IRB Intro #2

In Fast Food Nation, investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs into the history, science and business of fast food restaurants. It was first published in 2001, which was later adapted into a film in 2006. The book examines the specific workings of the fast-food industry, including the chemical flavoring of the food, production of cattle and chickens, working conditions of beef industry, dangers of eating meat, and the globalization of fast food as an American culture export. The author, Eric Schlosser, uses humor and surprising information to create interest in his subject of the fast food industry.

TOW #9: This Messy World

This is a  personal essay called "This Messy World" by Richard Abrons, who received his BA from Yale, MBA from Columbia, and his MFA in Writing from NYU. In this piece the author describes all the conflicts going on in the world. The author also the ones that have already happened in the past including the Depression, World War 2, the Holocaust, the Cold War, etc. Although all these upheavals are going on, Abron's purpose is to point out that it's okay enjoy certain things without feeling guilty through his use of allusions and diction. 
     Throughout the essay Abrons talks about several situations that many would know about. He gives importance to these tragedies and mentions, "Syria, ISIS, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, ebola, a reporter decapitated on YouTube, murder in Brooklyn.." (Abrons). These historical allusions in our current generation are commonly known throughout, and help the audience understand what is going on in the world. It helps achieve Abron's purpose by backing up his knowledge of current events. 
    The author also cleverly crafts his writing through diction. Although he is writing about serious topics, he gives the essay an informal tone, and does so without being disrespectful. He brings up valid points of how Americans have much to worry about and sometimes don't give importance to serious problems going on in other parts of the world but also describes himself as "damn lucky" and that people should also "do some good and enjoy". He isn't necessarily telling is audience to be ignorant, he uses these phrases to show that even though there is a lot going on, one can still live a little.
    This personal essay was intended towards an audience who pays attention to current events and watch the news because it uses information that they can understand and connect to, through the occasion of a conversation that the author has with his wife. I believe that Abrons does a great job of achieving his purpose because he points out that yes there are so many issues going on in the world that people have to worry about but feeling guilty, empathetic, and showing acts of generosity, "may make no difference to the whole but they can make a difference to the part, and that is all we can do" (Abrons). 

            

TOW #8: Bossypants (IRB)

Tina Fey, an American comedian who has been in a few television series such as 30 rock and Saturday Night Live, as well as many other notable movies writes an autobiography titled Bossypants. In this book, she provides her life story and the ups and downs throughout her career. The audience is anyone who has interest in this comedian, the context being written like a memoir. Fey cleverly uses sarcasm and allusions to engage the audience and to achieve her purpose recounting humorous experiences in her life.
         In Fey's writing, not only does she make it humorous, she uses imagery along with it. While writing about growing up, she reveals to the audience, "my dark shin fur was hard to ignore in shorts weather, especially since my best friend Maureen was a pale Irish lass who probably doesn’t have any leg hair to his day". During this part, she was explaining her experience before she shaved her legs. She paints a great picture of why she needs to shave her legs at the age of ten, and along with that we can see the humor associated with her experience.
       Another effective rhetorical device used is an allusion. Allusion helps achieve her purpose because it allows the audience to connect to things that she says. Fey mentions that, "of course I know now that no one can ‘steal’ boyfriends against their will, not even Angelina Jolie itself.” She does an informal references to a famous person, which makes her writing funny and more relatable because most people know who Angelina Jolie is because she's big in pop culture.
           I believe that Tina Fey does a good job with retelling important highlights of her life and engaging her audience because she uses vivid imagery, allowing the audience to be able to picture what is happening. She makes the entire autobiography funny which keeps the interest of readers.

TOW #7: Visual Text

In a visual text released by Star Tribune is a comic titled "The Talk" made by artist Steve Sack, which portrays a white American having a talk with his son about the common birds and bees talk which doesn't seem to show much alarm to either of them. Along with that, there is also an African American having a serious and conerned talk with his son on the other side about guns and the U.S. judicial system. This controversial visual text uses paradox and point of view to open the eyes of the public to the harsh realities that African Americans go through, and how unjust their rights can be at times.
         At first glance the audience assumes the situation to be contradictory, despite this, Steve Sacks is able to use paradox by further looking on both sides to show that although most people don't think about it, stereotypes and the judicial system treat African Americans very unfairly. Much of this can be supported by the many cases that have happened in the United States, making it an important discussion that parents should have with their kids if they themselves are African American as shown in the comic.
          This visual example also uses point of view in a very important manner because it shows two divisions of growing up while being a white teen, and growing up being a black teen. On one hand white teens can have a less life threatening talk with their parents because they are not a target to being treated unfairly as much as black teens are. On the other hand, black teens are subject to stereotypes about how they're violent and carry guns, making them dangerous and at fault in the eyes of the judicial system. These uses of rhetorical devices certainly clarify struggles that people go through to Sack's audience, mainly teenagers, in which the context almost places them in either the white teen or black teen's shoes.
           Steve Sack who's credibility is valid, is an editorial cartoonist who has been working with the Minneapolis Star Tribune since 1981 and has also won the Pulitzer Prize for his work in 2013. I believe that Sack does a great job in establishing a broader outlook of the contrasting lives of white and black teens because his visual text is unbiased and is backed up by recent cases that have made black people a target, such as the George Zimmerman case.

IRB: Bossypants

The IRB I chose to read was Bossypants by Tina Fey. The author is an American comedian who has been in a few television series such as 30 rock and Saturday Night Live, as well as many other notable movies . In her autobiography book she keeps her audience laughing through her use of humor as she takes them across the journey that is her life, and how she got to where she is. Upon its release, Fey's book stayed at the New York Times Bestseller's list for over 5 weeks, and sold over 1 million copies.

TOW #6: The Success Story of a Failed Novelist

In the essay The Success Story of a Failed Novelist the author, Nina Badzin, talks about her numerous failed attempts of becoming a novelist and trying to get her books published. Despite how much she tried, she was lead onto the path of blogging short stories rather than writing novels. With this, she found her true calling, and felt that this best fit her. Although many of her books were turned down by publishers, Badzin still has credibility because she is successfully maintaining and posting on her blog, in which some of her short stories have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and twice short-listed by Glimmer Train Stories.The author's intended audience is aspiring writers because she describes a difficult journey that is applied to a writer's career. The context that is directed at this audience is spoken in a way to show that being a writer isn't easy, as she recounts all her attempts of being a novelist, and from that, how she went on to writing short stories. Throughout the text, Badzin uses essential rhetorical strategies to achieve her purpose of telling aspiring writers to not give up, and to acknowledge that the path they think they want may not be right for them and that they might end up on a different path. She does so by using an informal tone to connect with her audience, which also shows backs up her purpose to show there is nothing wrong with failing. Another device that is used is metonymy, this substitution carries an emotional response by applying humor and to make the topic a little less vain. I believe that Nina Badzin did a good job in achieving her purpose because she is able to backup her evidence of how her failure turned into success, and because she uses pathos to draw in her reader's attentions.

TOW #5: The Myth of Adulthood

The text I chose to read was The Myth of Adulthood by Annie Battles. This essay was essentially Annie Battle's perspective of growing up and how it changed throughout. She had a childish view of things at the age of 8, then at 16 she was a teenager where her life revolved around boys and she thought she could do things and get away with it. She is now 24 and she feels although her life and perspective is a lot different than she expected it to be. She describes that her 8 year old self would never expect that her life would be like this, at the same age as the actors in Friends, a show she watched when she was younger. The author has credibility because they graduated from Bards College and was formerly a public relations/marketing professional at a lifestyle company. The author isn't extremely opinionated, she explains how her view changed. The intended audience is adolescents and young adults because these are the main highlighted points of her life that are in the essay, she talks the most in depth of her time being an adolescent and a young adult (which is where she is right now). The context of this essay is speaking to the audience where the author retells her experience of how at different points of her life, her perspective changed and was a lot different than how she thought it would be. An important rhetorical device used to achieve Battle's purpose is a friendly and informal tone. This is highly effective because it allows the author to connect to the audience by making them more comfortable as if she is talking to them directly. The audience is easily able to understand when the author says things like, "they didn't go to any school, they lived in their own apartments, and despite the theme song, they seemed pretty on top of their shit". Annie Battle's purpose in writing this text is to give light to her changing perspective of life. She wants her audience to recognize that your life may turn out to be very different than how you thought it would be, and it's not such a bad thing if that happens. I believe that the author did an exceptional job of achieving her purpose because she puts herself in the shoes of the audience and gives examples that a lot of adolescents have experienced, such as going to parties and getting away with things.