Assignment #11

Is the purpose clearly stated or easy to determine? If not, why might the composer have decided not to make the purpose obvious?- Believe stein does make her purpose clearly stated because as i mentioned before it was clearly stated on page 280 at the end of the third paragraph "This essay contributes to an understanding of the integral role ads play in contributing to and drawing on ideological and cultural discourse." (Stein) 

What does the composer assume the audience knows or believes?- Believe that Stein expects everyone to know what the terms she uses mean. I mean I had trouble understanding the term and figuring out how they fit in with everything, and it seem my classmates also had trouble understanding them also. I think if she would have defined them in the text; it would have made her essay longer and more easier to understand for people who don't understand the means of the terms. The term "ideological and cultural discourse." are just examples of words that no one in my class understood

Is the composer using a tone of voice appropriate to the purpose?- for an academic article i believe she uses the right kind of tone through out her entire essay. her controlling purpose for the article was a really sophisticated way to put it. "This essay contributes to an understanding of the integral role ads play in contributing to and drawing on ideological and cultural discourse." (Stein  280) 

how you see ALL of these writerly choices working together to affect your interpretation of the text.- i believe all of these writerly choices connect to the academic criteria she had to fulfill in her class. We may not be able to understand them but as we expand out vocabulary I think we might be able to understand it. But for now it just confused me, I like how she divides each part of her essay into sections. I found that very interesting and helpful. 

Assignment #10

1.) Why does she use 3 types of movies (Blade Runner, Wizard Of Oz, and Metropolis) in the article? (that just confuses me.)

-The academic text done by stein on "The Macintosh ad" article to me feels like she just describes the ad to the readers making them picture or help them try to understand what the ad was about so that she can help them better understand where she is pulling all of her arguments from. She also brings in other sources like theories from other sources to prove her point. I believe she tries to explain to people how the first time the ad had played on the Superbowl event back in 1984, that it revolutionized how people play ads today.

Why do you think Stein might have wanted to research and write this essay?- I believe she wanted to write and do research about this ad was because it was the first one to be done, and from that point on it had revolutionized marketing corporations to start playing ads when the Superbowl played. Even today they play a lot more ads on the Superbowl than the actual Superbowl. So i think she wanted to point out how the marketing corporations developed causing us to develop also. 

What do you think she might have hoped readers would feel, think, or do while and after reading it?- To be honest when i had first read the article I was rather confused and bored. But given the criteria of the article having to be an academic text that's just a given. I honestly don't think she had anything for us to do about or with her article  I just think it was just informing us about the greatest moment for marketing. I think stein wanted us to think about how much our lives have evolved from way back then to now. 

 What makes you think that? Include the passages from Stein’s essay that inform your answers.- there is one sentence that made me think that it was on 280 "This essay contributes to an understanding of the integral role ads play in contributing to and drawing on ideological and cultural discourse." (Stein) When i had seen that sentence i felt like everything was going to come back to that. No matter what i read it all can back to that one sentence alone. 

Sedaris's CP

I felt that Sedaris's controlling purpose is to point out what we as humans do without us consciously knowing it, and that is judging people. I felt that because through out the text her hears people judging everything to politics, fashion and parenting styles. I believe that it is true. But i also felt a hint of his controlling purpose to also be talking about how we persuade others into thinking that we are right, The reason being is because he even states it in last page of his article in the top few paragraphs, "If my own little mind is nailed shut, why wouldn't theirs be?" (Sedaris 277) that had made me think that we use judging as a persuading kind of thing to others as well. "Don't tell me I don't know how to hate." (Sedaris 277) Found in the middle of the last column of the article.

Assignment #9

--Who are the people that you see yourself engaging with?- I kind of feel myself trying to take on both sides of the arguments thinking of possibilities that other people could be thinking. I play scenarios in my head and think of how i might be able to help that problem. I don't see myself taking any side of the argument but i do try and add quotes or information from the text that makes me think a certain way. My direction and thinking goes off of what the article presents and the facts that they happen to prove today in society. 

--Whose ideas and writing are you building relations with?- I try to think of my own ideas or go off of what opinions I hear in class. From what everyone seems to experience I try and think of explanations on why they felt that way. Or what exactly made them feel that way. I try and connect all of my writing back to our recent society. I feel as if it is connected to recent events in peoples lives it will have them interested in wanting to read more and finding out why we people do the things we do. Like me wanting to go into psychology because I wanted to know how our emotions work. 

 --In what ways does your writing work to make that relationship productive?- As i mentioned I feel as if connecting what i had read and trying to tie them into recent events, it'll grab readers attention. Well i try to make it like as if i was reading it. Why would i want to read something that has nothing to do with my life or my interests? Plus if it was boring it wouldn't make me want to read it more. I find it more effective when people can related to the things they are reading because they bring their own personality into what they are reading, and actually think about what they are reading. 

--How does your work engage in the ethical dimension of communication?- I couldn't really find a definition of what ethical dimension of communication was. But from what I'm guessing I would take it as different ways to get your thoughts or feelings across either through via internet, book, magazines or television. But i guess depending on what certain things are presented in the article being present would determine where the article will be placed. Since my interpretative essays are going to be presented to readers at school to determine whether or not i pass. I try and put my all and every part of my thinking into my texts. I guess i try and make them college sufficient  I may not be able to get it right away but i think as long as i try my hardest thats the best i can ask for right?

Assignment #6-choices

    I believe one of her writerly choices was introducing what taxidermy was. I would have never known what taxidermy was, or even bothered to learn more about taxidermy. Being a journalist makes you have to cover stories that is out of your norm. If i hadn;t read her article I would still to this day think that taxidermy was all about people killing animals.

   Another writierly choice that she presents is when she starts to show the passion and commitment that the taxidermists have for taxidermy. She shows another side that people who would have never known what taxidermy was would think it was just crazy people playing with dead animals and sometimes even slaughtering them. But that was the reason why Orlean had wrote the article was to inform them that there is more to see than what your eyes are actually seeing.


Another writerly choice Orlean uses is her term of words. In one point she uses the words "zoology nerd" At this point she is trying to describe what a taxidermist has to be able to do and be really good at it. She uses Nerd because everyone knows the term as to what a nerd actually is. A nerd is basically a person who knows so much about a topic and knows what to do and is quick to answer any question on the subject. I believe it adds a bit of comedy also. Everyone laughs at the word "nerd" so maybe that's what she was trying to get at?

I think when they are all put together properly it makes orlean's paper amazing. It was very interesting.

Assignment 6

 When I had first started reading the article, I felt a little confused on what she was actually trying to get at. I read it several of times and still didn't understand, until we had discussed it in a group. After listening to different theories or opinions, I started to pick up on things I hadn't noticed before. When I first read the article I felt that is was a journalist tone I was getting. I thought it was a journalist tone due to the fact that so much information was presented in the beginning and there was little to no emotion coming from Orlean herself. Orlean didn't use much emotion throughout the whole essay, which made me to believe she was forced to do it. In the beginning it was boring because you don't want to have to read something that someone was forced to do because then it would have no emotion to it. It would then make the writer themselves not care about it. I never really cared much about taxidermy and thought it was just hunters just going out to kill animals. But Orlean’s essay had informed me that, there was much more to it than just killing the animals. But after reading Orlean’s article I found out that some of the animals died of natural death, then the taxidermist’s would take the body and mantle them into a pose. A lot of people would just assume that they would kill the animals due to the fact that mostly deer pop up in the images and hunters kneeling next to the deer with his or her gun in the other hand, stating it was a good kill, and then mantling them up on the wall. Due to that knowledge I don't see taxidermy the same way I use too, which changed the way I felt and thought about it and also Orlean. As I read further into the text I thought it had changed when I started to notice some of her emotions coming through and feeling the passion that the people had for taxidermy. "Taxidermists seem to make little distinction between loving animals that are alive and loving ones that are not. “I love deer," one of the champions in the whitetail division said to me. "They're my babies."(Orlean) Even though this person would most likely come off as a crazy person it shows how much love she has for animals alive or dead. But on the other hand some would consider her obsessed with the animal, like a “cat-lady” having so many cats and caring so much for them. Should we expect her to become a taxidermist? She is no different from the “deer-lady.”

The very last paragraph of the essay was the one that caught my attention the most it was basically the last sentence talking about a still born Bengal-tiger cub. "Otherwise, the room was Biblical tranquil, the lion at last lying down with the Corsican lamb, the family of jackdaws in everlasting, unrequited pursuit of a big green beetle, and the stillborn Bengal-tiger cub magically revived, its face in an eternal snarl, alive-looking although it had never lived." (Orlean) The words that crushed my heart "Alive-looking although it had never lived." As an animal lover one of my favorite animals so happened to be tigers and I felt my heart break into two. I also think that , that last sentence also shows the Orleans feelings towards Taxidermy, even though it doesn’t have the word “I” in there , but the structure of the sentence made it seem like it was a personal sentence coming from the heart. 

assignment #4 Choices

      I believe where Sedaris had put the article itself, was a very big writerly choice he made. As i mentioned before I personally think that magazines are were authors write to vent or criticize the world we live in. Like the relationship between Justin Beber and Selena Gomez. People write a lot of things about their relationship, true or not. Its nothing but gossip, people complaining, people talking about how horrible someone looks in a dress. So since his article had people doing that exact thing the people had done to Sedaris then why not put it in a Magazine were we hear about that stuff more often?

Sedaris had also made it into something that kept readers attention by making little jokes here and there. But there was always risked that he was taking. But it was also a good thing to do because it kept readers attention. I for one don't like reading things that bore me. I tend to get sidetracked and forget why i am even reading it. Also what I even got done reading.

He mentions politics, and criticism about what people wear, and even teenage pregnancy. All of those problems we are having today. We never really realize what goes on in the world unless it is physically happening to us. Teenage pregnancy is a very touchy subject everyone touches and talks about. Some people look down on the parents or pregnant teenagers and criticize their way of parenting. AND EVEN POLITICS. oh my god don't get me started on politics there is so much going on with politics. Even criticize the president because of the economy or wars and think they can do so much better. But how can we really say we can do better when we don't even know what it is that a president has to do or deal with? And magazine articles have people criticizing famous actors or singers with the dresses or clothes they make... 

I think all of these choices can relate to each other. For him to get it noticed he had to put it in a magazine. Then the stuff that was mentioned in the article matches what actually goes on in magazines. So complaining+ gossiping+ criticizing = a good story and belongs in a magazine. 

Assignment #4

Assignment #4

I had never really understood Sedaris' "Standing By" article. I had to listen to so many opinions from my peers in the class discussion. But still they never really caught my interest on something to write about, because it wasn't something that I felt from the text. After finding that the classes opinions didn't satisfy my needs to see what his controlling purpose was I had read the article at least 5 times. I had finally found something that I was interesting in writing about. Sedaris had put this article in a magazine and what from what I personally know, magazines are the center of drama or gossip. Since Sedaris comments on how people judge each other and complain about things that, they think they know how to do better themselves. I believe he points out two things we as humans tend to do conscious or unconsciously. It is who we are on the inside, no one can say they haven't judged someone. Maybe to people outside of their heads, but they soon realize that they are only lying to themselves. Sedaris hears so many complainants and venting that he felt that maybe writing about it would help him consciously and point out how we as humans criticize ourselves and others. We are no different from one another so why do we complain about everything, appearance, economy, political, and even family wise. I think Sedaris touches everyone conscious or not. Complaining is something that everyone does.  I believe he wants to point it out, I don't think he is trying to change the way we are its just something that had him thinking on why we act a certain way the way we do.