TOW #3- "You're Worthless" - StopBullying

This text was created by StopBullying.gov, which is a bully-prevention website. StopBullying.gov works to raise awareness about bullying, who is affected, and how to stop it. It helps students and parents understand how to prevent bullying, and where to get help. This website is credible, and is monitored and published by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The purpose of this text is to raise awareness to parents about the bullying their children may go through or see, and to encourage parents to teach their children about standing up against it. The audience is parents, because the text mentions "Your kids do", which would imply that it is directed to an adult with children. The dark brown and dull grays used in this visual text help create a somber or depressing mood, which gives a message of depression or feeling low. This helps in the author's purpose in trying to express to parents what their children go through when they're being bullied. This visual text also uses words to help express it's message. It shows, by stating "You're Worthless", what kids would hear every day when they or someone they know is being bullied. Bullying also makes people feel like they're worthless or that they're not enough, and this visual clearly conveys that. It also mentions on the side that parents don't deal with bullying the same way that their children do, and that it is important to teach their children how to defend themselves and others. This uses pathos, since most parents are protective of their children, and would never want them to be hurt. The text also provides a link where parents can learn more, offering a solution to the issue that was brought up. This helps in the authors purpose, because parents who see this visual text will likely think about their children and their safety, and click on the link to learn more on how to support their children against bullying.

TOW # 2 Assignment - "Handicapped"

For my TOW this week, I read "Handicapped" by Randolph Bourne. Randolph Bourne was a writer and 'leftist' intellectual. He graduated from Columbia University, and was a student of John Dewey. He is most famous for his writing, "The State", and is best known for his essays. Randolph Bourne was also deformed in his face at birth; and also suffered from tuberculosis of the spine, which stunted his growth and caused his to write the essay "The Handicapped". The audience for this essay is likely young adults to adults, as it discusses the fleeting moments of life and of growing up. This essay is about the experiences of someone with disabilities. Bourne moves throughout his life, describing what each phase of his life was like with a disability. He explains how differently life was because of his disability, and how that it was not entirely a bad thing. His disability allowed him to cherish life more and form better and more meaningful relationships with the people around it. It also pushed him to try, and to not let his disability set him back from life. Bourne's purpose is writing this essay is to explain how disabilities aren't completely a disadvantage, and how important it is to constantly strive for what you want and live life to its fullest. The author does well to accomplish this purpose by demonstrating how he found his way to do just that. He recognized his disability and the disadvantages that came with it, but he also recognized the advantages to being disabled, and built on those. Bourne uses description, colorful adjectives, comparisons, and flashbacks as rhetorical devices in his essay. These assist in Bourne achieving his purpose by making his essay more descriptive, allowing the audience to be more understanding. It also helps him voice what he means more clearly, and gets the audience drawn into the essay.

TOW Assignment - "They All Just Went Away"

For my TOW, I read "They All Just Went Away"by Joyce Carol Oates. Joyce is an accomplished author, having published over 40 books as well as plays, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. She has won a National Book Award, two Pulitzer Prizes, two O. Henry Awards, and a National Humanities Award. She is currently a professor at Princeton University. This essay is about the fleeting of childhood, and about her neighbor's family. The audience is any young adult or older, especially those who have just left home to start a life of their own. Joyce Oates recalls many childhood memories, describing how quickly it all went by, and how clearly she can remember it all even now. She also begins to tell of her neighbor's family, the Weidels. She explains how unusual they were in comparison to her own family. She also tells of how she became friends with the daughter, Ruth. The author tried to help Ruth in her own little ways, and wanted to make her happier. Joyce Carol Oates uses a lot of imagery, description, and flashbacks throughout the story. The flashback allows her to tell stories of her past. The imagery is used well to create an illustration of her experiences for the audience. One example of this is: "A startled buzzing of flies, hornets. The slithering, ticklish, sensation of a garter snack crawling across floorboards"(Oates 1). The author's purpose was to demonstrate the feeling of a loneliness and feeling detached. She also showed how stepping into people's lives can really help them. The author accomplishes this purpose by explaining that she was a lonely child herself. She describes her friendship with Ruth Weidel, and explains how she was able to be her friend and make her feel like she was a part of something. By describing her relationship with Ruth, she was able to demonstrate how a little can go a long way.

IRB Introduction - "Long Way to Freedom"

The IRB I have selected is "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela. This book is an autobiography of Nelson Mandela's life. It describes how he grew up and became the man that he was, and how he changed South Africa and the world. I choose this book because I am interested in Nelson Mandela and the civil rights work that he did in South Africa. He made an impact on his country and the world, and I wanted to learn more about it. By reading this book, I hope to gain more knowledge about Nelson Mandela's life and his work. I want to get a better understanding of how life was during those times, and how he was able to work so hard to get to where he was. I feel like it is a very inspiration and interesting story, and I wanted to learn more about it.