TOW #7- Article: Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League

     The article "Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League" was written by William Deresiewicz, an English professor at Yale, as well as an American essayist and literary critic.  The interesting thing about this article is that it was written by a Yale professor, but it criticized Ivy League schools while revealing their true motives and what Ivy League education does to students.  The audience of this article is students deciding where they want to go to college.  William Deresiewicz convinces students not to choose an Ivy League school in order to balance the education inequality that exists in America as well as help students realize how they can get quality education from another school.  William uses figurative language and references to other authors throughout his essay to achieve his purpose.  When describing the admissions process to Ivy League schools, Deresiewicz uses a simile when he writes, "...the admissions process itself, squatting like a dragon at the entrance to adulthood," (para. 6)  The author uses this simile to describe the admissions process in order to cast a wickedness on the admissions for Ivy League schools.  He shows his audience how big of an impact they make on the lives of students as they transition into adulthood, but it also demonizes these people by comparing them to dragons.  William makes it seem as if they will blow fire-breath on a student, instantly ruining their life, if the student doesn't meet the standards of the admission process.  Another way that William encourages students to open their eyes to other schools besides Ivy League schools is by referencing other authors of essay or studies that have the same views.  For example, when describing the cons of attending an Ivy League school he writes, "'What Wall Street figured out,' as Ezra Klein has put it, 'is that colleges are producing a large number of very smart, completely confused graduates.  Kids who have ample mental horsepower, an incredible work ethic and no idea what to do next.'" (para. 24)  By referencing Klein, an American blogger and columnist, he adds support to his argument and reveals the downsides of attending an Ivy League school.  Although these kids may have super-power brains, they don't have the experience in high school or college, or even everyday life, that shows them what to do with their lives after school is over.  This article was very effective in revealing the truths about Ivy League schools using figurative language and references to other authors.  It is an eye-opener to Ivy-driven students who find themselves studying their lives away, without any end goal or purpose.  It is a call to all students to focus on getting an education that matters, and an education that is worth what they pay for.

TOW #6- Visual Text: Political Cartoon by Stantis

     Scott Stantis created this political cartoon for the Chicago Tribune in September regarding the refugee crisis in the Middle East.  Europe had been the destination for many fleeing refugees who had lost everything due to the crisis.  Because of its location, it was a perfect place for desperate refugees to go.  However, as many Serbian refugees were planning to cross over the border to get to Croatia, the connection and flow ended abruptly when Croatia ended road links to Serbia.  This ended the Serbians' ability to find refuge in the European countries that they thought would become safe shelters.  The illustrator of this political cartoon, Scott Stantis, is an editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune.  The audience of this cartoon would be Croatians because he is trying to emphasize the abruptness of Croatia's decision to take back its invitation to the refugees from the Middle East.  Stantis accomplishes this purpose through the use of contrasting colors and irony.  The brick wall in the cartoon represents the Croatian decision to end their invitation to refugees into the country, where refugees were once welcomed.  The welcome mat in front of the brick wall represents how welcoming they first acted towards the refugees.  The irony used by Stantis in the cartoon between the welcome mat and the brick wall shows the abruptness of Croatia's decision to close its borders when they originally made a decision to allow refugees into their country just a day prior.  The contrast in the yellow color of the welcome mat and the black color that represents European territory  emphasizes how abruptly and quickly the decision was changed.  By revealing the effects of this decision on the refugees, Stantis accomplishes his purpose.  The cartoon helps the audience understand that the change of decision led many refugees to having doors slammed in their faces.  The severity of this decision is shown to be devastating for the refugees who have no where else to go.

TOW #5- Article: The Parent Who Wants to Fall Asleep

One of the most difficult tasks to accomplish is to put little kids to sleep at their bedtime.  In an article from The New Yorker, Rebecca Mead uses allusions and comparisons to show parents why the newest bedtime story, The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep, isn't worth their money.  Her audience is parents with little kids because through the article, Mead tries to convince parents why the book is not a good bedtime story to be reading to their children.  One way she does this is through allusions and comparisons to other popular stories.  For example, she alludes to Peter Rabbit when she writes, "...Peter Rabbit demonstrates that children can be enthralled by a good story even when its vocabulary might be regarded as demanding.  (Peter becomes entangled in Mr. McGregor's gooseberry netting and almost gives himself up for lost. 'But his sobs were overheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew o him in great excitement, and implored him to exert himself,' Potter writes, in one of my favorite passages in literature.)" (Mead para. 4)  Mead uses the allusion to Peter Rabbit to compare a classic bedtime story with a new one that doesn't quite live up to the standards of good literature for children.  She shows the difference in vocabulary used in each bedtime story.  She also explains the importance of challenging language in children's books so parents understand why the new bedtime story isn't worth reading to their kids.  Also, the author alludes to the story Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown when she writes, "Brown's masterpiece, first published in 1947, manages to be both warmly reassuring and transcendently awe-inspiring at the same time: it might have been subtitled 'A New Way of Giving Children an Insight into the Human Condition While Introducing Poetry Into Their Souls.'" (Mead para. 6)  By emphasizing the greatness that this bedtime story has achieved to help kids grow as readers, Mead compares Goodnight Moon to The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep by showing the differences in their poetic style.  Mead conveys to the audience that although the new bedtime story can make a child fall asleep, it does not accomplish the job of a children's story, which is to help them grow as young readers.  Using allusions and comparisons to famous texts also makes an appeal to ethos because the author of the article uses other famous and well-known texts to compare to The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep.  Mead accomplishes her purpose by using strategies to appeal to the audience, the parents, that the new bedtime story that everyone has been talking about isn't all it's made out to be.

TOW #4- IRB POST "Freakonomics"

After reading about one half of this book, I am thrilled that I chose it.  The intriguing studies that are collected by this author have made me think about things like the similarities between teachers and sumo wrestlers or the KKK and real-estate agents.  Steven D. Levitt, one of the authors of "Freakonomics" is an economist, and Stephen J. Dubner, the other author, is a writer.  Together they have created this unique book that has blown my mind several times already.  The authors use a variety of rhetorical devices in order to intrigue readers and provoke thought about trends in the world.  Their audience is the general public because it isn't geared towards economists specifically.  In one of their chapters, the authors discuss the similarities that can be drawn between sumo wrestlers and teachers through the analysis of each person's use of incentives and cheating.  In the introduction of this chapter, the authors use repetition to relate to their audience.  They write, "If you toddle over to the hot stove and touch it, you burn a finger.  But if you bring home straight A's from school you get a new bike.  If you are spotted picking your nose in class, you get ridiculed..." (Dubner, Levitt 16).  This section continues on for a half of a page repeating the same phrase over and over.  The authors use an "if, then" pattern to show the audience that incentives are all around them.  Through this rhetorical device, they prove to the reader that incentives and the way people react to them are happening everyday all around them.  Another rhetorical device used in this chapter is rhetorical questions.  The authors use these questions to make the reader come to a realization of their own.  For example, when talking about the incentives behind not doing something, the authors bring up prostitution.  They write, "Which is a more horrifying deterrent: a $500 fine for soliciting a prostitute or the thought of your friends and family ogling you on www.HookersAndJohns.com?" (Dubner, Levitt 18)  Through this rhetorical question, readers understand why the use of shaming convicted johns or prostitutes publicly is such a successful incentive.  By utilizing these two rhetorical devices successfully, the authors can accomplish their purpose of intriguing the reader as well as getting their reader to think about the crazy connections made in the book.