge of the Iranian Revolution, the storyline will be easier to follow. However, portions of the movie do depict who is really in power of Iran at the time by employing the style of shadow puppets, implying that authorities were just pawns. Surprisingly, the simple lines of the characters display such emotion that you can sympathize with them. When the explosions of bombs terrorize the country, there is a notable panic in the air, with the stark style deteriorating to sketchier lines. Packaged in an initially deceiving fashion, Persepolis delivers a mature, engaging story of a misunderstood population.

Spider-Man 2 Reviews

In most movie reviews, these included, a short synopsis of the film is typical. Todd Gilchrist calls Spider-Man 2 a “captivating narrative tapestry,” but despite this, he seems ever critical to the intricacies of the story. Holding Spider-Man 2 to its prequel, Gilchrist seems to think that director Sam Raimi falls short in reproducing the same success. Roger Ebert however, thinks differently; he believes that Spider-Man 2 is the “best superhero movie since the 1978 Superman. Gilchrist seems caught up in the technical aspects of the movie, how certain scenes should have been cut to make the story “flow” better. With the addition of such scenes, he believes that the audience was left “without a comfortable sense of focus as the film hurtles towards its dramatic conclusion.”
Ebert focuses more on the growth and development of the characters themselves, such as the chemistry between the awkward Tobey Maguire and the “valuable” Kirsten Dunst, who invokes the continuity of the series with the upside-down kiss. Gilchrist calls attention also to the screenwriting, which, for him, is repetitive. While some might agree, others might say that the reinforcement of the story’s key themes keeps the story focused. Gilchrist says that writer Michael Chabon is “over-attentive” yet Ebert interprets him differently, praising him for understanding “in his bones what comic books are.” Still, both of them praise the weight of conflicts that are more complicated and serious that ultimately makes Spider-Man 2 a cut above others.

Persepolis

With film adaptations of book becoming quite commonplace nowadays, I always try to read the book before watching the movie. In nearly every case, I have enjoyed the book much more. The movie Persepolis however, has seemed to capture Marjane’s Satrapi’s memories relatively well, though with certain liberties taken for fleeting screen time. Still, characters were easily recognizable and the essence of the plot still lived on.

I would have liked to see the scene when Satrapi first experiments with smoking, a pivotal point in the comic as it shows that she is no longer a child. Seeing the animated motions of the characters on screen drew me; for something as simple as the puffs of smoke disappearing in swirling trails, only to reappear a second later made it clear that though derived from the graphic novels, film had a life of its own. In a visual sense, though staying true to the graphic novel, the filmmakers were clever with certain aspects of the film. One instance was with the shadow puppets, used when it was obvious that people were just pawns of an outside player.

Lacking a soundtrack throughout the movie made it seem so much more realistic; I for one, don’t have the luxury of running down the stairs to an orchestra playing. It kept me grounded to the story and dialogue. Speaking of dialogue, hearing the voices of the characters was something that was powerful. Anger, happiness, worry – you could hear it in the inflections of the voice actors. When reading anything, though there seems to be an internal monologue playing, you really are not actually hearing anything. Though the movie was subtitled, I almost preferred it that way – not everyone speaks English after all.

Though the same language is something that is not universal in our world, the ideas of Satrapi’s graphic novel are. Film makes them more easily accessible; the graphic novel preserves their spirit.

Wanting to Follow Bread Crumbs

With the stress of school piling up, I find it difficult to find time to just relax. Thankfully, my family surprised me by visiting on Valentine’s Day to have lunch with me. My dad told me that I needed to chill out. Easily my favorite part of the weekend, though a close second would have to be the gigantic stuffed dogs they bought for my roommate and I. They are affectionately dubbed Wilbur and Bones and though they can’t replace our real dogs, hugging them makes us feel a little closer to home.

I also signed a lease with my friends for an apartment in the area so I do have a place to live next year. When we went to finalize the lease, we all noticed that there were bowls of candy everywhere in the apartment’s office. I felt a bit like Hansel and Gretel, indulging in the simply joys of processed and artificially colored candy while the landlady made copies of everything for us in the next room. She doesn’t seem like a witch, but to end this lightheartedly, I’ll share a joke found on a laffy taffy wrapper.

Why did the witch fly on a broom?

The vacuum cleaner was too heavy.

Apartment Hunt

After not receiving a housing contract to live on-campus next year, I have to say that I was at a loss for words. In past years, they had offered 85-95% of applicants housing contracts. This year, I just happen to be one of the 15% who didn't get lucky. I really didn't know what to do; everyone I know had gotten a contract. However, my roommate and two good friends were willing to get an apartment with me. It wasn't my choice but living off campus is my only option since a second housing lottery is highly unlikely.

As a result, in a few hours, one of our good friends will be taking us on a road trip, soul searching for that perfect apartment. And by perfect, I mean cheap. I'll probably have to get another job in the summer in addition to the one that I have lined up in order to pay for everything next year but I don't mind working hard. Everything happens for a reason.

Graff, Chapter 1, Excerise 1 & Template Practice

a. Our experiments suggest that there are dangerous levels of Chemical X in the Ohio groundwater.
Findings suggest that the Ohio groundwater contains dangerous levels of Chemical X.
b. My own view is that this novel has certain flaws.
Many may agree that this novel has certain flaws.
c. Football is so boring.
Some say that football is not the most exciting sport.
d. Male students often dominate class discussions.
Observations seem to support that male students tend to dominate class discussions.
e. In my view the film is really about the problems of romantic relationships.
Critics have pointed out that many films like this have underlying themes about the difficulties of romantic relationships.
f. I’m afraid that templates like the ones in this book will stifle my creativity.
Some might say that templates similar to ones found in this book will limit their creativity.

The common perception of comics is that they are just simple pictures. McCloud explains how through the usage of icons, many mistake the icon for what it is rather than what it represents. For example, Marjane Satrapi draws tears on her face in several panels of Persepolis to represent sadness. Even though there are no physical tears, it is generally understood that she is sad.

Graff, Exercise 1

This is an excerpt of an op-ed piece by John R. Bolton for the New York Times entitled Iraq's Victory, Iran's Loss.

First, they were not entirely dominated by Shiite voters. After mostly boycotting the 2005 Iraq elections, Sunnis participated on Saturday in large numbers. Many of them seem to recognize that their abstention had been a mistake. If they follow through in the general elections that should be held later this year, the composition of Iraq’s Parliament will change substantially.

Moreover, it’s unfair to assume that Tehran calls the shots among Iraqi Shiites. This gives too much credit to Iranian propaganda, and too little to the good sense of the Shiites themselves. Now they must decide whether taking orders from mullahs in Tehran is really more attractive than electing their own representatives in Baghdad.

Response to Eisner and McCloud

Both Eisner and McCloud obviously seem to have profound thoughts on how comics can affect the human mind and why they are so appealing. Before when I thought of comics, I thought of classics such as Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield and Peanuts and how silly everything looked. All of them have very stylized characters, a clear departure from reality, but as McCloud points out, “when you enter the world of the cartoon – you see yourself.”

I agree that we as humans are incredibly self-centered, as he said. Otherwise, how would we be able to interpret two dots and a straight line as a face? I thought that an interesting point that McCloud made was how by simplifying images, cartoons focus on specific details that you recognize to be part of yourself. Like he says, when I am talking to someone, I focus on them and I am not aware of what I look like though I know that I am also doing the same things – talking, smiling, laughing. When I see them, I see a clear face in very real detail. When I think of myself, I don't quite know what I see.

Also, Eisner points out how effectively comics can be used to convey a sense of time. When I’m reading comics, I feel that the separated panels do in fact, set the pace for the action happening within them. Personally, I struggle to read graphic novels because when I read novels, I visualize all the events. With graphic novels, I tend to dissect the images more for clues that would be revealed in words. Eisner makes an excellent point in quoting Tom Wolf when he states “reading […] can be thought of as a form of perceptual activity.” After all, in general, we as humans do try to read everything – words, pictures and even people.

Exploring Your Own Writing Process

For me, writing is very situational. I have to feel like writing to actually produce anything of note. For essays like personal statements, I’ll need time to myself to sit down and reflect upon what I want to communicate to the reader. Once I settle upon an idea, if I feel like my thoughts are coming and going too fast for me to record using the traditional pen and paper, I’ll switch to my laptop because it is just faster to record my thoughts that way. Just coming up with an idea is not always enough for me however; to stay motivated on finishing a thought, I like to keep music on to add a sort of background soundtrack to what I’m thinking about. Right now in fact, I’m listening to “You Haven’t Told Me Anything” by Keane. It may seem distracting to others but I find that the music helps keep me constantly thinking.

Generally, I will start writing out the thoughts I have without any real order or grammatical correctness in a stream of consciousness fashion. Once I feel like I have several strong ideas, I’ll look over it and begin to reorganize what details connect to each other. I create a rough outline in this way and begin to rework sentences to be more coherent and fleshed out in concept. I compose better when I’m writing the real content of the paper first, that is, everything besides the traditional introduction and conclusion, which I typically save for last. I like the concept of a thesis because developing one helps me focus on the main points of the paper but I realize that having one is not applicable for every piece of writing.

After constructing some semblance of what the paper will be, I like to close it and not look at it for a few hours or a day even, if time permits. Leaving it alone and doing something else gives me a chance to clear my head so upon revisiting the paper, I can decide if I really want to keep a certain thought in the final paper. Reviewing my thoughts is especially important because I don’t want to have people read my writing if I don’t agree with it.

I’ve edited many papers for content as co-editor-in-chief of my high school yearbook and in other English classes. While things like grammar shouldn’t be overlooked, the copies for the yearbook needed to be reworked for content especially multiple times in order to represent and appeal to the student body, the ultimate audience of the staff’s writings. Other than that, peer review sessions have not been entirely helpful as many just look for easy fixes like grammatical mistakes. Also, when a peer reviewed a paper, the paper would be mostly complete; no one wants to be the killjoy to say that they should rethink a major portion of their paper.

Waking Life

For the past couple of days, I’ve been feverish. Because I felt like I couldn’t afford to get sick, I took a dose of Nyquil to help me get over it yesterday before I went to sleep. My roommate had been out and came back late and when I woke up, I felt like I was impaired, with a false sense of reality. I remembered a few details like getting up and looking for a midnight snack. I clumsily knocked over a cup of water while looking for my glasses.

When I really woke up this morning though, I felt like it had been a dream. There was no spilled water but I don’t remember cleaning it up. And did I really eat that S’mores Chewy bar? It may be the Nyquil talking but really, how can we tell the difference? Sometimes, I feel like when I’m awake, it is just a dream. I’m just going through the motions. When will I wake up?

"They say that dreams are only real as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?"
- Waking Life, (2001)

Workshop Draft R

If the author intended for essay R to be a draft, it should, at the very least, give a rough outline of what they intend to cover. Drafts should give the writer a canvas upon which to show a level of organized thought after they have brainstormed and narrowed their focus. Its purpose should be deliberate; the writer should have clear intentions of telling their audience something about the topic. While in a draft it doesn’t have to be fully developed, the skeletal frame of a paper should appear. A thesis should be evident to state what the writer intends to examine and how they will go about doing it. Without knowing what the author wants to communicate to his audience, one cannot give constructive comments about how to improve the paper or even what to be looking for when reading it. For this essay in particular, the writer seems to want to target those casual fans of wrestling but overwhelms them with too many detail about too many things.

A suggestion I would make to this writer is to narrow their focus. They mention interesting topics such as women wrestlers breaking ground in the professional wrestling field and how wrestling is more of a show in present day. However, they seem to just to spitting out everything they know, with unnecessary details that deviate from their points. They should take some time to rethink how some points fit together well, like the business and show aspects of wrestling. They should also improve their comparison points for wrestling in the 1980s and present day by incorporating more supporting evidence that should be easily found, for instance, in the magazines that the writer points out are published. The most helpful point that I could suggest is to develop a thesis to help organize their thoughts. After writing a thesis, I for one, can focus on what I intend to discuss. The content of the paper is the most significant; in drafts, grammatical mistakes are acceptable and easily corrected once the paper has been laid out.

Grading Essay R

Grading Essay R
Grade: D+

While the author seems to know about wrestling and compare and contrast wrestling then and now, the author is largely ineffective at communicating his points due to lack of a thesis, textual evidence and well-expressed thought.

First off, the author fails to state a clear thesis, or even point out which facets of wrestling they will be examining. This shows, from the beginning, that the paper is not entirely focused. The writer tried to prove that they were knowledgeable about wrestling but could have structured their paper better to talk about the business, the wrestlers, and the show. Instead, they bounce back and forth between subjects and conclude the paper saying that “[they] think that all the changes that [they] have mentioned have been good.” They made gallant attempts to compare present and past but went off on so many tangents that I lost track of what they were actually supposed to be writing about. For example, did they need to mention the “faces” and “heels” of wrestling? This doesn’t seem to be a relevant point in a compare-contrast essay unless these figures were newly introduced when the spectacle of became more important than the wrestling. They try to instill some credibility in themselves by saying that they “have been there to watch it evolve into what it has become today” and that they “have seen or heard about every major superstar there has been in this industry.” While this may be true, the author mentions little about the specific wrestlers themselves, missing out on an opportunity to back up his statements.

The assignment required that the author “smoothly incorporate the use of some outside textual source material.” The author only uses one outside source in their paper, which is only cited for statistics pertaining to the market business of wrestling within the last few years with no data from the 1980’s. A quick Google search brought up that there were action figures made of 1980s wrestlers; marketing is not a new thing for sports and athletes but the author seemed desperate for a source, inserting sales figures from only the past few years. In order to better verify their statement that “all the superstars of today are considerably more built and have more strength,” they could have cited an interview or even a biography or autobiography from a pro wrestler about their fitness routine. Instead, they generalize and editorialize, saying that, for instance, the women are “some of the most beautiful women in the world.” There are surveys that they could have incorporated to back up this point but instead, the author seems enthralled with women in general and says how the women are “succeeding in a male dominated business.” If this were true, shouldn’t they have included, possibly, salaries that these professional athletes are paid in order to confirm their point?

They made several grammatical and spelling mistakes, and expressed very subjective opinions that weren’t cited. It was written very casually, giving the reader a much too cursory glance of the world of wrestling as they tried to touch base with everything. It also seemed rushed, as there is even a missing sentence that just begins with “then.” It might have been successful, had the author actually refined their points and vocabulary. The conclusion especially seemed loose, basically stating that despite the changes over the course of two decades, wrestling will continue to change as it always has but I’m not sure I see how. If the wrestlers already have to keep in “top cardiovascular shape,” how would the wrestlers improve on that? If the women have already posed for one of the most popular men’s magazines, how would that change in the foreseeable future? Will wrestling simply become a show and not an actual test of strength? Or has it already reached that level with the fireworks and taped promos?

From this essay, I got the sense that the sport of wrestling has changed to become more of a business, a campaign built upon celebrities who bulk up not for actually wrestling but rather for the show. Thus, what the fans of wrestling are now watching staged performances for the spectacle rather than the gritty realism of people sweating bullets locked in battle to avoid being thrown off their feet. Basically, they got their point across that yes, some things are different but they failed to prove it and present it in a clear-cut fashion.

2H: Rhetorical Analysis

Bryan West is responding to Gabriel McVey’s article on the Clinton administration, which from West’s essay, seems to be a political commentary that tried discredit the Clinton name in the election. West states clearly that his aim is to analyze the rhetoric of McVey, who penned an article clearly against any sort of “continuation of the previous Clinton tenure.” He intends to examine how McVey employed certain tactics to persuade the reader of McVey’s article, in order to inform the reader of his analysis that McVey was “unsuccessful at persuading his audience to believe what he wrote.” Though this seems to be directed at a professor, it could easily apply to anyone who may have wanted to search the credibility of authors and the logic behind their rhetoric, which was especially important in the time leading up to the election. When presidential candidates were running for nomination, it was vital that one who was unsure of whom to lend their support to gather information about candidates to hopefully make a well-read decision. It could also apply to McVey, who may have wanted to hear criticism about his editorial, though as West points out, “it is hard to persuade someone over such a divisive issue like politics.”

This seems to be an analytical piece, as West attempts to explain the processes that McVey used to tell readers of the highs and lows of the Clinton administration. Personally, I have written several analytical papers, picking apart the diction of works of fiction and nonfiction alike in order to discover the author’s underlying message. There is also a note of persuasion in this text as West attempts to explain to his audience that McVey was not successful in reaching his audience, who West believes have already made up their mind about the politics of the situation. I read persuasive texts regularly in the editorial sections of several publications like The Washington Post though I am not a master at it myself.

West could have written a more personal narrative to explain how he was personally affected by McVey’s piece so that his intended audience could better relate to him. However, many people do not adapt well to a personal narrative as it is more of a story that people have their own personal favorite forms of, while an analytical piece has a purpose clear and early on. Some however, may also grow tired of the formulaic style of analytical writing.

If he wanted to be really creative, West could have written some form of rap in order to appeal to younger audiences who tend to have shorter attention spans and less of an interest in politics. This would still serve a purpose to inform though he would need to use a more colloquial style of language.

Teachers, social workers and scientists are all required to have an eye for analyzing pieces and for writing their own statements. Teachers have to consider technical things, such as grammar and sentence structure, while also catering to their own personal voice and style of writing. They must also be persuasive if they are to prove a point to their students or colleagues. Social workers will probably attempt to find the reasoning behind certain actions, being analytical about cases to explain how events transpired. Scientists are apt to be more formal and factual in their writings, as they are more often than not, trying to prove something with hard evidence that affords little literary flexibility. When statistics come into play, being persuaded by the data is much simpler to grasp right away as opposed to figures of speech.