Tow #7 "Big Women Bare All"

"Big Women Bare All" is a Newsweek article written by Abigail Jones. Jones has written quite a few articles for Newsweek about life, style and culture. In this article, Jones introduces Yossi Loloi's Full Beauty project to the audience. "The Full Beauty project" is a collection of photos of obese women in the nude designed to challenge society's views of "acceptable" female bodies, beauty, and size. Jones quotes Loloi "The women depicted are targets of societal backlash, but they are strong. They fight for acceptance in a world that doesn't approve of the slightest bulging of a love handle, let alone 'morbid obesity' or the possibility that some people find beauty in... all those things women spend thousands of dollars on every year trying to erase". Jones clearly tries to debunk the view that big women aren't beautiful by using statistics, figurative language and counterargument.

Jones first introduces her article with a vivid description of one of the project's subjects to allow her audience to develop their opinion on the subject. "Her thighs and calves are so profound that her feet appear miniscule, like dollhouse accessories". She then challenges the image of the ideal perfect, skinny woman that mainstream media offers by asking why a nude fat women is labeled a "provocation" but a thin model isn't. Jones explains that although the models are vulnerable, they are courageous enough to to appear in Loloi's project to force people to face their assumptions about women's bodies. Staring at their stretch marks and veins, suddenly we, the audience become the vulnerable ones. Our reactions say more about us than the about the women in the pictures. Jones makes her point as if to say, "Why can't big women be beautiful too?"

The argument is further supported by world wide statistics. Jones argues that the fact that one-third of American adults are obese and more women are a 16 than a size 2 and 0 combined prove that the Full beauty project isn't a confrontation but a nod to reality. Instead of discriminating a more than common appearance, why not embrace it?

Tow #6 "The photographer behind 'Humans of New York'"

"They call me Cat Man. I've normally got about three or four kittens in my jacket with me. There's this empty lot in Brooklyn where this one cat keeps pumping out ten kittens every three months. She just won't stop. She's some sort of super cat. I carry them around and sell them for about $40 apiece." (http://www.humansofnewyork.com)


"The photographer behind 'Humans of New York'" is a CNN article written by Emanuella Grinberg, a journalist that has written many articles for CNN about style, culture, and arts. Although upon further research, the audience can find the numerous articles Grinberg has written, she is not well-known enough for readers to recognize her name. Therefore, she can't establish automatic ethos and must establish her credibility within the article.

Grinberg's article may be targeted towards new readers who haven't heard of HONY (Humans of New York), but is probably more likely aimed for readers who are already fans of HONY. Grinberg's purpose of the article is to introduce readers to HONY and promote his new book, "Humans of New York". HONY is a website and Facebook page launched by a photographer named Brandon Stanton. HONY started as a small, unnoticed website in 2009, but quickly became popular, getting millions of hits a day. Everyday, Stanton walks around New York City and takes photos of people to capture the culture of the city. But what makes HONY different from other photography blogs are the compelling stories that the subjects of the photos share with the audience. Each subject offers a snippet of their lives through their stories or advice that they share with the world. Each photo always provokes contemplation and mass debate on the website. In the article, Grinberg posts a transcript of an interview between Stanton and CNN, where they discuss his book, tactics of approaching people for photos and his everyday life. The transcript not only allows the audience to learn more about who HONY is and what it does, it also appeals to pathos and shows the audience that Stanton is a down-to-earth person who is just like them.

Grinberg is able to establish her credibility and introduce HONY to the readers by relying heavily on the readers' background knowledge about HONY and appealing to pathos. With most of the audience already enthusiastic and excited about the photography website, it isn't hard to promote HONY and its new book.

Tow #5 "Brainy Elephants: One More Way They're as Smart as Humans"

"Brainy Elephants: One More Way They're as Smart as Humans" is a Times article written by Veronique Greenwood, a journalist that has frequently written articles for Time about animals, marine life, and anthropology. Greenwood establishes credibility with her audience from her experience with related topics. However, she does not establish automatic ethos because she is not well-known enough for readers to recognize her name.

Greenwood seems to target this article for an audience that is interested in psychology, animals, and their interaction with humans. In the article, she primarily focuses on the gesture of pointing and how elephants respond to it. The article is introduced with the explanation that pointing is an "extremely complex cognitive skill". It indicates an understanding that not only do individuals have thoughts in their own heads but others around them have different thought and may share them. It may be simple to humans but that's only because we learn to recognize the motion when we are infants. In Zimbabwe, psychology graduate student, Anna Smelt, performed an experiment with 11 elephants in the area. She studied the effect of pointing at a specific food bucket on the decision of elephants to recognize the gesture. Smelt tried a variety of pointing positions and the the elephants chose the bucket indicated by Smelt a greater proportion of time compared to the empty bucket. With these results, Greenwood makes the argument that are extremely intelligent animals, possible even just as smart as humans. She also disproves the counterargument that elephants may have learned pointing from humans by stating that if this were true, elephants held in captivity the longest would be better at pointing than newcomers, which is not true. Furthermore, Greenwood concedes, even if elephants did somehow learn pointing from humans, "they still are a step ahead of any other species researchers have tested, who have never made the connection between pointing and the target".

Greenwood makes an effective argument by connecting the elephants' recognition of pointing to humans and addressing the counterargument with solid evidence and explanation. Her article is intriguing to elephant and animal lovers alike.

IRB The Glass Castle

After reading half of The Glass Castle, I have definitely gained some new insight about Jeannette Walls' memoir. Walls first introduces her story as her adult self, in her most recent flashback. She is sitting in a taxi when she spies her homeless mother picking through trash in a dumpster. This prompts Jeannette to crouch down in the taxi so that her mother won't see her. Later, she faces conflictions of worry and guilt. She is embarrassed by her own mother's homelessness yet worried about her well-being. The introduction of this chapter not only shows the readers the authors successful life in the present, it also introduces a theme of Jeanette's conflictions about her family that appear throughout the memoir. The next chapter transitions into Jeanette's earliest flashback. At the age of three, Jeanette is cooking her own hotdogs when she gets burned and sent to the hospital. This is the first indication of her unusual life at home. Later, Rex, Jeanette's alcoholic father takes her from the hospital to escape from paying the bills. Most of her childhood consists of her family moving from temporary home to home because neither of her parents are able to hold a stable job.  Throughout the story, the reader develops a love-hate relationship with Rex. Rex is intelligent and charismatic but also extremely irresponsible at the same time. He lies, steals, and occasionally abandons his family, but in each chapter, Walls allows allows the readers a glimpse of Rex's soft, fatherly side, which allows him to redeem himself. Walls primarily appeals to pathos throughout the story. The way she describes herself as a child makes readers feel empathetic for her naivety, innocence and resilience throughout her poverty-stricken childhood. The fact that she hangs onto this for the rest of the story, inspires readers to keep on reading.

Tow #4 Filet-o-fish

This ad was published by McDonald's in 1977. The focus of the picture, a filet-o-fish sandwich is placed front and center in the ad, surrounded by an anchor and ropes. In the background of the ad is a ship next to a dock. These images allow the audience to assume that the environment of this ad takes place at a fishery or dock. In addition, the soft, warm colors establish the tone and are appealing to the audience. The light is  shone on the filet-o-fish and the rest of the colors in the background are dulled to bring attention to the subject. There is also some text on the ad such as the quote "Food for Thought" at the top of the page and "Made from 100% North Atlantic white fish filet" at the bottom. The author makes both stand out by using bright white/yellow colored font to make it stand out against the darker background. The ad also has a USDA grade A stamp at the bottom of the page to convince the audience that their fish is healthy and nutritious and reliable and establish McDonald's credibility. Therefore, the purpose of the McDonald's, to convince the audience that McDonald's has the most appetizing, freshest fish, is established using the contrast of soft and bold colors, appealing imagery of the product, and recognizable symbols. However, even though McDonald's uses many effective rhetorical devices, they ultimately cannot convince all of their audience to buy their product due to their reputation. Most of the audience simply has too much background info about McDonald's unhealthiness and unsanitary conditions even before they see the ad. Although it may convince some people to buy the filet-o-fish, it certainly doesn't persuade people that it is a healthy, reliable product.

TOW #3 "The Real Source of Heroic Behavior'

"The Real Source of Heroic Behavior" is a a Time article written by Elizabeth Svoboda, the author of What Makes a Hero?: The Surprising Science of Selflessness. Because Svoboda is not a well-known writer, she cannot establish automatic ethos with her audience. The audience in this article isn't specified but it is most likely targeted towards adults who are interested in psychology.

Svoboda's main purpose in writing this is to debunk the generalization that heroes are larger-than-life figures and prove that they can be in fact, normal people. In the article, Svoboda first lists the characteristics of a hero then backs it up with evidence from a real situation. Some of the characteristics she depicts are determination to lead a meaningful life in the face of challenges, more likely to take unusual risks and more likely to take part in social service. The author's evidence is given the form of exemplification. She introduces a normal 47-year old school clerk, Antoinette Tuff who prevented a mass shooting in Decatur, GA. Tuff, who has been through her own share of difficulties was able to talk the shooter, Michael Brandon Hill to dropping his gun. The author quotes Tuff, "You know I tried to commit suicide last year after my husband left me...It's gonna be all right, sweetheart. I just want you to know that I love you, though, okay?" By using Tuff's words, the author is able to appeal to pathos to the audience and make herself, as well as Tuff seem more credible in the article.

Tuff was a fitting example for Svoboda's argument that our society's conception of heroes as unflappable males is far too narrow. Tuff's decision to risk her life to save 800 children and staff members demonstrates that women also feel compelled to take risks to help others.

TOW #2 "The Problem with Prize Culture"

"The Problem With Prize Culture" is a Time article written by Hilary Levey Friedman, a PhD of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is also the author of Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture. 

Today, every kid is categorized by age, previous achievement, and type of performance. Whether it be a sport, dance, chess or another competitive activity, every participant is ranked based on their ability. In the article, Friedman cites that the U.S.'s culture of increasingly embracing prizes and awards has major consequences. Although Friedman addresses the counter argument and admits that awards help people set goals for themselves and encourage them to practice their activity, she argues that overall, awards are essentially a business practice that ensures the return of clients and actually do more harm than good. According to psychological research, giving kids rewards for accomplishing an activity actually lowers levels of intrinsic motivation. Friedman insists that motivation is exactly what we need to encourage as this allows kids to reach long-term success and pride in a well-earned achievement.

Friedman's informal tone and use of the first person pronoun suggests that she is trying to establish credibility by making the article more personal. Her constant mentioning of her goal to maintain the well-being of kids may be to appeal first to an immediate audience of parents and then to an extended audience of media, which she accuses of promoting "the carving up of honor". To convince the audience that the "trophy culture" has gone too far, Friedman makes allusions to media and uses exemplification of popular children's activities. One example that she uses is the United States Chess Federation, who she states is the most precise when it comes to ranking. The organization publishes a list of the top winners for each age group every three months, ranking the participants on their public website. Any one can see it, allowing people to become more aware of their position in the hierarchy. In addition, Friedman references Dance Moms, a show that has a wide audience, which has as weekly "pyramid" showing how dancers performances compare to their peers. By using well supported examples that the audience recognizes, and appealing to pathos, Friedman is able to effectively communicate her argument.