TOW #13- "Bright Lights, Big Predators"

Richard Conniff, an Amerian non-fiction author who specializes in human and animal behavior, wrote the article "Bright Lights, Big Predators" for the New York Times this past weekend.  The increasing population of wild animals in cities around the world has become a controversial issue due to the animals' threat to humans.  Conniff uses personification and comparisons of this issue to other issues in big cities to convey to his audience that the animals aren't as dangerous as they may think and the thought of coexisting in cities is not entirely impossible.  He uses personification to justify the animals' placement in cities.  Conniff shows his audience the innocence of the animals when he writes,  "That leopard on a hilltop in Mumbai didn't move into the city.  The city rose up and engulfed its world."  He uses the personification of the city to place a blame for this impending situation.  When people think of these animals invading their city living space, they are incorrect.  The city has been built in places of wildlife, so it is not the fault of the leopards for roaming around in the city lights at night.  Once Conniff shows his audience that the wild animals are not to blame for their coexistence with humans in cities, he uses comparisons to other issues in the city in order to convince his audience that they have had much greater danger before.  Conniff compares the wild animal situation with the existence of rivers in cities when he writes, "We have learned to protect and restore rivers in our cities, says Adrian Treves at the University of Wisconsin, even though floods sometimes destroy homes and drown people." By comparing the wild animals to another risky situation that humans are totally comfortable with in their cities, Conniff lessens the validity of the fearfulness towards such dangerous creatures.  If they have allowed things just as harmful in their city to exist peacefully in nature, why can't they do the same with wild animals?  Conniff then takes an even more common and effective example of a high risk allowed in the city when he writes, "... we let cars dominate city streets, though they kill more than 4,700 pedestrians in the United States every year."  Something as common as a car poses a much higher risk to city-dwellers than the four-legged prowlers of the night.  With these comparisons Conniff can show his audience that the risk posed by wild animals is nothing crazy when compared to the many other dangerous things that we allow to exist in our towns and cities.  His audience, people who live in the city, cannot ignore the strong points he makes against the rationale for eliminating the threat of wild animals to the civilians of large cities.  His article is effective due to his personification and comparisons, and makes his readers contemplate living a life in harmony with four-legged friends.

TOW #12- IRB: Unbroken

I am so happy I am finally getting the opportunity to read "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand because I have heard such great things about it from many of my friends.  Since page, 1 I have been hooked on this book and it has been such an interesting read so far.  One of the ways that Hillenbrand does this is by delving deep into the details of some of the little moments amongst the daunting events that take place in Louis's life.  The author makes Louis's story come to life and gives readers a connection to his story through her use of detailed description and a zooming perspective on the events of the book.  In Hillenbrand's description of the German Graf Zeppelin, she successfully makes Zamperini's childhood memory come to life through her description of the airship.  Hillenbrand writes that, "He could see only the blackness of the space it inhabited.  It was not a great presence but a great absence, a geometric ocean of darkness that seemed to swallow heaven itself." In this description the aircraft becomes a powerful monster rather than an amazing new advancement in aircraft technology.  The fear that people may have had at the time period easily transcends to the readers through Hillenbrand's description.  We, as the audience, are able to imagine ourselves there in that moment, watching the Zeppelin float above us.  This connection that Hillenbrand bridges from the biography to the readers helps her audience feel an attachment to Louis's story.  This description of the aircraft comes before the author begins to talk about Louis's troublesome childhood.  The zoomed perspective she has on the aircraft gives readers the context of Zamperini's childhood time period before the audience even gets Louis's entire story.  This is important to helping the audience understand the actions and emotions of the people in the biography.  After zooming in on the Zeppelin, Hillenbrand then takes a step back to change focus, and talks about Louis's childhood.  She writes, "Thrilled by the crashing of boundaries, Louie was untamable.  As he grew into his uncommonly clever mind, mere feats of daring were no longer satisfying.  In Torrance, a one-boy insurgency was born."  The change in focus gives the reader information about Zamperini's childhood, while still giving the audience and attachment to his life.  Hillenbrand is precise in the way that she places the details of the time period and the biography of Louie in order to give the readers the best understanding of what he went through during his life.  Through the changing scope and the detailed descriptions of historical context and Zamperini's biography, Hillenbrand creates a book that audiences can easily connect to in order to receive an inspirational reading experience.

"The Screening Process We Wish We Had" by Gary Varvel

      Protection and security of the people in our country has been a topic of controversy for quite some time and is clearly a very serious and relevant topic today.  This cartoon was from the Washington Times Newspaper created by Gary Varvel.  He has been a cartoonist for the Indianapolis Star for 16 years.  The audience for this cartoon is the US public.  In the visual text, "The Screening Process We Wish We Had", Gary Varvel uses juxtaposition of heart sizes and hyperbole of to argue that there is no easy answer to the issue of the security of America.  The cartoon expresses that America wishes that it had a machine that could measure the size of someone's heart.  With this machine it shows their ability to see that there is a man with a considerably smaller heart than the rest of the people in the line.  The juxtaposition of this man's heart size to the rest of the people in the line show how he must be more dangerous due to his small heart.  Varvel does this to show how the country wishes we could clearly tell the difference between someone who could hurt people and someone who is an average person.  Clearly, this is unable to happen so easily.  Varvel uses hyperbole to show how difficult finding a solution to the security issues in our country would be.  First, he exaggerates the size of the man's heart.  If someone is more inherently evil than another person or even has bad intentions, their heart would obviously not be smaller than a normal person's heart.  The author shows the difficulty of finding a solution to America's security issues through this exaggeration of the heart size.  Also, the hyperbole of the advancement of technology helps him to achieve his purpose.  It's evident to the audience that the machinery used in the cartoon is not realistic and probably will never be in the future.  Through the author's hyperbole of the technological advancements in the American security system, he shows the difficulty of finding a realistic solution to the country's security issues.  He argues the impossibility of finding a full-proof solution to this issue and leaves his audience considering the future of American security.  Although we wish that we could always be safe, and technology could improve our security, Varvel argues that we will never be able to be 100% protected.

TOW #10- " Choose to be Grateful. It Will Make You Happier."

This festive article caught my eye as I was searching this week for something to read.  Arthur C. Brooks writes about how to be grateful during the Thanksgiving season, and during everyday life.  Brooks is a writer, a professor at Syracuse, and most importantly, a grateful man.  In his text, "Choose to be Grateful.  It Will Make You Happier." he uses scientific studies and personal anecdotes in order to convince his audience that forcing the feeling of gratefulness will create true feelings of gratefulness and positivity in your life.  Brooks uses scientific studies to aid him in his argument that forcing a feeling of happiness will make the feeling become real.  He reminds his audience that faking the feeling does not make you a fraud at all, and it will help you be more appreciative of things in your life.  "For example, researchers in one 2003 study randomly assigned one group of study participants to keep a short weekly list of the things they were grateful for, while other groups listed hassles or neutral events. Ten weeks later, the first group enjoyed significantly greater life satisfaction than the others."  (Brooks par. 8)  The author uses examples like these throughout his article in order to show how this forced feeling works.  The brain will recognize the bad or good feelings and people will naturally become happier or sadder.  Through the incorporation of scientific studies, Brooks strengthens his argument and adds some credibility.  He also uses anecdotes to increase credibility and show how he has used this mantra to help himself.  He talks about an email he received from a reader of his book who didn't agree with his thoughts a few years back.  Brooks expresses that his "dominant thought wasn’t resentment. It was, “He read my book!” And so I wrote him back — rebutting a few of his points, but mostly just expressing gratitude for his time and attention." (par. 15)  Through Brooks anecdote, he shows how expressing gratefulness can make someone happier even in a situation such as this one.  Even when someone was arguing with him, calling him a fraud, and refuting what he wrote in a book, Brooks stayed positive.  He then shares the effects of his gracious feelings when he writes, "I felt good writing it, and his near-immediate response came with a warm and friendly tone." (par. 15)   By expressing the positive effects of his decision on his reaction to this reader, the author can show the audience why gracious feelings are better than feelings of anger or resentment and can produce a mutual feeling of happiness for both parties involved.  Brooks successfully convinces his audience that feelings of gratefulness, even if they are forced, can improve your overall quality of life.  This is definitely something to keep in mind this holiday season!

TOW #9- The Truth about Applying to 'Reach' Colleges

Kat Cohen, a college admissions counselor, wrote an article for the Huffington Post entitled "The Truth about Applying to 'Reach' Colleges".  A a college admissions counselor, Cohen has extensive knowledge on the process of admissions of schools.  This article reveals things that high school students may not have realized about their reach schools.  In Cohen's article she uses denotation and rhetorical questions in order to help high school students understand how to appropriately choose and apply to their reach schools when applying to colleges.  One of her main points in the article was that many students don't understand the meaning behind a reach school.  A lot of kids will apply to schools that are too unrealistically out of reach.  Cohen writes, "A reach college, by definition, is a school where the applicant's academic profile is not as strong as the middle 50 percent of students who are typically admitted." (par. 4)  She then gives an example of someone with a 2.7 GPA applying to Yale and the unlikeliness of his acceptance.  By defining reach college first, she is able to clearly justify why this student should not apply to a school like Yale.  She proves that if you are too far below the middle group of accepted students, the college is not truly a reach school.  When explaining which reach schools to pick to apply to, Cohen uses rhetorical questioning to show that she understands the views of students, but refutes their process of thinking.  She writes, " A school's selectivity can make it seem more attractive than it otherwise would. After all, who wouldn't want to say they made it into a college that's hard to gain admission to?" (par. 6)  Cohen understands that students would love to be able to say that they were accepted into colleges like Yale, however, it may not be the best school for them to apply to.  She argues that even if a name brand school is within your reach school range, there are so many more factors to consider when applying to your reach colleges.  Cohen successfully accomplishes her purpose through the use of these rhetorical devices to help high school students when they are applying to their reach schools.

IRB Intro #2- Unbroken

This marking period I will be reading the book "Unbroken" written by Laura Hillenbrand.  This book is a biography of Louis Zamperini who was an Olympic track star in 1936.  He served in the US Army Air Force as a Lieutenant and went through unbelievably difficult obstacles throughout the years he spent in World War II.  I heard about this book through friends and it has been something I've wanted to read for a while.  I hope to finish this book and gain a new appreciation for my life as well as get some inspiration from Zamperini's story.  I'm excited to start reading!!

TOW #8- IRB: Freakonomics

Freakonomics does exactly what it promises: Makes the reader ask questions.  After reading this book, everyday norms have become situations to analyze and experiment with to find trends in the human population.  Studying human behavior doesn't only apply to the world of economics, although it is an important part of the study.  Knowing the trends of human behavior can just give you a better understanding of the way the world works, and why people do what they do. The authors of this book use statistics and anecdotes as well as rhetorical questions to get readers to think about trends of the everyday world differently.  A very interesting chapter of this book pertained to baby names and the implications of a child's name.  First, to prove to the audience that names did have an effect on a child's life, the authors shared an anecdote about a child named Loser and his brother named Winner.  The authors write, "Loser Lane did in fact succeed.  He went to prep school on a scholarship, graduated from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, and joined the New York Police Department, where he made detective, and eventually, sergeant... The most noteworthy achievement of Winner Lane, now in his mid forties, is the sheer length of his criminal record: near three dozen arrests for burglary, domestic violence, trespassing, resisting arrest, and other mayhem." (Dubner, Levitt 212)  Clearly, the names don't correlate exactly as they should, however the anecdotes in this chapter support the fact that the names given to children have an impact on their lives.  The use of lists of most popular names in different socioeconomic groups of different decades later help the authors to prove this same idea.  The names given to children can reflect their economic status, parents education level, or their likelihood of succeeding in their professional lives.  Another way that the authors accomplish their purpose is through the use of rhetorical questions.  The authors tell an anecdote about a girl named Temptress who landed in Albany County Family Court in New York.  She was charged with ungovernable behavior, including bringing men into the home when her mom wasn't home.  The surprising correlation between her name and the charges caught the eye of Dubner and Levitt.  They write, "Was Temptress actually 'living out her name,' as Judge Duggan saw it?  Or would she have wound up in trouble even if her mother had called her Chastity?" (Dubner, Levitt 183) By using rhetorical questions, the authors provoke thought in the direction they want the readers to be thinking.  It shapes the train of thought throughout the chapter so the readers are guided in the same direction of the authors' thoughts.  Also, by provoking thought about this case, they accomplish their purpose because readers may start to question things like this in other patterns that they come across in their lives.  Using anecdotes and rhetorical questions, Levitt and Dubner are able to successfully encourage readers to think and ask questions about patterns they find in the world in order to make sense of the way people act and think.