TOW 13

Ted Mandell, a faculty member at Notre Dame’s Department of Film, argues that athletes should make a bigger deal about gun control and school shootings in his article Sports Offer the Arena to Raise Awareness of Gun Violence.  In his article Mandell claims that if athletes were to use their spotlight to help shine a light on these issues then maybe something would be done.  One thing that Mandell uses well in his article is the emotional tie to the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.  Mandell talks about how many athletic groups made a big deal of the issue for a short period of time directly after the event but that in the past year little has been done.  He sights many of the small different things that some athletes or athletic groups did to help the victims in the short term, but then how they started to lag in their support as time went by.  This could also be a comment on American culture that the American people like to make a massive deal about things that happen and move on quickly forget, with little change left in the past.  Mandell chooses to shift the blame of these things on to athletes because they are easy to judge due to the fact that they are so blessed and in the limelight.  This allows readers to not feel as if he is criticizing them and not become defensive.  Mandell also does well as to draw a connection to the fact that it was the anniversary of the shooting to enhance the emotional feel of readers.  A couple more subtle claims that he makes are that gun control laws should be stricter and that America should care more.  This article is targeted towards judgmental people.  It is a way to make people judge the athletes for not doing more and as a way of shifting the blame and making themselves feel better. 

TOW 12

Student interest for jobs with a science and math base has dropped in recent years although these are the markets in which jobs have increased the most.  In the piece Who Says Math has to be Boring the Editorial Board for the New York Times make an argument of policy that the educational system in America needs to be altered in order to help fix this issue.  This Editorial Board is made up of 19 journalist of the New York Times who all has differing backgrounds in an effort to write well rounded articles.  This article includes four separate ideas in how to better equip students for the world and how to make their abilities and view of math and science better.  These four ways are a more flexible curriculum, earlier start with numbers, better-prepared teachers, and experience in the real world.  All of these ideas are separate and could work at fixing the issue on their own but would work even better together.  This article is also likely targeted to a more educated audience likely interested in politics or with a strong opinion about how the current education system is being run in an effort to spur them to think that there are flaws but there are simple ways to fix these issues.  One way the authors try to get this across is by clearly making a distinction between each idea.  Each idea is even made into separate categories and individually talked about to an extent.  This allows the readers to make clear divisions about each idea and think about them with a new mind as each new solution arises.  This also makes sure that the reader knows which idea is which and does not blur the lines between suggested solutions thinking that one thing may be under another.

TOW 11

Dale Carnegie created a new style of literature after his writing of How to Win Friends & Influence People and it is plain to see why.  His writing style conveys simple ways to live your life and improve your personality in a way that it draws them out for understanding.  Ideas that he could easily state in a handful of words he instead extends, adding in anecdotes and other analyses all in an effort to engrain the ideas in his reader.  For example, in one of the early sections of his book Carnegie writes about the importance of making the person who you are talking to feel important, and to talk about something they care about.  He then gives an example that one of his students, of a course with the same name as the book, had a case in which he implemented this idea.  He said that this student was doing landscaping for a judge and that he knew the judge was an avid dog breeder and had won awards.  When the judge was talking with the student the student inquired about this passion.  The judge went on to talk for hours with the man about it even giving him a present of a puppy he had bred, a puppy worth hundreds of dollars, and even drew up all of the paper work and wrote out instructions on feeding it, all because he inquired about the judges passion and made him feel important.  These anecdotes really help Carnegie’s point along.  By helping the reader understand the effects of these tactics the reader is much more likely to believe in them and put them into practice than if they were just some abstract idea.  One thing that is important to remember when reading this book however is that it was written over fifty years ago.  For this reason many of the ideas are dated and much of the side topics he references are hard to understand or know fully.  For example, he talks of politicians at that time who are not known as well now.