TOW #4: IRB How To Win Friends & Influence People

        How To Win Friends & Influence People, written by Dale Carnegie, underlines the fundamentals in complete success in almost every scenario presented in a persons life. The book is split up into four parts, of which I have finished two. Carnegie sets up the sections of the book by providing evidence to support his "principle," which is presented at the end of each section. Ultimately, the book consists of general rules that one should abide by and apply to their lives in order to be successful when working with others.
       In the beginning of the book, Dale Carnegie's ethos is established by the preface and explanation of the concepts and purpose of the book. Early on in the book, Carnegie also establishes that this book is interactive, and there are rules to it such as; stop and think how you can apply the principles, take notes, read with a highlighter, and read each chapter multiple times. Through each chapter, Carnegie produces a multitude of historical examples from which the principles are derived from. He constantly refers to Abraham Lincoln and utilizes quotes such as, "Don't criticize them; they are just as we would be under similar circumstances" (Carnegie 9), in an attempt to allude to his overall purpose of that specific chapter. Carnegie also uses allusions to other writers, philosophers, and scholars, including "one of the classics of American journalism, 'Father Forgets'" (Carnegie 14). Among the abundance of allusions and historical examples, Dale Carnegie also presents some personal anecdotes from his life and childhood. He also draws on concepts and results he has acquired through his classes and students. Although some examples and concepts may appear dated, they are all directly relatable to the current generation. Metaphors and other rhetoric devices are slipped into the text by Carnegie such as, "your smile is like the sun breaking the clouds" (Carnegie 69).
       Dale Carnegie is addressing a general audience. He discusses how the concepts are helpful in both business, and economics, yet also very helpful in general social situations. His examples also appeal to many different groups of people. His overall purpose, from what I can see so far, is to lay out the basics of success in influencing and talking to others. He touches on points such as, smiling and how one sincere smile can change someones day and cause them to simply have a different view of you. So far, he has covered the topics of handling people, and the ways in which to make someone like you. There is little depth in the actual concepts themselves, and he stresses more on the ways in which to apply the techniques and principles to your own life. From the point in the book I am at currently, I find the whole book and psychology behind it very interesting. Dale Carnegie has been very successful in these first few chapters in explaining and providing examples as to how to truly be successful in life when dealing with others.

Robindickinson.com

TOW #3: Gun Sense

(http://momsdemandaction.org)

     This advertisement is from an organization called Moms Demand Action. This organization is a group started by Shannon Watts, directly following the shootings at Sandy Hook elementary school. Moms Demand Action fights gun sense laws in America, with a strong emphasis on the safety of children. This advertisement is one of many depicting a little girl with ice-cream and a man with a firearm in a grocery store with the name of Krogers, one of the biggest grocery store chains in America. The difference is, the little girls ice-cream is prohibited in the store, while the giant firearm the man is holding, is not.
    The advertisements produced by Moms Demand Action, including this one, strongly appeal to pathos. The innocent little girl would be kicked out because there is no outside food allowed, but the firearm that is putting the little girl in danger, would be completely allowed. The juxtaposition of the two completely different characters adds value to the issue this organization is trying to fight. This campaign also portrays ethos and logos because at the bottom, a rule at Krogers is addressed to support the organizations position on gun sense. This shows the viewers that this organization knows what they are fighting and believe in the safety of children and other in America.
   The audience of this campaign are the parents, who don't feel safe with open firearms being allowed in public facilities where their children can also be. The picture touches the viewers emotions by the idea that their child could be in a similar position. Also, the advertisement serves to show other businesses how this absurd rule can effect how people feel about using their services. This organization has reached out and done campaigns against other public organizations with similar gun usage rules such as Panera and Target. It stresses that the gun sense laws are immoral and create animosity between the company and consumer or customer. This campaigns gives a final message that families should be able to get their groceries without feelings fear rushing through them when seeing other shoppers carrying large firearms.

TOW #2: My Illness Isn't Glamorous

 This article, written by Lillie Lainoff, addresses how Hollywood inaccurately depicts the lives of teenagers with fatal diseases. This college student discusses how television shows and movies, such as Red Band Society on Fox, present a faux representation of how kids suffering life-threatening illness live their lives. Lillie Lainoff establishes her credibility and ethos through this article with presenting her education, a college student at Yale University, and her own personal experience on the topic. Lainoff suffers with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, an automatic nervous system disorder. Her personal anecdote on being in the hospital and constantly living with a terrible disease creates a juxtaposition of the portrayal television networks produce versus the real life struggle of living with a disease. Lainoff presents an antithesis to the quote by one of the characters in the show Red Band Society, about how life starts when you arrive at the hospital and they aren’t able to cut into your soul. To many, these words would be empowering coming from a suffering patient, but to Lillie Lainoff these words evoke feelings of pain and anger. She continues on to show how these statements are completely inaccurate to the true life of a sick teenager. Her intended audience is the viewers of these shows and movies, to thoroughly explain how although these shows may receive five stars, they are completely glamorized ideas of brutal situations to make money. Lainoff suggests that sugarcoating terminally ill patients lives is the new obsession of Hollywood, just like past fazes of shows about vampires and normal high school drama. I fully support Lillie Lainoff and her stance on the corruption of Hollywood on specific topics. I think she provided perfect evidence through life experience to disprove the presentation of popular television shows and movies.

Tony Maglio

Link to article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hollywood-has-it-wrong-im-a-teenager-with-an-illness-and-its-not-glamorous-at-all/2014/09/12/b9154a7e-38f9-11e4-8601-97ba88884ffd_story.html

IRB Intro #1 -How To Win Friends and Influence People

This book was written by Dale Carnegie and has been changed multiple times over the years he was alive to pertain to the time period. I picked this book because the topic looks interesting and I think it would be interesting to learn ways to influence people, become a better conversationalist, and much more. I hope to get new ways to approach situations and how to confront people throughout life.

TOW #1: How to Say Nothing in 500 Words

How to Say Nothing in 500 Words by Paul Roberts, discusses how to successfully construct a paper of 500 words without it being a larger pain than it already is. Paul Roberts establishes his ethos in the paragraph in the beginning, which is specifically about his credibility. He wrote many writing textbooks including, English Syntax (1954), and English Sentences (1962) and is very well versed on the English language. Roberts addresses multiple areas in most papers which can be revised to make the 500 words stand out over the other students exact words and stances on the same topics. The intended audience was clearly to college school students, as he addresses the topics of college football, college classes, and professors. Paul Roberts builds his text off of example pieces of essays from students performing this assignment. He displays through these examples how a majority of the students will approach the task, and how to stand out and refrain from receiving a low grade. Throughout the piece, Roberts utilizes personification and metaphors to show readers how a boring, generic essay comes across to the professor reading it. Also, how the use of colored and colorful words evoke “emotion,” which establishes pathos through the text. Roberts discusses how “such round phrases thudding against the readers brain are unlikely to convince him” (59), this puts an emphasis to think out of the box and present new, unusual topics in your paper in order to stand out in the professors mind and receive that higher grade. Also, Roberts connects the common thoughts of students to “floating in the community soup” (64), putting stress on the concept that all the ideas that come to the mind first, come to all minds first and to branch off the original, basic ideas. I feel that Roberts wrote this in order to show students that the dreaded 500-word essay isn’t so scary if they just “put a little meat on the bones” (55).  Paul Roberts was definitely successful in getting his purpose across to his audience. He provided solid evidence and examples to remind students to think out of the box and elaborate on their chosen topics.

The Figure a Poem Makes

           In the essay, The Figure a Poem Makes, Robert Frost addresses his interpretation of how he feels poetry should be written and perceived. Frost examines poetry as a revelation. His perspective is that all poems should sound different. Robert Frost views poetry similarly to a book or movie plot, where there would be an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. Although in poetry it starts with “delight, it inclines to the impulse, it assumes direction with the first line laid down, it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification of life” (Frost 177). Robert Frost was one of the most popular and famous poets in the 20^th century. Frost wrote innumerable amounts of well-known plays, poems and letters. Robert Frost wrote this essay to elucidate how he believes poetry should be conformed and how each good poem should lead to a clarification in the reader.

            Frost directly writes about different forms of rhetorical devices throughout poetry and how well they are utilized. Several times, he identifies certain aspects of poetry and how they should be formed using metaphors. The intended audience of this piece would most likely be poetry writers or readers, to clarify the characteristics a well-written poem should contain and be comprehended. Frost’s ideas were effective in this piece, due to the clear stance he presents on the presentation of poetry. His purpose was completely established and accomplished through the short three pages of this essay.

This depicts how Frost feels that all poems should be different and that they should be constantly changed and approached in different ways.

The Crack-Up

This essay was primarily about the mental breakdowns that occur in adults when they reach a certain breaking point. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered one of the greatest American writers of the 20^th century. Fitzgerald has composed many novels and short stories including the novel The Great Gatsby. In this essay Fitzgerald addresses his own personal mental “crack” experiences, using a several different personal anecdotes, he expresses the events that led to and followed his breaking points in life.  Throughout the essay, Fitzgerald utilizes several metaphors to express the severity of the repercussions of cracking. He presents how drinking and depression were two outcomes of his breakdown and explores how one’s conception of the world plays a big part. His “list making phase” is presented and he uses several different categories of “cracks” to show the possible outcomes.

            The Crack-Up was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald to express how when the Great Depression hit it was the end of an era and all the good parts of his life came to an end. Directly following his wife’s series of mental breakdowns, Fitzgerald began breaking down himself. The essay is essentially complaints about how his life went down hill and he couldn’t turn it around for the better. The intended audience of this piece would most likely be F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel readers. This would be his way to explain how he fell from grace and stopped his writing, to give a reason for his sudden halt to his writing. Fitzgerald did a well thought out portrayal of how life can be lavish one day, and full of depression the next. He successfully produces an array of examples as to how one cracks and what to expect fully through his own life experience.

This cartoon is a representation of how the mental breakdowns Fitzgerald addresses in the essay can pull you away from life and the realities of it.

(Cartoon by Leigh Tauss)

Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant

The essay, Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant, addresses many aspects of black culture and racism through a general topic of the Miss America Pageant. Gerald Early is an essayist and critic, and is currently a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Early has won multiple awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1994 for a collection of his essays. Primarily using anecdotes about his own family, Gerald Early shows how there is a constant struggle with race pride that has been going on since he and his wife were younger. His wife and daughters both religiously watch the Miss America Pageant every year, and he describes how the program used to be all white, and now his daughters have gotten the chance to see several African American women win.

In the essay, Early addresses how the pageants have a different meaning to his daughters. He examines how they find the women in the pageant “funny,” and it doesn’t faze them to now see an African American woman win, like it does for their parents. The purpose of this essay was to discuss and show how African American women are now a presence in society and how learning to have race pride and live with it as a moral is key to overlooking degradation. This essay is most likely directed to other young African American women considering much of the essay is about them finding their identity in today’s society. Along with many personal anecdotes, Early utilizes other pieces of literature and allusions to prove his point. Overall, at the end of the essay I felt that the purpose of the essay was clear and accurate. The approach Gerald Early took on this essay was very successful with showing how African American women should take pride in their race in today’s society because originality is the root to overall success.

This picture shows the irony of a previous African American pageant winner happily crowning a white winner looking equally as happy.

(Photo By Scott E. Stetzer / The Press of Atlantic City/)