Thursday, April 17, 2008
Garbage-can ticket
It has been close to three years since I came to Michigan, USA. But I think it is my first time reading about a garbage-can ticket. Speed tickets for cars are understandable because it is directly related to the lives of people on the road. However, garbage-can ticket? you get a ticket and pay money for not taking your garbage can but leaving it out on the drive-way for just a day? This column does not surprise me too much but I think it is ridiculous. I know that there are certain stupid laws or rules that government or people enforce because they are s.t.u.p.i.d. While reading this article, I cannot help getting mad and frustrated at the same time. And I think the reason that I get emotional and get into this story is because Stephen Henderson uses some cool and good literary devices to make his point clear and effectively spread. One of his strongest device used in this column or article was pathos, the method that uses emotional appeal. When Quades got a garbage-can ticket which was $100, they said "that's as much as my uilities for the month," and "I never have bee so humiliated in my life as I have been with this stupid thing with the garbage container." By these quotes, it is possible to guess that they are not rich but innocent and sincere citizens of Detroit. Who would like to harm innocent and sincere people? Unfortunately, there are some. Therefore, these two emotional quotes of Quades are sufficient to move the readers' hearts and sympathize the situation. Another device that helps pathos to be more effective, in turn, that helps readers understand the article effectively, is description. It is hard to say that description alone helps this article make sound effective. But description used with pathos creates a new level of effectiveness and brings better comprehesion to the readers. Mr. Stephen Henderson describes the town which was Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's ambitious Next Dtroit initiative. He describes the bad conditions,such as burned out houses that are about to collapse. He describes about garbage day and so on. These description of poor condition brings pitiful emotion on the town and the people who live there.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Kwame Kilpatrick
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick uses some rhetorical strategies in his appealing speech.
First of all, he uses cause and effect strategy. In the middle of speech, he says, "In the past three days, I've received more death threats than I have in my entire adminstration." And he goes on saying, "I have to say this because it is very personal to me." He demonstrates his opinion or thoughts by saying "because I have received more threats and my family is invovled in, I have to take it personally." This cause and effect strategy helps readers understand how much he is in trouble and distressed. If he was not threatened much like usual, then he wouldn't have had to reveal this fact and let the citizens know. He justifies himself like this to create an excuse to make a speech by giving such information of being threatened. By giving the factual information that he is going through, he makes it sound logical to protest and appeal his situation to the citizens.
Second strategy that Kwame uses is pathos. He mentions his wife and children being threatened and scared. He says "(because people have say the threatening words to my family) I have to say this because it's very personal to me." He tries to persuade and appeal to the readers and citizens of Detroit emotionally. He specifically mentions his "wife and children" which put himself a "dad and husband" position. And he shows his personal concerns for his family, which is the responsibility of being a dad and husband. This helps persuade dads and husbands, those who are in the same positions as him emotionally.
Third strategy Kawme uses is diction. Near the bottom of his specch, he repeats "I humbly ask..." many times. By repeating those words, he emphasizes his humbleness and humiliation. This links to the use of pathos the emotion. By showing his humbleness, he makes himself look pitiful and with it, he begs for the forgiveness from the citizens of Detroit
And at the end, he ends with a sentence, "I will continue to stay focused on building the next Detroit." promising something to citizens. He could have said this in other way, but he chose a word "focused" to make his determination sound even stronger that citizens may turn around back to him.
First of all, he uses cause and effect strategy. In the middle of speech, he says, "In the past three days, I've received more death threats than I have in my entire adminstration." And he goes on saying, "I have to say this because it is very personal to me." He demonstrates his opinion or thoughts by saying "because I have received more threats and my family is invovled in, I have to take it personally." This cause and effect strategy helps readers understand how much he is in trouble and distressed. If he was not threatened much like usual, then he wouldn't have had to reveal this fact and let the citizens know. He justifies himself like this to create an excuse to make a speech by giving such information of being threatened. By giving the factual information that he is going through, he makes it sound logical to protest and appeal his situation to the citizens.
Second strategy that Kwame uses is pathos. He mentions his wife and children being threatened and scared. He says "(because people have say the threatening words to my family) I have to say this because it's very personal to me." He tries to persuade and appeal to the readers and citizens of Detroit emotionally. He specifically mentions his "wife and children" which put himself a "dad and husband" position. And he shows his personal concerns for his family, which is the responsibility of being a dad and husband. This helps persuade dads and husbands, those who are in the same positions as him emotionally.
Third strategy Kawme uses is diction. Near the bottom of his specch, he repeats "I humbly ask..." many times. By repeating those words, he emphasizes his humbleness and humiliation. This links to the use of pathos the emotion. By showing his humbleness, he makes himself look pitiful and with it, he begs for the forgiveness from the citizens of Detroit
And at the end, he ends with a sentence, "I will continue to stay focused on building the next Detroit." promising something to citizens. He could have said this in other way, but he chose a word "focused" to make his determination sound even stronger that citizens may turn around back to him.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Open-Minded Liberals? Maybe Closed-Minded Liberals.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Open-Minded Liberals? Maybe Closed-Minded Liberals.
In his column "open-minded liberals?", Larry Elder uses "they say" strategy to mock liberals. First of all, Elder uses survey and tries to generalize the idea of people that liberals deserve to be made fun of. Elder uses a statistic which may mean "shoot-the-person-on-sight hatred.” And as an example, Elder gives a statistic, "twenty-eight percent gave Clinton a 0, with ten percent giving that score to Gore." This reveals that not many people love Clinton, despite of the fact that economy went well during his term in the office. Then, Elder uses another example of Bush and Cheney. He writes, "six out of ten Americans on the far left found that no evil, heinous person in the world could be worthy of more hatred than Bush and Cheney." Well, again, Elder mocks President Bush and V.P. Cheney and the decisions they made about wars by using generalized survey of people. Elder uses not only a survey but also his own experience at a barber shop. He says a guy at the barbershop thought 9/11 was Bush’ own work. The guy criticized and made fun of Bush because of what he thought. This information is strong enough to support the idea that people throw criticism and mock at the government. Then, Elder approaches to the ironic meaning of "open-minded liberals."Elder brings up hatred and disgust that Republicans and Democrats have at each other.Based on what politicians and survey a “they say” strategy says, Elder states, "Conservatives consider liberals well-intentioned, but misguided. Liberals consider conservatives not only wrong, but really, really bad people," at the bottom line. In these sentences, it is easy to find how Elder mocks liberals. He says Conservatives consider Liberals well-intentioned, which is a compliment for liberals. This shows Conservatives are nice enough to give respect and compliment to Liberals. However, Liberals, he says, consider Conservatives not only wrong, but really bad people. This seems make Liberals not very nice or generous because Liberals do not give a word of praise to Conservatives. And this is contradicted to the title, "Open-minded Liberals." If Liberals are open-minded, then they should be able to understand some concepts or thoughts of Conservative as much as Conservatives give respect to Liberals by not just blaming them. But Liberals do not do it. Liberals are closed-minded rather than open-minded because they blame Conservatives for everything. And that is the point that Larry Elder wants to mock at.
Open-Minded Liberals? Maybe Closed-Minded Liberals.
In his column "open-minded liberals?", Larry Elder uses "they say" strategy to mock liberals. First of all, Elder uses survey and tries to generalize the idea of people that liberals deserve to be made fun of. Elder uses a statistic which may mean "shoot-the-person-on-sight hatred.” And as an example, Elder gives a statistic, "twenty-eight percent gave Clinton a 0, with ten percent giving that score to Gore." This reveals that not many people love Clinton, despite of the fact that economy went well during his term in the office. Then, Elder uses another example of Bush and Cheney. He writes, "six out of ten Americans on the far left found that no evil, heinous person in the world could be worthy of more hatred than Bush and Cheney." Well, again, Elder mocks President Bush and V.P. Cheney and the decisions they made about wars by using generalized survey of people. Elder uses not only a survey but also his own experience at a barber shop. He says a guy at the barbershop thought 9/11 was Bush’ own work. The guy criticized and made fun of Bush because of what he thought. This information is strong enough to support the idea that people throw criticism and mock at the government. Then, Elder approaches to the ironic meaning of "open-minded liberals."Elder brings up hatred and disgust that Republicans and Democrats have at each other.Based on what politicians and survey a “they say” strategy says, Elder states, "Conservatives consider liberals well-intentioned, but misguided. Liberals consider conservatives not only wrong, but really, really bad people," at the bottom line. In these sentences, it is easy to find how Elder mocks liberals. He says Conservatives consider Liberals well-intentioned, which is a compliment for liberals. This shows Conservatives are nice enough to give respect and compliment to Liberals. However, Liberals, he says, consider Conservatives not only wrong, but really bad people. This seems make Liberals not very nice or generous because Liberals do not give a word of praise to Conservatives. And this is contradicted to the title, "Open-minded Liberals." If Liberals are open-minded, then they should be able to understand some concepts or thoughts of Conservative as much as Conservatives give respect to Liberals by not just blaming them. But Liberals do not do it. Liberals are closed-minded rather than open-minded because they blame Conservatives for everything. And that is the point that Larry Elder wants to mock at.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
The Christmas Cartoon
1. The cartoon's point is that there is something more important about the Christmas than gifts and presents, such as Jesus. This cartoon' point is to shows how much the true meaning of the Christmas has been misunderstood and deluded in many people today.
2. I totally 200% agree with this cartoon's point. Many people including children celebrate Christmas and are crazy about gifts. It seems like they put their main reason or primary purpose of Christmas on the gifts. But it is not the way it is supposed to be. It is all about CHRIST on CHRISTmas, People! And I think we can be satisfied with the One True Gift, Jesus Christ. Can't we? maybe? :)
3. There are at least two visual images that would support the idea of the cartoon. First one is the customer herself. She has tons of gifts in her hands and wears a sweater that has a little Rudolph's picture on. It shows a typical American Christmas Gift Purchaser celebrating Christmas. It illustrates how much people focusing on buying gifts and spending a lot of money on it. Then, customer's response is the second one. When the green animal or the frog, whose name I do not know, speaks, the customer says "I want to buy a sweatshirt with that quote on." If she truly knows the point of the speaker, she wouldn't "buy" another one because the green animal is pointing out the obsession on purchasing gifts, which she is exactly doing. By illustrating the quote, this cartoon criticizes how much many of Americans are not knowledgeable enough to have a little common sense of what the Christmas all about. Again, it is all about Jesus, people!
My little thought regarding to the Christmas: I also think this season is not supposed to be called "holiday season." Because before holiday, it is the CHRISTmas.
Media and all the advertisement should use the term of Christmas season rather than holiday season.
2. I totally 200% agree with this cartoon's point. Many people including children celebrate Christmas and are crazy about gifts. It seems like they put their main reason or primary purpose of Christmas on the gifts. But it is not the way it is supposed to be. It is all about CHRIST on CHRISTmas, People! And I think we can be satisfied with the One True Gift, Jesus Christ. Can't we? maybe? :)
3. There are at least two visual images that would support the idea of the cartoon. First one is the customer herself. She has tons of gifts in her hands and wears a sweater that has a little Rudolph's picture on. It shows a typical American Christmas Gift Purchaser celebrating Christmas. It illustrates how much people focusing on buying gifts and spending a lot of money on it. Then, customer's response is the second one. When the green animal or the frog, whose name I do not know, speaks, the customer says "I want to buy a sweatshirt with that quote on." If she truly knows the point of the speaker, she wouldn't "buy" another one because the green animal is pointing out the obsession on purchasing gifts, which she is exactly doing. By illustrating the quote, this cartoon criticizes how much many of Americans are not knowledgeable enough to have a little common sense of what the Christmas all about. Again, it is all about Jesus, people!
My little thought regarding to the Christmas: I also think this season is not supposed to be called "holiday season." Because before holiday, it is the CHRISTmas.
Media and all the advertisement should use the term of Christmas season rather than holiday season.
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